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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
This is because current stoping operations are leaving 5m rib pillars after every 20m of stoping and hence a lot of valuable ore is being left in the stopes as stabilizing pillars. Table 3 is a stope productivity comparison between the 30m and 20m strike length stopes to evaluate the benefits of optimizing the stope dimensions. The comparison excludes the other developments such as trough drives and extraction drives since these will be constant for both stope lengths of 20m and 30m along strike. The researcher assumed a total mining length on a single level of 175m along strike to simplify the comparison. Table 3. Stope productivity analysis for 950mL and 1050mL Density broken ore (approx.) No of stopes/175m strike length Stope tonnes/175m strike length Ore volume in rib pillars Total draw point x-cuts/175m From the calculations performed in Table 3 it is clear that the overall ore production of the entire 950mL stopes will increase by 7.14% when the 30m strike length of stopes is used. The current 20m length is conservative and hence it’s costing the mine in terms of development as more slot raises and draw point cross-cuts are needed as compared to the 30m strike length. Therefore development costs on both slot raises and draw point cross cuts will be reduced by 28.6% for the entire 950mL in the Bancroft area in case the 30m stope length is used. It is also practical to use the 30m stope strike length for the entire 1050mL in order
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