A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand,
.tohannesburg, ill fulfilment of the requirements for the degree or Mester of Science in
Engineering
Johannesburg, 1992 / Pillar extraction using 'handgot' methods has been practised in South African collieries fOJ'
many years. During the late Sixties pillar extraction with mechanized conventional
equipment commenced, and approximately a decade later, continuous miners were
introduced into pillar and rib pillar extraction panels. During the years that these mining
methods were practised, a vast amount of experience was gained on the various collieries.
Problems were experienced by various mines and the management of these mines made
numerous alterations to the mining methods with varied degrees of success, Research was
0.150 conducted by COMRO and by V,\ri01l5 mines and mining house".
Apart from the recommendations of Salamon and Oravecz (1976) on pillar design in
stooping sections, little information has been published and, thus, little is generally available
to mine managers, planners and operators to assist them in the layout and design for plllar
and rib pillar extraction.
A survey of all the pillar and rib pillar practises, past and present, has been conducted for
collieries in South Africa and abroad and the successes, failures, problems experienced,
changes made to the mining methods and the results of these changes have been
documented.
The problems and successes experienced, t~ similarities and difference between mines and
mining methods, and the research flndlngs have been assessed and evaluated. Design
guidelines relevant to the various methods of pillar and rib pillar extraction have been
established to improve the safety and performance of pillar extraction operations.
These guldellnea ate not intended to be prescriptive but are designed more to bring to the
attention of the mine manager, planner and operator those fllctors which should be taken
into consideration during the planning and operation \)f a pillar Ot rib pillar extraction panel.
In addition to the strata related factors, the economics of the mining method is important to
determine if it is beneficial to do secondary ext-action, and also to assist in optimlsing the
secondary extraction. The design prlnclplns were therefore appUed to diffcrtmt panel
layouts, pillar sizes and extraction sequences to determine the effect on the production costs.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/20683 |
| Date | 20 July 2016 |
| Creators | Beukes, Johannes Stephanus |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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