LLC “Institute “Gipronikel”, Saint Petersburg, Russia:

V. B. Vilchinskiy, Head of Mining Laboratory, phone: +7 (812) 335-30-92
A. V. Trofimov, Head of a Center
A. B. Koreyvo, Senior Researcher of Mining Laboratory

Polar Division of “Norilsk Nickel” MMC, Talnakh, Russia:
R. B. Galaov, Deputy Director of Mineral Raw Material Complex
V. P. Marysyuk, Chief Engineer of Geodynamic Safety Center

Solid goaf stowing mining systems are used at Talnakh underground mines (Polar Division of “Norilsk Nickel” MMC). The main intended use of stowing mixtures is rock pressure control at deep ore body mining, and decrease of ore losses and dilution. Use of solid stowing, which substantially increases mining cost, is the main disadvantage of the method. According to the global practice, there exist the underground mining methods, which do not include application of stowing mixtures. Such methods include caving systems and chamber mining systems, which, at first sight, are much cheaper in operation and do not require substantial capital investments for stowing complexes at construction stage. Moreover, these systems are more productive, because they do not require the additional time for artificial massive gain in strength. According to this, the Company stockholders start temporal discussing of possibility of some alternative systems. For comparison, there were chosen the sublevel caving and room-and-pillar systems. This work presents technological and economical substantiation for application of slicing and chamber mining systems, using void stowing with solid mixtures. Comparative analysis of mining systems proves absolute reasonability and high economic viability of the considered systems in terms of their use for stowing voids at Talnakh mines.

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