Using Topographic Advantages in Formulating a Strategy to Access Ore Bodies at Ban Phuc Nikel Mine

Abstract

There are various types of underground mining that are categorized based on the kind of shafts used, the technique of extraction and the process used to get to a deposit. Development mining is composed of excavation almost entirely in (non-valuable) waste rock in order to gain access to the orebody. To start the mining, the first step is to make the path to go down. Development, the work of opening a mineral deposit for exploitation is performed. With it begins the actual mining of the deposit. Access to the deposit must be gained either by stripping the overburden, which is the soil and/or rock covering the deposit,to expose the near- surface ore for mining or by excavating openings from the surface to access more deeply buried deposits to prepare for underground mining. The type of underground mining technique used is typically based on the geology of the area, especially the amount of ground support needed to make mining safe. When using to exploit ore body by underground mining method, the textbook guide in universities of Vietnam had had 4 main strategies include: access by horizontal tunnel lines, access by incline shaft, vertical shaft and combination of above access method. In this study, we developed a solution outside of four above approaches, to take advantage of the topography, transport potential energy, and advantages when constructing sloped incline, backward from outside to inside.