Coal Pillars Safe Mining

Abstract

Safety pillars are the necessary objects for underground mining of coal seams. The having been mines; safety pillars, which include the development workings, lose their purpose. The coal reserves in these pillars are significant and can be mined. However, the pillars have fracture zones in the edges. The size of the fracture zones in the marginal parts of the pillars should be taken into account when choosing a mining system and its parameters. Coal pillar stress-strain analysis was carried out by the finite element method. The developed technique for coal pillar stress-strain analysis takes into account the post-critical strain of the coal seam edge. The reliability of the technique was verified by the experimental method. The calculated and experimental values differ insignificantly. The geomechanical condition of the nine safety pillars in A.D. Ruban mine of OJSC “SUEK-Kuzbass” was studied. The enterprise mines three low dip seams at a depth of up to 290 m. The amount of losses in fracture zones is defined for the pillars, which include slopes and entries. Fracture zones in the pillars were sized taking into account the actual structure of the seam roofs: the depth of bedding, their thickness and strength characteristics. The economic effect of mining of the safety pillars is pre-computed.