You are on page 1of 8

Geotechnical considerations in mine backlling in Australia

N. Sivakugan
a,
*
, R.M. Rankine
b
, K.J. Rankine
a
, K.S. Rankine
a
a
School of Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville 4811, Australia
b
Cannington Mine, BHP Billiton, P.O. Box 5874, Townsville 4810, Australia
Received 1 March 2004; received in revised form 2 June 2004; accepted 3 June 2004
Available online 26 April 2005
Abstract
Mine backlling can play a signicant role in the overall operation of a mine operation. In the Australian mining industry, where
safety is a prime consideration, hydraulic systems are the most common backlls deployed. Many accidents reported at hydraulic ll
mines worldwide have mainly been attributed to a lack of understanding of their behaviour and barricade bricks. This paper
describes the ndings from an extensive laboratory test programme carried out in Australia on more than 20 dierent hydraulic lls
and several barricade bricks. A limited description of paste backlls is also provided, and the usefulness of numerical modelling as
an investigative tool is highlighted.
2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Hydraulic lls; Mining; Backlls; Paste lls; Geotechnical
1. Introduction
In the mining industry, when underground ore bodies
are extracted, very large voids are created, which must be
backlled. The backlling strategies deployed often make
use of the waste rock or tailings that are considered
by-products of the mining operation. This is an eective
means of tailing disposal because it negates the need
for constructing large tailing dams at the surface. The
backlling of underground voids also improves local and
regional stability, enabling safer and more ecient
mining of the surrounding areas. The need for backlling
is a major issue in Australia, where 10 million cubic
metres of underground voids are generated annually as
a result of mining [1].
There are two basic types of backlling strategies.
The rst, uncemented backlling, does not make use of
binding agents such as cement, and their characteristics
can be studied using soil mechanics theories. A typical
example of uncemented backlling is the use of
hydraulic lls that are placed in the form of slurry into
the underground voids. The second category, cemented
backlling, makes use of a small percentage of binder
such as Portland cement or a blend of Portland cement
with another pozzolan such as y ash, gypsum or blast
furnace slag.
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the ndings
from an extensive laboratory test programme carried
out in Australia on hydraulic lls and several barricade
bricks. Hydraulic lls are uncemented techniques, and
are one of the most widely used backlling strategies in
Australia. More than 20 dierent hydraulic lls,
representing a wide range of mines in Australia, were
studied at James Cook University (JCU). The grain size
distributions for all of these lls lie within a narrow
band as shown in Fig. 1. Along with them, the grain size
distribution curves for a paste ll and a cemented
hydraulic ll are also shown. It can be seen that the
cemented hydraulic ll falls within the same band as the
hydraulic ll. The addition of a very small percentage of
* Corresponding author. Fax: C61 7 47751184.
E-mail address: siva.sivakugan@jcu.edu.au (N. Sivakugan).
0959-6526/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2004.06.007
Journal of Cleaner Production 14 (2006) 1168e1175
www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro
cement has a limited eect on grain size distribution.
Paste lls generally have a much larger ne fraction than
hydraulic lls or cemented hydraulic lls, but have
negligible colloidal fraction ner than 2 mm.
2. Hydraulic backlls
Hydraulic lls are simply silty sands or sandy silts
without clay fraction, and are classied as ML or SM
under the Unied Soil Classication System. The clay
fraction is removed through a process known as de-
sliming, whereby the entire ll material is circulated
through hydrocyclones and the ne fraction is removed
and then sent to the tailings dam. The remaining
hydraulic ll fraction is reticulated in the form of slurry
through pipelines to underground voids.
Over the past decade there has been a steady increase
in the solid content of the hydraulic ll slurry placed in
mines in an attempt to reduce the quantity of water that
must be drained and increase the proportion of solids.
The challenge posed by a high solid content is that it
becomes dicult to transport the slurry through the
pipelines due to rheological considerations. Currently,
solid contents of 75e80% are common, although
even at 75% solid content, assuming a specic gravity
of 3.00 for the solid grains, 50% of slurry volume is
water. Therefore, there is opportunity for a substantial
amount of water to be drained from the hydraulic ll
stope.
To contain the ll, the horizontal access drives
created during mining are generally blocked by barri-
cades constructed from specially made porous bricks
(Fig. 2). The access drives, which are made large enough
to permit the entry of machinery during mining, are
blocked by the barricades during lling. The drives are
often located at more than one level. Initially, the drives
located at upper levels act as exit points for the decanted
water, and also serve as drains when the hydraulic ll
rises in the stope.
2.1. Drainage considerations
Drainage is the most important issue that must be
considered when designing hydraulic ll stopes. There
have been several accidents (namely, trapped miners and
machinery) worldwide caused by wet hydraulic ll
rushing through horizontal access drives (Fig. 2).
Several reasons, including poor quality barricade bricks,
liquefaction, and piping within the hydraulic ll are
attributed to such failures [2]. Therefore, permeability of
the hydraulic ll in the stope is a critical parameter in
the design; continuous eort is made during mining to
ensure that it is kept above a threshold limit in the
vicinity of 100 mm/h [3]. Larger permeability leads to
quicker removal of water from the stope, thus improv-
ing the stability of the ll contained within the stope.
Permeability tests for mine lls and barricade bricks
are discussed by Rankine et al. [4]. The constant head
and falling head permeability tests carried out on the
hydraulic ll samples give permeability values in the
range of 7e35 mm/h. In spite of having permeability
values much less than the 100 mm threshold suggested
by Herget and De Korompay [3], each of these hydraulic
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000
Grain size (m)
P
e
r
c
e
n
t

f
i
n
e
r

b
y

w
e
i
g
h
t
Australian hydraulic fills
Cemented hydraulic fill
Paste fill
Fig. 1. Typical grain size distribution curves for hydraulic lls,
cemented hydraulic lls and paste lls.
Horizontal
access drive
Porous barricade
brick wall
Horizontal
access drive
Decant water
Hydraulic fill
Slurry enters
stope
Fig. 2. An idealised stope with two sublevel drains.
1169 N. Sivakugan et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 14 (2006) 1168e1175
lls has performed satisfactorily. Anecdotal evidences
and back calculations using the measured ow in
the mine stopes suggest that the permeability of the
hydraulic ll in the mine is often larger than what is
measured in the laboratory under controlled conditions.
Kuganathan [5] and Brady and Brown [6] proposed
permeability values in the range of 30e50 mm/h, which
are signicantly larger than those measured in the
laboratory for similar lls. These values are much less
than the threshold limit prescribed by Herget and De
Korompay [3], suggesting that it is a conservative
recommendation.
2.2. Stability considerations
The stability of the hydraulic ll stope during and
after the drainage period depends on several parameters
that determine the strength and the stiness of the
hydraulic ll mass. These parameters can be measured in
the laboratory using reconstituted samples or in the
mine using in situ testing devices. Due to the diculties
and high costs associated with carrying the in situ testing
rigs into the underground openings, laboratory tests are
the preferred alternatives.
Strength and stiness are directly related to the relative
density of the ll. When the hydraulic ll is denser, the
relative density and friction angle are higher, and thus the
ll is more stable. In geotechnical engineering, there are
several empirical correlations relating relative density to
the Youngs modulus and friction angle of a granular soil.
2.2.1. Maximum and minimum dry density tests
A larger void ratio does not always mean a looser
granular soil. Relative density is a good measure of
the density of the grain packing, and depends on the
maximum and minimum possible void ratios for the soil
whilst still maintaining intergranular contact. The
minimum void ratio is generally determined by pouring
the dry tailings from a xed height so that the grains are
placed at a very loose state [7]. The maximumvoid ratio is
generally achieved by saturating the tailings andvibrating
them to attain dense packing [8]. These two extreme void
ratios provide the lower and upper bound for the void
ratios, and, depending on where the current void ratio
of the hydraulic ll is, the relative density is dened as:
D
r
Z
e
max
e
current
e
max
e
min
!100% 1
Laboratory sedimentation exercises at JCU labora-
tories, during which hydraulic lling processes were
simulated, showed consistently that when slurry settles
under its self-weight, the relative density of the ll is in
the range of 40e70% (Fig. 3). Similar observations were
made by Pettibone and Kealy [9] at selected mines in the
United States. The in situ measurements showed relative
density values ranging from 44 to 66% at four dierent
mines.
The laboratory exercise also showed that the hydrau-
lic ll slurry settles to a dry density (g/cm
3
) of 0.6 times
the specic gravity (G
s
) for a wide range of tailings with
specic gravity values ranging from 2.8 to 4.4. Dry
density (r
d
) and void ratio (e) are related by:
r
d
Z
G
s
r
w
1Ce
2
This implies that all the hydraulic lls settle to a void
ratio of 0.67 and porosity of 40%. The laboratory
sedimentation exercise veries this.
2.2.2. Oedometer tests
Oedometer tests are carried out on hydraulic lls to
determine the constitutive modelling parameters for the
Cam Clay model e one of the constitutive models that
can be adapted for hydraulic lls when analysed using
numerical modelling packages such as FLAC, FLAC
3D
or ABAQUS. In addition, oedometer tests are useful in
determining the constrained modulus (D) from which,
Youngs modulus (E) can be estimated for an assumed
value of Poissons ratio using the following equation.
EZ
1Cy1 2y
1 y
D 3
Youngs modulus is a crucial parameter in deforma-
tion calculations using most constitutive models. The
oedometer tests on the hydraulic lls showed signicant
R
e
l
a
t
i
v
e

D
e
n
s
i
t
y
,

D
r

(



)
Void ratio, e
Densest possible
state
Loosest possible
state
0
100
Hydraulic fills
in mines
50
e
minimum
e
maximum
Fig. 3. Relative density of the hydraulic lls sedimented in the
laboratory.
1170 N. Sivakugan et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 14 (2006) 1168e1175
creep settlements that took place on the completion of
consolidation settlements. This has yet to be veried
quantitatively and on a full-scale stope.
2.2.3. Direct shear test
Direct shear tests are carried out to determine the
peak and residual friction angle of the hydraulic ll. The
tests are carried out on reconstituted hydraulic lls
representing the in situ grain packing in the stope, which
can be at relative densities of 40e70%. Since there is
no clay fraction, cohesion is zero. Direct shear tests
conducted at JCU reveal that the friction angles
determined from direct shear tests are signicantly
higher than those determined for common granular
soils. This can be attributed to the very angular grains
that result from crushing the rock waste, which interlock
more than the common granular soils. The angular
grains can be seen in the scanning electron micrographs
of the hydraulic ll samples (Fig. 4).
2.2.4. Placement property test
A placement property test for hydraulic lls was
proposed by Clark [10]. This is essentially a compaction
test, where the compactive eort is applied through
5 min of vibration on a vibrating table. Porosity at the
end of vibration is plotted against the water content.
Alternatively, dry density can be plotted against water
content, as shown in Fig. 5. Here a is the air content,
and the contours of a Z0, 3, 10, 20 and 30% are shown
in the gure. The shaded region is where the hydraulic
ll can exist whilst maintaining intergranular contact.
The slurry follows a saturation line when settling under
its self-weight, with the density increasing with some
vibratory loading.
One of the main applications of the placement
property test, as in a compaction test, is to determine
optimum water content. In Fig. 5, the optimum water
content of the ll is 14%, with the maximum dry density
of 2.42 t/m
3
. This water content can also be estimated
from a maximum dry density test and the saturation
line as 12%. These curves are useful in assessing the
contractive or dilative behaviour of hydraulic lls at
various water contents. For example, when the ll in
Fig. 5 is subjected to vibratory loading (e.g., due to
blasting) at 14% water content and a dry density of 2.0 t/
m
3
, it will densify, whilst the same ll at 8% water
content and dry density of 2.2 t/m
3
will become looser.
3. Barricade bricks for hydraulic ll mines
Barricade failure in underground mining operations
is a primary safety concern because of the potential
consequences of failure. Between 1980 and 1997, 11
barricade failures were recorded at Mount Isa Mines in
both hydraulic and cemented hydraulic lls [5]. In 2000,
a barricade failure at the Normandy Bronzewing Mine
in Western Australia resulted in a triple fatality, and two
Fig. 4. Scanning electron micrograph of a hydraulic ll sample.
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2
2.2
2.4
2.6
2.8
3
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
D
r
y

d
e
n
s
i
t
y

(
t
/
m
3
)
Minimum dry density
< 5 min vibration
5 min vibration
Maximum dry density
No vibration (free settling under self weight)
Intergranular
contact exists
Fig. 5. Placement property curve of a hydraulic ll sample.
1171 N. Sivakugan et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 14 (2006) 1168e1175
permeable brick failures were reported later that same
year as a result of hydraulic ll containment at the
Osborne Mine in Queensland [1].
The specialized barricade bricks often used for the
containment of hydraulic ll in underground mines are
generally constructed of a mortar composed of mixture
of gravel, sand, cement and water at the approximate
ratio of 40:40:5:1, respectively. Fig. 6 shows a photo-
graph of (a), a barricade brick and (b), an underground
containment wall constructed from bricks. Traditionally,
the walls have been constructed in a vertical plane,
but the recent industry trend has been to increase wall
strength by constructing them in a curved manner, with
the convex toward the hydraulic ll as shown in Fig. 6b.
Although it is known within the mining industry
that the porous bricks used in underground barricade
construction are prone to variability in strength prop-
erties [5], the manufacturers often guarantee a minimum
value for uniaxial compressive strength for the bricks in
the order of 10 MPa [11]. Kuganathan [5] and Dueld
et al. [11] have reported uniaxial compressive strength
values from 5 MPa to over 26 MPa.
A series of uniaxial compressive strength tests
undertaken on a large sample of brick cores have
demonstrated the scatter of results, but more impor-
tantly, have highlighted a distinct variation in brick
performance when saturated, as it would occur in the
mines. Two identical cylindrical cores were cut from 29
porous barricade bricks. One of the brick cores from
each of the individual bricks was tested dry, and the
other core was tested after having been saturated
for either 7 or 90 days. The strength and deformation
parameters (namely, the uniaxial strength, Youngs
modulus, and the axial failure strain) for the wet and
dry cores are shown in Figs. 7e9.
Firstly, the extreme scatter between all results reiter-
ates the signicant deviation in brick quality. Fig. 7 shows
the average uniaxial compressive strength of dry bricks to
fall between 6 and 10 MPa, when the brick manufacturers
guarantee minimum of 10 MPa. It can also be seen from
this gure that there is a distinct loss of compressive
strength as a result of wetting the brick. There was no
signicant dierence between 7 and 90 days soaking,
implying that the strength loss occurs immediately
upon wetting. This loss appears to be in the order of
approximately 25%, which is notable considering that
bricks are generally exposed to saturated conditions when
placed underground, and all manufacturer strength
specications are based on bricks that are tested dry.
The stiness also appears to be reduced by wetting
(Fig. 8). The Youngs modulus of the dry cores ranged
between 1 and 3.5 MPa. The length of time the bricks
were wetted did not have a signicant impact on
the magnitude of the reduction in stiness. The peak
failure axial strain was not reduced by wetting (Fig. 9).
The cores in general failed under an axial strain of less
than 1%.
The porous bricks are designed to be free draining
and therefore, their permeability is at least an order of
magnitude greater than that of hydraulic ll. The
Fig. 6. Porous brick barricade. (a) A brick, (b) brick barricade under
construction in a mine.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
0 8 6 4 2 10 12
Uniaxial compressive strength of dry core (MPa)
U
n
i
a
x
i
a
l

c
o
m
p
r
e
s
s
i
v
e

s
t
r
e
n
g
t
h
o
f

w
e
t

c
o
r
e

(
M
P
a
)
90 days
7 days
14
Fig. 7. Uniaxial strength of dry and wet bricks.
1172 N. Sivakugan et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 14 (2006) 1168e1175
barricade bricks have proven, over time, to satisfy the
free-draining situation, and the reduction of permeabil-
ity through mitigation of nes has not been recorded.
Rankine et al. [4] carried out constant head and falling
head permeability tests on several barricade bricks and
reported permeability values in the order of 3500 mm/h,
three orders of magnitude greater than the permeability
of the tailings.
4. Paste ll
Like hydraulic ll, paste ll falls into the category of
thickened tailings. A conceptual framework to describe
thickened tailings in terms of concentration and strength
is shown in Fig. 10 [12,13]. Paste ll is comprised of full
mill tailings with a typical eective grain size of 5 mm,
mixed with a small percentage of binder, in the order of
3e6% by weight, and water. It is the densest form of
backll in the spectrum of thickened tailings placed
underground as a backll material. The acceptance of
paste backll as a viable alternative to hydraulic slurry
and rock ll did not truly occur until the mid- to late-
1990s with the construction and successful operation of
several paste backll systems in Canada and the BHP
Billiton Cannington Mine in Australia.
Since a desliming of the tailings is not undertaken,
there is a substantial ne content in paste lls (Fig. 1). A
generic rule of thumb for the grain size distribution is
for a minimum of 15% of the material to be ner than
20 mm, which ensures that the surface area of the grains
is large enough to provide adequate surface tension to
ensure that the water is held to the solid particles and to
provide a very thin, permanent lubricating lm. Paste ll
typically shows non-NewtonianeBingham plastic ow
characteristics, resulting in plug ow (batches ow in
solid slugs) characteristics of the paste.
As most of the early research performed on paste lls
was on the transportation and deposition of the paste,
the majority of the denitions of the paste are based on
its rheological characteristics. Table 1 summarises some
common characteristics of the thickened tailings con-
tinuum shown in Fig. 10 [14]. Hydraulic lls fall into the
thickened tailings prole. A signicant dierence to note
is that the water content in paste ll is retained on
placement, through the large surface area of the grains,
eliminating the need for the design of drainage of the ll
or barricades.
The design requirements for paste lled stopes are then
reduced to static and dynamic stability requirements. By
designing the ll masses with sucient strength to ensure
the vertical faces of the back lled stopes remain stable
throughout the mining of the adjacent stopes, the static
stability requirements are satised. If the paste becomes
unstable, the adjacent faces may relax and displace into
the open stope, causing high levels of dilution and loss of
mining economies. The required strength of the backlls
is typically calculated using analytical solution techni-
ques [15e17]. More recently, numerical modelling
solutions [18,19] have been used to determine backll
stability throughout the entire mining sequence.
The dynamic stability of the paste ll stopes is
addressed by designing the backll mass to resist lique-
faction or other seismic activities. Due to the increased
residual moisture content of paste, there is an increased
liquefaction potential risk for the paste. Clough et al.
[20] showed that cemented sand with a uniaxial com-
pressive strength of 100 kPa was capable of resisting
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
7 days
90 days
Fig. 9. Axial failure strains of dry and wet bricks.
0
0.1
0.3
0.4
0.6
0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
0.2
0.5
0.7
0.8
A Measure of Concentration
A

M
e
a
s
u
r
e

o
f

S
t
r
e
n
g
t
h
0.9
1
SLURRY
(segregates)
PASTE
(non-segregating)
CAKE
(non-pumpable)
Fig. 10. Thickened tailings continuum [13].
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Y
o
u
n
g
'
s

m
o
d
u
l
u
s

o
f

w
e
t

c
o
r
e

(
G
P
a
)
Young's modulus of dry core (GPa)
90 days
7 days
Fig. 8. Youngs modulus of dry and wet bricks.
1173 N. Sivakugan et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 14 (2006) 1168e1175
a seismic activity measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale.
This gure has been adopted by the mining industry as
the minimum design strength ll for any ll mass. The
strength of the paste satisfying the static stability
requirements are generally in excess of dynamic strength
requirements.
Barricades are designed as underground retaining
walls. The structural design and construction of the
walls may vary slightly to those designed for hydraulic
lls, due to the absence of drainage capabilities. The
barricades are designed as temporary structures in paste
ll stopes. The walls must be designed to retain the
liquid mass of the ll, until such time as it has cured
suciently to act as a plug at the base of the stope, thus
preventing the additional deposited paste from entering
the mine workings.
5. Numerical modelling
In large-scale underground mining operations, where
in situ monitoring of stresses, strains, displacements and
pore pressures is often very dicult, expensive or not
feasible at all, the use of numerical modelling techniques
becomes extremely valuable in understanding and pre-
dicting the behaviours of both the materials and the
systems being modelled.
FLAC and FLAC
3D
are explicit, nite dierence
software packages specically designed for solving geo-
technical and mining problems in two and three dimen-
sions, respectively. The research group at JCU has used
FLAC
3D
insimulating the lling operations ina hydraulic
ll and paste ll stopes, studying the developments of
stresses and drainage within the ll [19,21].
The intention of this paper has not been to detail the
ndings from these simulations but rather to highlight
the potential these modelling tools have to dramatically
increase the condence with which stope predictions
may be made, ultimately leading to optimised mine
operation and safety.
6. Conclusions
Cemented backlling and uncemented backlling are
the two strategies used in mine backlling in Australia.
Hydraulic lls and paste lls are examples of unce-
mented and cemented backlls, respectively. A series of
laboratory tests carried out at James Cook University
on more than 20 dierent hydraulic ll samples suggest
the following:
The hydraulic ll, placed in the form of slurry, settles
to relative densities of 40e70%, comparing well with
the eld measurements.
Specic gravity of the hydraulic ll grains range
from 2.8 to 4.4.
All of the reconstituted hydraulic ll samples
sedimented in the laboratory, simulating the slurry
placement in the mine, settled to a void ratio of 0.67,
and porosity of 40%.
From constant head and falling head permeability
tests carried out on the hydraulic ll samples, the
permeability was measured to be in the range of
7e35 mm/h.
Table 1
Material properties for thickened tailings continuum [14]
Material property Slurry Thickened tailings Paste
Particle size Coarse fraction only. No particles
less than 20 mm. Segregation
during transportation and or
placement is dependent only on
the coarse fraction
Some nes included (typically !15%),
nes content tends to modify behaviour
from slurry e i.e. rheological characteristics
more similar to paste, however does
segregate when bought to rest. Segregation
during transportation and or placement is
dependent only on the coarse fraction
Additional/most nes
(typically 15% (min) O20 mm
Pulp density (%) 60e72 70e78 78e82
Flow regimes/line
velocities
Critical ow velocity. To maintain
ow must have turbulent ow
(vel O2 m/s). If vel !2 m/s
settling occurs
Critical ow velocity. To maintain ow
must have turbulent ow (vel O2 m/s).
If vel !2 m/s partial settling occurs
No critical pipeline ow
velocity, i.e. no settling
in pipe
Newtonian ow Newtonian ow Laminar/plug ow
Yield stress No minimum yield stress No minimum yield stress Minimum yield Stress
Preparation Cyclone Cyclone end elutriation Filter/centrifuge
Segregation in stope Yes/high Slight/partial None
Drainage from Stope Yes Partial/limited None/insignicant
Final density Low Medium/high High
Supernatant water High Some None
Post placement shrinkage High Insignicant Insignicant
Rehabilitation Delayed Immediate Immediate
Permeability Medium/low Low Very low
1174 N. Sivakugan et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 14 (2006) 1168e1175
There is signicant scatter in the uniaxial strength
and Youngs modulus of porous barricade bricks
measured in the laboratory. Uniaxial strength decreases
by about 25% as a result of wetting the brick. Since
these bricks are always subjected to wet conditions
within the mine, the strength and Youngs modulus
values of wet bricks should be used in the design of
barricade walls.
Paste ll contains at least 15% of grains ner than
20 mm, and the eective grain size (D
10
) is in the order of
5 mm. The 3e6% binder improves the strength and thus
stability signicantly. The large ne content within the
paste ll enables most of the water to be held to the
surface of the grains, and therefore drainage is not a
concern in paste backlling.
Acknowledgements
Several mines have contributed cash and in-kind
to the research discussed in this paper. Their support
is gratefully acknowledged. Senior Technical Ocers
Mr. Warren ODonnell and Mr. Stuart Petersen assisted
in most of the laboratory test work carried out on the
bricks and hydraulic lls. Our regular discussions with
Mr. Richard Cowling of Cowling Associates were very
valuable throughout our mining research.
References
[1] Grice T. Recent mine developments in Australia. In: Proceedings
of the 7th international symposium on mining with backll
(MINEFILL); 2001. p. 351e7.
[2] Bloss ML, Chen J. Drainage research at Mount Isa Mines
Limited 1992e1997. In: Proceedings of Minell 98. Brisbane
(Australia); 1998. p. 111e6.
[3] Herget G, De Korompay V. In situ drainage properties of
hydraulic backlls. Research and innovations, CIM special
volume; 1978. p. 117e23.
[4] Rankine KJ, Sivakugan N, Rankine KS. Laboratory tests for
mine lls and barricade bricks. In: Farquhar G, Kelsey P,
Marsh J, Fellows D, editors. Proceedings of the 9th Australia
New Zealand conference on geomechanics. Auckland; 2004.
p. 218e24.
[5] Kuganathan K. Mine backlling, backll drainage and bulkhead
construction e a safety rst approach. Australias mining
monthly February, 2001;58e64.
[6] Brady AC, Brown JA. Hydraulic ll at Osborne mine. In:
Proceedings of 8th AUSIMM underground operators conference.
Townsville: The Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy;
2002. p. 161e5.
[7] ASTM D 4254e91. Standard test method for minimum index
density and unit weight of soils and calculation of relative density.
Annual book of ASTM standards. U.S.A.: American Society of
Testing Materials; 1996.
[8] ASTM D 4253e93. Test method for maximum index density and
unit weight of soils using a vibratory table. Annual book of
ASTM standards. U.S.A.: American Society of Testing Materials;
1996.
[9] Pettibone HC, Kealy CD. Engineering properties of mine tailings.
Journal of Soil Mechanics and Foundations Division, ASCE
1971;97(SM9):1207e25.
[10] Clark IH. The properties of hydraulically placed backll. In:
Proceedings of backll in South African mines. Johannesburg:
SAIMM; 1988. p. 15e33.
[11] Dueld C, Gad E, Bamford W. Investigation into the structural
behaviour of mine brick barricades. Institute of Engineers;
March/April, 2003. p. 45e50.
[12] Robinsky EI. Thickened discharge e a new approach to tailings
disposal. Canadian Mining and Metallurgical Bulletin 1975;68:
47e53.
[13] Jewell RJ. Introduction. In: Jewell RJ, Fourie AB, Lord ER,
editors. Paste and thickened tailings: a guide. Perth (Australia):
UniPrint; 2002. p. 1e8.
[14] Jones H. Designer Waste. PASTE TECHNOLOGY 2000, an
international seminar on the production and disposal of
thickened/paste tailings for mine backll or on the surface. Perth
Australia; 2000. p. 1e6.
[15] Mitchell RJ, Wong BC. Behaviour of cemented tailings sands.
Canadian Geotechnical Journal 1982;19(3):289e95.
[16] Winch C. Geotechnical characteristics and stability of paste
backll at BHP Cannington Mine. B.E. Hons. Thesis, James
Cook University, Townsville (Australia); 1999.
[17] Aubertin M, Li L, Arnoldi S, Belem T, Bussiere B, Benzaazoua
M, Simon R. Modelling arching eects in narrow backlled
stopes with FLAC. In: Proceedings of the 3rd international
symposium on FLAC and FLAC
3D
numerical modelling in
geomechanics. Ontario (Canada); 2003. p. 1157e64.
[18] Bloss ML. Prediction of cemented rock ll stability e design
procedures and modelling techniques. PhD Thesis, The University
of Queensland, Australia; 1992.
[19] Rankine RM, Rankine KJ, Sivakugan N, Karunasena W, Bloss
ML. Geotehnical characterisation and stability analysis of BHP
Cannington pastell. In: Proceedings of the 15th international
conference on soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering.
Istanbul (Turkey); 2001. p. 1241e4.
[20] Clough GW, Sitar N, Bachus RC, Rad NS. Cemented sands
under static loading. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering Di-
vision, ASCE 1981;107(6):799e817.
[21] Rankine KJ, Rankine KS, Sivakugan N. Three-dimensional
drainage modelling of hydraulic ll mines. In: Leung CF,
Phoon KK, Chow YK, Teh CI, Yong KY, editors. Proceedings
of the 12th Asian regional conference on soil mechanics and
geotechnical engineering. Singapore; 2003. p. 937e40.
1175 N. Sivakugan et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 14 (2006) 1168e1175

You might also like