ENGINEERING GEOLOGY CHARACTERISTIC AND THE LOW-LOOSE

METHOD OF CAVING MINING SYSTEM IN XIADIAN GOLD MINE

FENGYU REN1, SHUHONG WANG1, PEIFU WANG2, TAISHENG MU2
1

School of Resource and Civil Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110004, P. R. China
(e-mail of corresponding author: shwang@mail.neu.edu.cnT )
2

Xiadian Gold Mine, Zhaojing Mining Co. Ltd., Zhaoyuan, Shandong, 265418, P. R. China.

The most popular stochastic theories are still based on closed-form solutions that apply, strictly speaking, only
for statistically uniform flows; and caving mining systems have been widely used in underground mining, where
the design and production management are based on the theory of ore drawing. This paper presents an efficient,
convenient approach for modeling complex stochastic flows in moderately heterogeneous loose ore-drawbody.
The first stage in the mining process is the characterization of the rock mass or ore-bodies using the in situ and
laboratory data. The effects of rock and ore complexity on the rock mass behavior are discussed with reference
to laboratory and field observations. The second stage involves the use of a new mining techniques or mode to
investigate rock response in the near-field rock mass surrounding the mining excavations. Specifically, we
reformulate the governing stochastic equations and introduce a new transfer function to characterize the
propagation of caving mining system. This study shows that the new mathematical model of gravity flow of
loose material is proposed in the study on the basis of the improved stochastic theory which can be used to
investigate movement field of blasted ore and waste rock in caving mining systems. It has been proved by
practice in Xiadian Gold mine, China, that the new simulation process can satisfy the requirement of optimizing
the structure parameters of caving systems. By this way the sublevel caving stope is safety. These results suggest
that model of low-loose in caving mining system can be applied to model the mining behavior of complicated
discontinuous rock masses.
Keywords: ore-drawing control; parameters of stope; the dilution and ore loss; caving mining systems; the
theory of ore drawing; mathematical model

1. Introduction
Ore recovery from underground mining involves developing excavations and mining method to
gain access to the mineralized zone. Caving mining systems have been widely used in
underground mining, where the design and production are based on the theory of ore drawing.
The caving operation forms the core of the mining process, requiring that the rock mass stability,
both within the orebody and in the rock adjacent to the orebody, be controlled to ensure efficient
and economical ore recovery. To provide this control, different caving methods have been
designed and used to extract the ore. The previous researches on ore drawing, however, were
mainly focused on the general shape of drawbody and the width of drawing cone in single outlet
and could not provide much information in determining parameters of stopes and for ore-drawing
control due to the limited knowledge of displacement characteristics of blasted ore and waste rock
(Ren, 1994; Wang, 1997). As a result, ore loss and dilution in caving systems are still high even
though many efforts have been made to improve the caving systems in the recent half century.
Now it has been shown by practice and analysis that understanding of the flow behavior of loose
materials in single outlet is not comprehensive.
As we all know, sublevel caving is a mass mining method based upon gravity flow of blasted
ore and caved waste rock. Its major advantage is safety, since all mining activities are conducted
from relatively stable openings. Sublevel caving is the lowest cost and most productive
underground mining method, providing that all aspects are working well. One of the key aspects

of a successful sublevel cave is the control of dilution entry during the drawing of broken ore.
Analysis of gravity flow characteristics of broken ore in each type of rock is essential.
In this paper, the primary purpose of this research is to investigate the above-stated
shortcomings and find ways to overcome difficulties related mainly to mining method in Xiadian
Gold Mine. Based on the investigation in Xiadian Gold mine, China and its lab experiments, a
new sublevel caving parameters is optimized using the ore-drawing theory in Xiadian Gold mine.
The ore behavior during caving and dilution with surrounding rock was investigated in situ also.
2. Case engineering geology characteristic
The presence of the #7 orebody in Xiadian Gold Mine underlying a main rupture side of the
metamorphosed lava. Initial mining was carried out using the cut-and-fill method; as mining depth
increased, a greater proportion was produced via caving mining. Present production is
concentrated in the #7 zone; the case study discussed in this paper involves the ore-drawing
control in this zone.
The Xiadian Gold mine orebody has a sharp contact with the fragmental zone and a diffuse
contact with the surrounding rock mass. The #7 orebody is 100-130-m-length, more than 5-mthickness, 38 38.5 - dip angle (Fig.1). The type of rock and ore is hardly same ,mainly
including Quartz pyrite quartz pyrite disseminated ore .When the structure, physical and
mechanical parameters of the mine are examined , it can be seen that the ore-body has been sliced
into several lenses through shearing, with each slice being separated by narrow widths of
moderately schistose and altered wall-rock. The geology of the #7 lens is consistent with the
general geology of the mine.
The hard coefficient of rock f = 8 ~ 10 , and the hard coefficient of orebody f = 10 ~ 12 , the
compressive strength of ore and rock list in Table1.
o

Table1 Compressive strength of ore and rock

Number

Rock types

Compressive strength of rock and oreMPa

Quartz diorite

downside disseminated chippy rock

83.291.3

pyrite disseminated ore

Upside disseminated chippy rock

39.5

granite

130.5

188.3
149

The dry-material backfill mining is originally applied in Xiadian Gold mine, the height of
sub-level is 35-40 m, and the length of the ore-sublevel is 20m. This mining method has been
chosen as it permits high recovery and small dilution; it allows also to cope with difficult rock
conditions and complicated orebody geometries. But when the thickness orebody exceed more
than 7m, it will set up a jamb every 7m. And owing to the irregular of orebody, so much more ore
cant recovery.
Over the years, significant efforts have been devoted to the study of loose material flow under
gravity. Based on in-situ observations and physical modelling studies performed by various
researchers (Jolley, 1968; Litwiniszyn, 1956; Wang, 1997; Ren, 1984, 1992; Huo, 1985; Douglas,
1984; Laurance, Fred and Martin , 2004; Grodner, 1999;Asef, Reddish, Lloyd, 1998; Singh R.
and Singh, 1998), a number of ore-drawing theories have been proposed to describe the flow
patterns of loose material under gravity, in which several shapes of drawboby have been

suggested: (1) Ellipsoid; (2) Approximate ellipsoid; (3) Water droplet; (4) Upside-down droplet
The authors have done a number of laboratory experiments for academic and research
activities over the past two decades and have always found that the shape of the drawbody is an
approximate ellipsoid when the test model is filled with the magnetite fragments from
Gongchangling mine, and a shape like a water droplet is obtained with the tuff fragments from
Baiyin copper mine (Wang, 1997). This shows that the shape of drawbody is related to the
properties of loose materials.

The ore borderline

The main fracture plane

Fig.1. the Profile of 537 # section

refractural graniteAuoreusdiorite

In China, a series of lab experiments have been conducted for the magnetite fragments from
Meishan mine in 1986. It is found that when the lab model is loaded
3
densely = 2.69 ~ 2.95 g / cm , the shape of drawbody is like a water droplet; and while it is
3
loaded loosely = 2.36 ~ 2.56 g / cm , a shape like an upside-down water dropet is obtained.
It shows that the shape of drawbody is also related to the flow condition of loose materials.
Loose material in caving systems is a complex heterogeneous mass. The mechanical strength
and the shape of the individual pieces may vary dramatically, and the voids between individual
pieces may be unoccupied or filled with various substances (stone chipping, pebbles, gravel, sand,
earth clay, etc.), meanwhile the flow condition of the loose materials may vary largely, e.g., the
outlet may be wide or narrow, the pressure near the outlet may be big for deep mine and be small
for shallow mine, etc. Hence, the shape of drawbody may be different from mine to mine. Even at
the same mine, the shape of drawbody may vary with the mining depth due to the different
thickness of caved rock layers in depth. Therefore in order to meet the real conditions, it is
necessary to study a mathematical model to describe all the available shapes of drawbody with
reasonable precision.
In summarizing, the shapes of drawbody depend on both the flowing characteristics of loose
materials and the conditions of ore drawing. Various shapes of drawbody have been found in lab

experiments; however there is none of ore drawing theories which is capable to explain all of the
drawbody shapes.
In this paper, the authors combine the stochastic method with the physical phenomena of
gravity flow of loose materials and improve the stochastic theory of ore drawing to such an extent
that the obtained drawbody equation can explain all the above-mentioned drawbody shapes.
Meanwhile the equations of waste funnel, trajectory, and displacement field are proposed
accordingly. These equations are simple and easy to use. In addition, some applications of the
equations are introduced and summarized in the paper.
3. The model of low-loose by caving mining system
Certainly, caving of naturally fractured or blasted ore under gravity is the most critical factor in
the determination of mining method related parameters such as geometry. A very heterogeneous
particle size distribution is usually present in the caning ore leading to very complex caving and
flowing characteristics. In order to facilitate flow characteristics of the ore, particle size
distribution should be kept as uniform as possible. The effect of particle size in the mixture on
flowing characteristics or the shape of drawbody should be clearly demonstrated, now let us
analyze the shape of drawbody based on Ref. (Ren, 1992). We can obtain h equation as follows:

h = H e

Or

H
= e
h

(1)

This shows that the widest part of drawbody depends on the parameter. It can be seen that

1
H
, h>
the upper part of drawbody is wider than its lower part; when
ln 2
2
1
H
, h<
the lower part of drawbody is wider than the upper one; and when
<
ln 2
2
1
H
,h =
, the widest part of drawbody is in the middle. Generally speaking, ,
=
ln 2
2
mainly describes the variety in asymmetry around the half height of drawbody, and the
describes the variety in width of drawbody. and creates a high degree of flexibility for
when >

various shapes of drawbody.

As mentioned previously, the similarity between the theoretical displacement field and the
actual one is concentrated on the shape of drawbody. The shape of drawbody determines the
relationship between draw volume and draw height. The previous theory of ore drawing
commonly takes only one parameter to present the flow characteristics of loose material and only
the transverse (width) variety of the drawbody can be described by the parameter, the variety of
increase rate of draw volume with draw height, however, has not been taken into account. The
advantage of equations proposed in this paper takes two parameters to reflect the flow
characteristics of loose material. The physical meanings of is as the same in the previous
theory, but both describes the variety in asymmetric around the half height of a drawbody
and determines the variety of increase rate of draw volume with draw height. Therefore, parameter
and in this paper raise the similarity between theoretical displacement field and actual one
to a higher degree.
Equations of reach-hole-volume and displacement can be showed as the following,

Q=

( + 1)

r2

Z +1 exp

(2)

Equation (27) describes the field of reach-hole volume in active zone due to that it gives any
granule at every point with a certain reach-hole volume. Hereby we can use equation (27) to
analyze the variety of granule locations in the active zone during ore drawing. For a given draw
volume Q f , those granules with reach-hole-volume Q < Q f have been drawn out from the
outlet, those granules with Q = Q f have just reached the outlet, and those granules with
Q > Q f are still in the stope even though they have moved towards the outlet. In order to
determine the locations of the granules that have not reached the outlet, a displacement equation
need to be established.
9880

16

536

9380

9900

9360

535

537

9920

9420

9940

9960

540

539

538

10

9400

-358.714
-361.594

us

Fig.2 -363m sublevel drawing points location

The large amount of research show that the gravity flow of broken ore controls the amount of
valuable material recovered and the extent to which it is diluted by caved waste rock. In Xiadian
Gold mine, when the block size of ore are same as the waste or not markedly more than the waste
size, It will not easy to find the interaction between the broken ore and waste granules. In sublevel
caving, critical parameters, such as fragmentation size, drawpoint spacing and sublevel height are
effect the ore recovery and waste rock dilution, and the ore drawing process is controlled
artificially.
Fig.2 shows the -363m sublevel drawing points location in Xiadian Gold mine. In the
research of flow of broken rock in caving mines, In order to quantitative analysis the ore drawing
parameters, some laboratory test about the ellipsoid of motion and the outline or contour
surrounding the original location of material are performed.
In order to maintain an efficient flow of the ore without or less loose dilution, the vertical
discharge opening is constructed according to sublevel width.
4. The low-loose mining scheme
All approaches to modeling flow of broken material in caving mining methods require good
calibration and validation data. It would be best to obtain the mining structure parameters from the
laboratory test (Wang, 1998). There are problems associated with the use of the past physical
modeling data to validate and calibrate mathematical models. So in Xiadian Gold mine, we put
forward to change any of the critical parameters that are thought to influence flow of broken rock
such as sublevel height and draw point spacing, etc.
Laboratory testing for the Xiadian mine was carried out in Northeastern university rock
mechanics Laboratory. It was proposed that a series of laboratory tests be conducted to

characterize the rock masses encountered at the Xiadian mine and to determine the material
parameters required for numerical modeling studies of underground mine-induced ground
deformations. Laboratory testing involved the four main rock types found in the study area
(Chlorite schist, disseminated ore, solid ore and quartz porphyry).
In Xiadian Gold Mine #7 orebody conditionthe height of sublevel is controlled by the
thickness of the orebody. In Fig.3, in -385m level, the height of sublevel is 7m, -420m level; the
height of sublevel is 8m. The draw point spacing could be calculated by the following:

S =5

1
1 H 1 + ub
2

(1)

Where, Hthe height of sublevel, bthe width of the extraction laneway, coefficient
relating to the outlet width of the waste rock ellipsoidwhen pure ore drawing without any waste
rock is applied0when the critical drawing mode is applied0.75; when the low-loose
drawing mode is applied, 0.10.6.
In Xiadian Gold mine, the width of the extraction is 2.5mthe parameters of the draw
body1.7376, 0.0814, 11.5940, 10.1266, K0.0868. When H78b2.5,
11.5940, 10.1266, we can get from the equation (1), when H= 7~8m the draw point
spacing is 6.2~8.1m (Fig.3). With a view to the laneway stability, in Xiadian Gold mine, all the
height of sublevel fixed to 8m.
Based on the above calculation and the characteristic of Xiadian mine, there were drew: when
the sublevel height of caving and the spacing of advancing laneway are given 7m and 8m,
respectively, the opening space is suggest to be 1.2m. It is optimized that the particle size
distribution which the blasting operation has to be drawn as fast as possible with great care is
performed. The dilution is very low; the extraction ratio and production efficiency is increasing
sharply.
Upper rock
orebody

8m

7~8m

Down rock

Fig.3. the caving mining structure

The shape of a given ellipsoid of motion can be described by Ren (1992), the ellipsoid shape
and size is determined by particle size of the flowing material at the same discharge opening width
and the height to which the material is drawn.
5. Applications
Sublevel caving is applicable to Xiadian Gold deposits with steep to moderate dip and large
extension at depth. The ore must fracture into manageable blocks with blasting. The hanging wall
will cave following the ore extraction and the ground on the surface above the orebody will
subside.

Sublevel caving depends on sublevels with regular patterns of drifts prepared inside the
orebody at rather close vertical spacing. The drift layout is the same on each sublevel (i.e., parallel
drives across the orebody from the footwall transport drive to the hanging wall) but the patterns
on each sublevel are slightly off-set so that the drifts on a lower level are located between the
drifts on the sublevel above it. A cross section will show a diamond pattern with drifts in regular
vertical and horizontal spacing.
When the development of the sublevel is completed, the long-hole drill rig moves in to drill a
blast holes in a fan-spread pattern in the rock above (Fig.4). When all of the blast holes are ready,
the long-hole drill rig is moved to the sublevel below.
9400

Drawing
b d

4
3

6
Ore body

Blasting cave

Down-side rock

-380m

13#

a The 13# laneway cutaway view

14 su
6 5

10
4 3

2 1

b The No.8 line blasting caves array

Fig. 4 The laneway cutaway view

The long-hole blast fractures the rock mass above the sublevel drift, initiating a cave that
starts at the hanging wall contact and retreats toward the footwall following a straight front across
the orebody on the sublevel. A vertical section would show a staircase where each upper sublevel
is one step ahead of the sublevel below.
Sublevel caving features a schematic layout with repetitive work procedures (development
drifting, long-hole drilling, charging and blasting, loading and transport) that are carried out
independently. This allows the procedures to move continuously from one sublevel to another,
allowing for the most efficient use of work crews and equipment. In effect the mine is analogous
to a departmentalized factory. Sublevel mining, however, being less selective than other methods,
does not yield particularly efficient extraction rates. Despite numerous work done in gravity flow
field, Ore recovery and waste rock dilution are still be to solved in many metal mine, for Xiadian
Gold mine, some parameters of caving system are optimized and have been applied in -385m , 420m level. In -420m level, the ore recovery and the waste rock dilution are 91.3%, 19.5%
respectively.
6 Conclusion
A new caving mining methodology applicable to the Xiadian Gold Mine has been presented. This
methodology was developed through a study on the #7 ore-body in Xiadian Gold Mine using
elements of laboratory testing, case investigation, and mathematical model of gravity flow of
loose material.

Based on the result of analysis, the original sublevel caving was replaced by sublevel caving
with a layer of drifts in the foot wall. The new method increased the ore recovery rate from
62.24% to 82.17% and decreased the dilution rate from 32% to 25.02%. Production of mineral by
using this caving is much simpler in comparison to other mining and requires less development,
consequently, the efficiency of production is significantly higher. This low-loose caving mining
method is used extensively in China.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express his appreciation for The Scientific Research Foundation for the
Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry (SRF for ROCS, SEM:
2003821178); The Project of the Xiadian Gold Mine (2003-0-1-36) also.
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