Morrison, D, Akerman, A & Parsons, H 2014, 'Development in deep, hard rock mines – beyond 10 m/day', in M Hudyma & Y Potvin (eds), Deep Mining 2014: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Deep and High Stress Mining, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 263-269, https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_rep/1410_16_Morrison
(https://papers.acg.uwa.edu.au/p/1410_16_Morrison/)
Abstract: Over the last 30 years, the hard rock mining industry in Canada has seen a continual decline in advance rates for access development in bulk, base-metal mines. The decline has been accompanied by the introduction of large and powerful equipment units that operate in sequence and require significant maintenance support. As Canadian mines progress in excess of 2.5 km below surface, the ventilation demand of this type of equipment becomes onerous and the combination of travel times to and from the face, and exclusively sequential activities, will continue to slow advance rates and help kill deep projects. Prior to 1975, the high advance rates achieved depended on work practices that can no longer be tolerated, but the way these operations were managed has a great deal to offer. We must re-examine these projects and re-learn the lessons these operations provide – in particular the focus on face utilisation – while ensuring the safety of the workforce at all times. We present a new approach to drift development for large face (5 m) drifts plus the simulation results that show how advance rates in excess of 10 m/day can be achieved.