van As, A & Guest, A 2020, 'The design & operating philosophies of panel vs block caving', in R Castro, F Báez & K Suzuki (eds), MassMin 2020: Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference & Exhibition on Mass Mining, University of Chile, Santiago, pp. 207-220, https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_repo/2063_10
(https://papers.acg.uwa.edu.au/p/2063_10_van As/)
Abstract: The modern trend of designing large underground cave mines according to their desired production throughput rather than utilizing appropriate, geotechnically driven mine design parameters, has caused considerable confusion and ultimately, culminated in poor cave performance. There is a growing tendency for caves with large footprints to be designed as panel caves regardless of their Footprint to Block height ratio.  The misconception that a “panel cave” with high block height (Block height / Footprint >2) can be designed and operated no differently to that of a conventional panel cave, with smaller block height (Block height / Footprint < 2) has led to numerous geotechnical problems, including; poor cave propagation and adverse cave shape resulting in ore losses, early dilution entry, large fragmentation, ore recompaction and point loading of the extraction level, to name but a few. This paper serves to define and describe the fundamental design and operating philosophies that are characteristic of successful block and panel caves and highlights the dangers of mixing the two. It further offers an alternative for these horizontal cave layouts, namely the incline cave layout.