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Room and pillar mining is one of the oldest mining methods. Early room and pillar mines were developed more or less at random, with pillar sizes determined empirically and headings driven in whichever direction was convenient. [16] Room and pillar mining was in use throughout Europe as early as the 13th century, [17] and the United States since ...
Retreat mining is the removal of pillars in the underground mining technique known as room and pillar mining. In the first phase of room and pillar mining, tunnels are advanced into the coal or ore body in a rectangular pattern resembling city streets. Pillars are left between tunnels to support the weight of the overburden. The first phase is ...
It has a grid of 16-foot-high (4.9 m), 40-foot-wide (12 m) tunnels separated by 25-foot-square (7.6 m) limestone pillars created by the room and pillar method of hard rock mining. [1] The complex contains almost 10.5 miles (16.9 km) of illuminated, paved roads and several miles of railroad track.
Room and pillar mining often leads to retreat mining, in which supporting pillars are removed as miners retreat, allowing the room to cave in, thereby loosening more ore. Additional sub-surface mining methods include hard rock mining , bore hole mining, drift and fill mining, long hole slope mining, sub level caving, and block caving .
Room and pillar methods are well adapted to mechanization, and are used in deposits such as coal, potash, phosphate, salt, oil shale, and bedded uranium ores. Blast mining – An older practice of coal mining that uses explosives such as dynamite to break up the coal seam, after which the coal is gathered and loaded onto shuttle cars or ...
Room and pillar : Room and pillar mining is commonly done in flat or gently dipping bedded ore bodies. Pillars are left in place in a regular pattern while the rooms are mined out. In many room and pillar mines, the pillars are taken out starting at the farthest point from the stope access, allowing the roof to collapse and fill in the stope.
Once room and pillar mines have been developed to a stopping point limited by geology, ventilation, or economics, a supplementary version of room and pillar mining, termed second mining or retreat mining, is commonly started. Miners remove the coal in the pillars, thereby recovering as much coal from the coal seam as possible.
A coal mine bump (a bump, a mine bump, a mountain bump, or a rock burst) is a seismic jolt occurring within an underground mine due to the explosive collapse of one or more support pillars. [1] In room and pillar mining, tunnels are advanced in a rectangular pattern resembling city streets (tunnels), leaving behind blocks (pillars) of coal. To ...