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Publications (42)
Underhand cut-and-fill mining has allowed for the safe extraction of ore in many mines operating in weak rock or highly stressed, rockburst-prone ground conditions. However, the design of safe backfill undercuts is typically based on historical experience at mine operations and on the strength requirements derived from analytical beam equations. In...
This paper describes the results of a back analysis of pillar failures at Troy Mine, Montana, and the use of this experience to make forward predictions on pillar stability in the nearby Montanore deposit which lies in a similar geomechanical setting. At Troy Mine, a progression of pillar failures in areas within the Middle Quartzite of the Revett...
Underhand cut-and-fill mining has allowed for safe extraction of ore in many mines operating in weak rock or highly stressed, rockburst prone ground conditions. However, design of safe backfill undercuts poses unique geotechnical challenges that must be addressed by these operations. Hecla Mining Company and the Spokane Mining Research Division of...
The Lucky Friday Mine is one of the deepest mines in the western hemisphere. As the depth has increased, engineering issues typical of deep mines such as seismicity and heat become important aspects of the mine design. A number of revisions to the mining method have been made to increase safety and maintain productivity. Hecla Mining is currently m...
Abstract At Solvay Mine, located in southwestern Wyoming, a subhorizontal trona seam is mined at depths of between 460 and 490 m using mechanized room-and-pillar and longwall mining methods. The stratigraphy at the mine generally consists of horizontally laminated (i.e., bedded) sedimentary rocks comprised mostly of shales and sandstones with signi...
We present a quantitative procedure for constraining probabilistic seismic hazard analysis results at a given site, based on the existence of fragile geologic structures at that site. We illustrate this procedure by analyzing precarious rocks and undamaged lithophysae at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The key metric is the probability that the feature wou...
A numerical approach to cave assessment has been developed over the past 12 years, partly through funding provided by the International Caving Study (ICS) and Mass Mining Technology (MMT) Projects. Recent improvements have been made to the modeling methodology that allows the explicit representation of large, persistent geological structures within...
This paper outlines rock mechanics investigations associated with mechanical degradation of planned emplacement drifts at Yucca Mountain, which is the designated site for the proposed US high-level nuclear waste repository. The welded tuff emplacement horizon consists of two groups of rock with distinct engineering properties: nonlithophysal and li...
This paper outlines rock mechanics investigations associated with mechanical degradation of planned emplacement drifts at Yucca Mountain, which is the designated site for the proposed US high-level nuclear waste repository. The factors leading to drift degradation include stresses from the overburden, stresses induced by the heat released from the...
This paper examines whether the extremely high ground motion values that are calculated for probabilistic seismic hazard analyses
in critical facilities are physically attainable.
In September of 2000, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued an Issue Resolution Status Report (NRC 2000). The Key Technical Issue (KTI) agreements on Repository Design and Thermal-Mechanical Effects (RDTME) were jointly developed at the Technical Exchange and Management Meeting held on February 6-8, 2001 in Las Vegas, Nevada. In that...
The Kidd operation mines roughly 10 000 tpd of copper and zinc ore from underground and employs about 700 personnel. In the late summer and fail of 1997 major movements in the proximity of the east wail of the Kidd open pit had been observed. The Kidd pit had been mined from 1965 to 1977 to depths of 260 m (850 ft), followed by subsequent mining by...
A detailed geomechancs study was carried out during the mining of two sill pillar stopes at Brunswick Mining. Microseismics, conventional ground control instruments, numerical modellling and visual observations were used to understand the observed failure mechanisms. Severe rock mass failure was initiated in several locations. The complex nature of...
UDEC (Universal Distinct Element Code) is a two-dimensional distinct element program written for the static and dynamic analysis of the mechanical, thermal and hydrologic behavior of jointed rock masses. This program has been applied to a wide variety of problems in civil construction, mining, nuclear waste disposal, and geologic modeling. This doc...
The mechanical, ultrasonic, and hydrologic properties of samples from the Grouse Canyon Member of the Belted Range Tuff exposed in the GTUF Heated Block Alcove, U12G Tunnel, Nevada Test Site are described. These results are similar to measurements made earlier at Sandia National Laboratories. 12 refs., 37 figs., 17 tabs.
A heated block experiment was conducted in G-Tunnel on the Nevada Test Site (NTS) to provide input for evaluating the ability of jointed-welded tuffs to contain radioactive wastes. The Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations Project is investigating the possibility of constructing a high-level nuclear waste repository within similar tuff at Yuc...
The measurements in the G-Tunnel heated block showed: The thermal-expansion coefficient for constant stress temperature increases had a range of 5.0 to 8.7 x 10{sup -6} {sup 0}C{sup -1}, and values compared well with a laboratory range of 6.4 to 8.0 x 10{sup -6} {sup 0}C{sup -1}. Single-fracture permeabilities were relatively insensitive to stress...
Welded tuff beneath Yucca Mountain adjacent to the Nevada Test Site (NTS) is being considered for development as a high-level radioactive waste repository by the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI) Project. Because access into Yucca Mountain has been limited to borehole explorations, early geoengineering materials characterizations...
The G-tunnel heated block experiment is conducted on the Nevada Test Site (NTS) as part of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations project (NNWSI). The purpose of the ambient temperature testing phase is to evaluate rock-mass mechanical properties of a block (approx. 8 m(3)) under biaxial stress changes up to 7.5 MPa above an initialization...
The Bureau of Mines, under a cooperative agreement with Hecla Mining Co. , is conducting a rock mechanics study of the 6,200-ft-deep circular, concrete-lined Silver Shaft to instrument and evaluate lining behavior and rock deformation when a deep shaft is constructed in a high in situ stress field and anisotropic rock mass. Rock mass displacements...
An instrumented 8 m/sup 3/ block of jointed gneiss was subjected to biaxial and uniaxial loading at ambient and elevated temperatures, using flatjacks and a line of borehole heaters. The following rock mass properties were investigated under various conditions of stress (0 to 6.9 MPa, uniaxial and biaxial) and temperature (12 to 74/sup 0/C mean blo...
The last author wrote the paper and presented it in Boston. The reason for this was because of joining the TerraTek team who were performing the heated block test, approximately one year after the project started. The paper describes the principal results of the HTM testing of a more than 2m long subvertical joint crossing the 8m3 block in a semi-d...
With a few exceptions, crystalline rocks in this study were limited to plutonic rocks and medium to high-grade metamorphic rocks. Nearly 1700 underground mines, possibly occurring in crystalline rock, were initially identified. Application of criteria resulted in the identification of 60 potential sites. Within this number, 26 mines and 4 civil wor...
During the time period of February to April, 1979, twelve rod extensometers and twenty-two convergence measurement points were installed, calibrated and monitored in support of the spent fuel mine in granite. Readings taken during heading and bench advance shows good instrument stability, with little or no anchor creep or slippage. Repeat calibrati...
The Columbia River Basalt is being studied as a potential site for a spent fuel repository for the United States of America. To accomplish this end, a design study and environmental feasibility studies are being conducted to assess the feasibility of building tunnels at depths of approximately 1,000 meters to store the spent fuel. Of prime consider...
The U.S. Bureau of Mines has been conducting a series of rock mechanics investigations at the Lucky Friday Mine in the Coeur d'Alene Mining District of northern Idaho. In the present study, the energy release rate (ERR) index was used to evaluate three underhand stope backfill parameters--cement content, density, and placement gap--to determine the...
This paper is concerned with rockbursts in cut and fill mining of a thin, vertical vein at great depth. The design procedure used to plan extraction sequences in such deposits is based on minimizing the maximum spatial rate of energy release associated with mining. This procedure is used routinely in South Africa to plan deep mine workings. It is p...