Impact of draw velocity profile on footprint definition for primary rock

Abstract

In block/panel caving mines the footprint geometry and the undercut level height are key planning elements that have a bearing on the project final value. Selection of these parameters obviously depends on the economic objective, but it is also strongly influenced by rock mass characteristics that define column extraction capacity from draw points. This paper presents a simple methodology that allows defining the footprint and the best height of draw (BHOD) based on column extraction velocities, which are defined with the aim of controlling mass rock dynamic response while caving is propagated.  The proposed methodology can be used by industry because of the ease of application. A study case is presented for a block model which is evaluated by both the proposed methodology and nominal profit estimation.