This paper focuses on the issues pertaining to the introduction of mechanization in an underground narrow reef hard rock mine typified by, but not solely restricted to, platinum mining in South Africa. In the context of this paper, mechanization refers to any machine, process or activity that reduces the human effort required to break or move rock or material in a mine. The following mechanizat...

Aluminium, the third most abundant element in the earth’s crust, occurs in nature in combination with silicon and oxygen (i.e. as aluminium silicate). When subject to tropical weathering, aluminium silicate may react to form aluminium hydroxide. Rock containing high concentrations of aluminium hydroxide is called bauxite. This rock is the usual starting material for the production of aluminium....

Steel-lined pressure tunnels and shafts are used to convey water from the reservoir to the turbines in high-head hydroelectric power plants. An axisymmetrical multilayer model is often considered by engineers for the design of the steel liner. Stresses and deformations can then be computed with a closed-form analytical solution in isotropic rock. When the rock is anisotropic, the lowest elastic...

The lack of continuity conditions of the rock materials presents a serious challenge for the continuum mechanics approach, hindering the effective use of the well-established methods such as the finite element method and the boundary element methods. In the presented paper a discrete technique based on molecular dynamics approach is used for computer constructing of polycrystal materials. On th...

Rotary drills, diamond drills and percussive drills have been extensively used in open pits, quarries and construction sites. The prediction of the penetration rate of drilling machines is very important in the cost estimation and the planning of the rock excavation projects. The rock modulus ratio, which is the ratio of elastic modulus to compressive strength, indicating the deformability, is ...

To solve the problem of rutting and fatigue damage to asphalt pavement, rutting and fatigue performances of Qingchuan rock asphalt modified asphalt were studied, based on the dynamic shear rheometer test, the dynamic creep test, the rutting test, the indirect tensile fatigue test, the small-sized acceleration loading test, the compressive resilient modulus test, the BISAR3.0 Program and the rut...

In industry, the porosity of petrochemical reservoirs is measured frequently by coring and is an important property when trying to determine if a site is appropriate for drilling. Porosity can also be used in waste water treatment in order to determine if a material is ideal for water purification in industrial or residential applications. The purpose of this experiment was to simulate a oil re...

The paper examines the interaction between host rock and a clay-based engineered barrier in the context of deep underground disposal of high-level radioactive waste. A large scale ‘‘in situ’’ heating test currently under way in the underground Grimsel Rock Laboratory (GRL; Switzerland) is adopted as a representative case for study. The main features of the behaviour of the rock/barrier system h...

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) specification for rock dust used in underground coal mines, as defined by 30 CFR 75.2, requires 70% of the material to pass through a 200 mesh sieve (<75 µm). However, in a collection of rock dusts, 47% were found to not meet the criteria. Upon further investigation, it was determined that some of the samples did meet the specification, but were ...

The present study indicate that the copper mineralization in the area is of the nature of scattered sporadic occurrences of narrow lenticular and impersistent stringers and veins of copper-ore in vein-quartz and pegmatite traversing the amphibolite and garnetiferous mica schist country rock. The old workings for copper ore at Garimanipenta, which had a checkered history since early times, are b...