The South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy The Third Southern African Conference on

Base Metals
Pete H Ferreira

MECHANISED MINE DEVELOPMENT UTILISING ROCK CUTTING

AND BORING THROUGH RAISE AND BLIND BORING
TECHNIQUES

P H Ferreira
Murray & Roberts Cementation

SYNOPSIS
The mechanisation of mine development is becoming increasingly important in our
South African and Southern African mines with increased emphasis on safe and
efficient mining.

Raise, blind and shaft boring offer mechanised solutions for excavations such as:-
 reef raises
 stope boxholes and shaft ore passes
 ventilation passes and shafts
 chairlifts
 large vertical hoisting shafts (in excess of 1200 metres in depth)
 angled hoisting shafts (from small to large diameter bored holes)

These techniques will be discussed with reference to relevant applications and the
author’s comparison between conventional drill and blast techniques.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

2. CURRENT TECHNIQUES

FLAT DIPPING TO STEEPER DIPPING TUNNELLING AND

DEVELOPMENT

2.1 Drill and blast mechanised tunnelling and development

2.1.1 Drop raising
2.1.2 Alimak or mono rail type raising
2.1.3 Conventional vertical shaft sinking

2.2 Rock cutting and boring

2.2.1 Raise boring
2.2.2 Blind boring
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2.2.3 Shaft boring

3. COMPARISON OF DRILL & BLAST TECHNIQUES

4. FUTURE CHALLENGES

5. SAFETY ASPECTS

6. CONCLUSION

7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

8. REFERENCES

1. INTRODUCTION

Issues of safety, economy, availability of skilled labour, as well as international

competition emphasize the need for mechanised mine development.

Appropriate mechanisation suited to the circumstances at hand should be

considered when selecting an excavation method.

Mechanisation includes mechanized drill, blast, support and cleaning methods,

generally for flat to 10° inclined or declined excavations in Southern African
mines, with special methods and equipment for steeper inclined/declined
excavations. A drill and blast method offers greater flexibility than raise and
blind boring techniques although each has its own pro’s and con’s.

2. CURRENT TECHNIQUES

FLAT DIPPING TO STEEP DIPPING TUNNELLING AND

DEVELOPMENT

2.1 Drill and blast mechanised tunnelling and development

2.1.1 Drop raising

Drop raising, also known as “longhole raise blasting” or “upsidedown raising”,

is an excavation which is completely pre-drilled over its full length, then
charged from the top, or bottom, and finally blasted from the bottom in practical
lengths for an effective advance per blast.

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Drop raising is commonly used world-wide in the development of rock and

ventilation passes over a length of generally up to 60m in the vertical mode and
around 15m in an almost flat mode (Refer graph 1 and 2 – Inclination and length
matrix).
Graph 1 Graph 2
Length of Dropraise vs Inclination Length of Dropraise vs Inclination
Down Drilling Up Drilling
60 60
55 35 35
50 50 32
45 30 29
40 40 26
25
35 23
21
Metres

30 20

Metres
30 18
15
20
10
10
5
0
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 0
90 80 70 60 50 40 30
Degrees Degrees

Drop raising offers a safe method of excavation at relatively economic cost.

Major advantages of this method include not exposing people to the dangers of
entering a pass from underneath, and, the ability to blast short passes of up to
10m in one blast.

Some additional important advantages are:-

Safety The raise needs never to be entered once blasting

commences, thus hazards posed by falls of ground,
fumes, poor working conditions etc. are avoided.

Speed Drilling of the raise is much faster than handheld

operations. Once drilling has been completed,
blasting can take place without the interruptions of
making safe and drilling the next round.

Economy The inside of the raise does not need to be equipped;

thereby eliminating that cost.

Improved safety and speed result in early availability

of the raise.

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DTH Drop Raise Drillrig

Figure 1

2.1.2 Alimak or mono-rail raising

Alimak raising makes use of a rack and pinion type system for the transportation
of people into a pass with normal drill and blast methods. This method is widely
used in Canada but has not found much favour in South Africa.

It is a relatively fast method and can be used in excavations in excess of 200m in

length. A further advantage is that support components can be installed as one
develops.

The Alimak method offers solutions in the development of reef raises, boxholes,
ventilation passes, shafts, etc. at practical diameters ranging from ±1,8m to 6m.

2.1.3 Conventional vertical shaft sinking

Conventional vertical blind shaft sinking using drill and blast techniques has
been practised for as long as underground mining has taken place.

Various shaft sinking methods are being used:-

 Handheld drilling of the bottom with a nominal 2.0 metre advance per
blast
 Jumbo drilling of the bottom using either pneumatic or electro-hydraulic
drifters with advance per blast of up to 6.0 metres
 Mucking with an Eimco 630 type loader into a kibble
 Mucking with a cryderman type clam system into a kibble
 Mucking with a cactus grab type lashing unit into a kibble
 Concurrent shaft concrete lining from the sinking stage above.

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Rock is hoisted to surface or the bank elevation, not interfering therefore with
other rock hoisting operations. Bottom access becomes unnecessary. This, then,
is the appropriate method where a shaft is sunk in green fields operations.

Large winding facilities are usually required to hoist the rock from the shaft
bottom. A large stage winder installation is hence, a given, especially with
cactus grab cleaning.

Shafts are frequently equipped, on completion of a sink, to shaft bottom, unless a

cryderman type cleaning method is used; which supports concurrent equipping
of a shaft with the sinking. A smaller stage winder is necessary in this cleaning
method.

Blind sink operations are generally done when sinking shafts of 4.5 metres in
diameter and more. Advances per blast will vary and advances per day will
average around 3.5 metres to 4.5 metres, depending on the depth of shaft and its
diameter.

The deepest one lift blind vertical shaft sunk to date has been the South Deep
shaft in South Africa to a depth of some 2 991 metres below collar.

Blind sink shafts can be sunk from very shallow to very deep, and to any
diameter, depending on the requirement.

2.2 Rock cutting and boring

2.2.1 Raise boring

Raise boring has been commonly used in the mining industry since 1968 for the
mechanical cutting of excavations to various diameters and lengths, ranging
from 0,7m in diameter to 7,1m and up to 1260m in length.

Murray & Roberts Cementation has been involved in raise boring contracting
since 1978 and has become the world’s largest raise boring contractor. Murray
& Roberts Cementation is considered a leader in the field of large diameter raise
boring. The company operates a total of 41 raise drills, which include 4 Wirth
HG 330 SP type machines; these being some of the largest raise drills ever
manufactured in the world. This fleet has been extended to include one 123R, as
well as two 103R machines.

Raise borers can be used in various modes of operation, the modes most often
used are:-

 Conventional pilot drilling

 Conventional upreaming of vertical and inclined holes
 Down boring with a pre-drilled pilot hole
 Blind up boring

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 Directional piloting and raise boring used in conjunction with a shaft

boring machine (V-mole), for the drilling and support of a large diameter
shaft.

Conventional Up-reaming of Pilot Holes

On completion of pilot drilling; and at such time as the pilot hole breaks lower
excavation; a reaming head is fitted to the end of the drill string, rotated and
reamed back. The size of the reaming heads range between 0,7 metres and 7,1
metre in diameter.

It is a safe, efficient and cost-effective method of making holes through different

geological formations using powerful machines, high strength drill string and
reliable heads. The maximum loading capacity of the drill string determines the
diameter as well as the length of the shaft. The loading is dynamic and only
approximately calculable because tensile, torsional and bending stresses overlap.
See Figure 2

Figure 2

Down Boring with a Pre-drilled pilot hole

In this case an oversized pilot hole is drilled. The cutting head is installed at the
top of the pilot hole and drilling takes place in the downward mode. Rock
cuttings are flushed down the oversized pilot hole to the bottom of the hole
where they are removed. In the case of smaller holes, cutter thrust is provided
by the machine and in the case of large diameter shafts, the cutter head is
weighted through the addition of steel collars. The down boring method is not
often used as the risk of blocking the pilot hole and creating mud rushes at the
bottom of the hole is too high.
See Figure 3

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Figure 3

Directional Pilot Drilling

Directional pilot drilling is costly and therefore only used in instances where a
high degree of accuracy is required. The accuracy of a vertical pilot hole can be
guaranteed to depths within the capability of the raise drill machine and
accuracies of 0,036% have regularly been achieved recently.

The improvement made in directional drilling, now enables hoisting shafts to be

raise drilled, either in one pass or in combination with the V-mole.

Table 1 typically quantifies the capabilities of the various raise bore machines
commonly available in the market.

Raise boring is more and more becoming an economical means of excavating

small to large holes with great benefits over increased lengths.

Recent Achievements :-

Murray & Roberts Cementation currently holds world records and can boast the
following achievements: -

 Largest diameter shaft raise drilled to 7.1 metres in diameter and 178
metres of vertical depth at Sasol Coal’s Secunda Collieries’ Bosjespruit
Mine. (See Figure 4)

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Figure 4 (7.1 Metre Reamer Head)

 Longest vertical hole reamed to 1.83 metres in diameter and 1260 metres
deep at the Prismulde Project, Germany.
 At Kloof Gold Mine South Africa, a 1 100 metre deep, 4.1 metre diameter
hole was drilled through the hardest lava rock formation with an UCS
between 600 and 750 Mpa.
 Longest inclined raise drilled hole to 3.5 metres in diameter and 755 metres
deep at BCL in Botswana.
 Deepest shaft V-mole bored in South Africa to 6.5 metres in diameter and
972 metres deep at Oryx Gold Mine.
 Deepest shaft V-mole bored at Prismulde Germany to 7.8 metres in
diameter and 1260 metres deep by Thyssen Schachtbau of Germany
 Largest diameter V-mole shaft bored in hard rock to 7.1 metres in diameter
and 785 metres deep at Alp Transit, St. Gotthard, Sedrun, Switzerland.
 At Impala Platinum Mine South Africa, Murray & Roberts Cementation
drilled a 1 050 metre long, 5.1 metre diameter raise drill hole through
norites with RVDS with 0.05 % accuracy.
 At Sedrun in Switzerland, a 785 metre long 1.83 metre diameter hole was
drilled with RVDS with 0.035 % accuracy i.e. 280 mm deviation
 At Moab Khotsong in South Africa, a 360 metre long, 3.8 metre diameter
hole was drilled with RVDS with 0.063 % accuracy i.e. 223 mm
deviation
 At Prismulde in Germany, a 1 260 metre long, 1.83 metre diameter hole
was drilled with down-the-hole motor measuring 0.04 % accuracy i.e.
450 mm deviation
 At Impala Platinum Mine South Africa, a 1 090 metre long, 5.1 metre
diameter hole was drilled through norites.

Advantages are:-

- No in-hole ventilation system required.

- Very safe as few people involved.
- Great speed of raise boring, provided the cuttings can be removed
timeously.
- Accurate drilling to accuracies of 0,035% deviation.

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- No blasting and thus no blasting related fractures.

- Cost effective, especially where time is of the essence.
- The drilling of long holes has now become the norm.

Disadvantages are:-

- Straight line drilling makes it a relatively inflexible method.

- Expensive on a direct Rand per metre cost.
- Limited to certain sizes and lengths.
- Generally requires fairly large raise bore machine cubbies.
- Fast drilling requires high tonnage chip removal.
- Requires reasonably stable ground conditions.
- Top and bottom access is required.

Some special areas of application are:-

 Low angle raise boring for applications such as:-
- tabular orebody reef raises from 11° above the horizontal
over lengths up to 220m @ typical diameters of 1.5 –
1.8m. This method is at least twice as fast as any other
common method and very safe.

Figure 5 – 85R machine @ 34° Figure 6 – 1,5m Ø hole @ 17_°

- slot raising of relatively short holes on reef in steeply

angled ore bodies 20 to 40m in length of typically 1.0 –
1.8m in diameter as a blasting breaking point.
 Low angle raise boring of excavations such as chairlifts,
travelling ways, inclined shafts, rope raises etc. to name a few
with lengths of up to 220m and diameters of up to 3,5m and
inclinations ranging from 11° above the horizontal.

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Figure 7 – 3,6m Ø hole @ 34°

Figure 8 – 3,6m Ø hole @ 34°

2.2.2 Blind boring

Blind boring is the rock boring of a hole, typically of 1.5m in diameter from 34°
from the horizontal to 90°.

In this case, the machine is placed at the bottom elevation and the cutting head
drills upwards. Rock cuttings fall to the bottom of the hole where they are
deflected into muck cars. Blind boring has limited applications. See Figure 9

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Figure 9

The longest known blind bore hole drilled to date, has been with a 53R over a
distance of some 192m at a near vertical angle in 1989 at Anglogold Ashanti
Tautona Mine.

The normal blind hole machines manufactured were generally designed around a
maximum diameter of 1,5m and very seldom 1,8m.

The term, blind boring, came about as the early machine, a 52R, drilled its hole
to full size of 1,5m without a pilot hole, because it has non-rotating drill pipe.
One could comment today, that the term, blind boring, is not necessarily correct
anymore, as the newer machines are now able to first pilot a hole then ream the
hole.

2.2.3 Shaft boring

In the late sixties, following the successful application of tunnel boring

machines, thought was given to use this, then new, excavation technique in
underground coal mines with a view to fully mechanise tunnelling and shaft
sinking.

The rodless shaft boring machines (V-mole) can be used to sink deep vertical
shafts with a diameter of up to 8.5 m. The requirements for this method are: -

 relatively competent rock (unsupported center core to stand up)

 a reamed pilot hole between shaft head and shaft bottom of approximately
1.83 to 2.4 metres in diameter with sufficient verticality to serve as center
core. During the boring operation the center core pilot hole is used to drop
the reamed cuttings to the bottom of the new shaft and for ventilation
purposes.

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The shaft boring machine, constructed similarly to a tunnel boring machine,

( TBM ), widens the center core pilot hole to the final shaft diameter by reaming
downwards. Reaming, muck disposal, shaft support and permanent shaft
equipping are performed continuously and concurrently.

The steering system of the machine guarantees the verticality of the bored shaft
guided by a laser beam down the centerline of the shaft. The boring diameter
can be varied within a range of 5.0 to 8.5m. The depth to be bored is not
restricted by the shaft boring machine parameters, but instead becomes a factor
of the ability to drill and ream a pilot hole to 1.83 metre in diameter. We know
that the drilling of holes of 1 300 metres in depth is possible and has been done
before. The next challenge will be to drill a 1.83 metre diameter hole over a
continuous length/depth of more than 1 500 metres. The shaft depth is therefore
unlimited as long as a center core pilot hole is possible.

A V-mole shaft construction is carried out in various stages: -

 the raise drilling of the pilot hole and center core to serve as a rock pass
 the construction of a pre-sunk foreshaft to facilitate the installation of the V-
mole machine and the installation of the necessary and required hoisting
facilities
 V-mole boring, shaft support and equipping
 the final removal of the V-mole at shaft bottom
 and commissioning of the permanent shaft system

In 1971, the first shaft boring machine was put into service in the coal mines in
Germany by a consortium of specialist mining contractors, Deilmann-Haniel
GmbH (Dortmund) and Thyssen Schachtbau GmbH.

Since 1989 , the company has gained operational experience in shaft boring
using the V-mole shaft boring techniques. To date, four major shaft projects
have been completed viz.:-

 Oryx 1B Ventilation Shaft in South Africa

 Pasminco’s Brokenhill No. 5 Airway in Australia
 Anglogold’s Western Deep Levels South Mine, sub ventilation shaft and
 AlpTransit St Gotthard project in Sedrun, Switzerland

These projects were done in a joint venture with Thyssen Schachtbau GmbH
of Germany using a Wirth SBVIII rodless shaft boring machine, better known
as a V-mole.

Vertical shaft boring for ventilations shafts, as well as hoisting facilities have
once again become a special shaft construction method in today’s drive on safe
production. (Refer figure 10)

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Figure 10 – V-Mole Machine

3. COMPARISON OF SIMILAR TECHNIQUES

3.1 Pros And Cons Of Conventional Vertical Blind Sink Shafts Compared with
Shaft Bored Shafts

Factors Conventional Blind Sink Shaft Bore

1 Depth restrictions None Competitively economical

from 800 m
2 Diameter restrictions None 4.5m to 8.5m in diameter
3 Speed of sink Faster up to 800m Faster from 800m onwards
4 Blasting operations All sinking None
5 Need bottom access No Yes
6 Lining thickness Thicker Thinner
7 Safety aspects Poorer Best
8 Stage requirement Large Small
9 Kibble hoist requirement Large hoist for rock & material Small hoist for men & material only
10 Stage hoist Large Smaller
11 Sinking crew size Larger Smaller

Shaft boring becomes an economical option from depths of around 800 metres and
deeper and at that point becomes cheaper and faster and can be bored to great depths.

Raise drilling fills the gap between a very small shaft and a larger shaft and is the fastest
means of sinking a shaft provided bottom access is available.

Every technique has its place in the business and the pros and cons must be weighed up
against each other before a final decision can be made on the optimal method of sinking.

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A simplified table ( refer Table 2 ) depicts the length/depth of holes/tunnels that could
typically be drilled or excavated by the means listed as a guideline in choosing mining
methods.

4. FUTURE CHALLENGES

The future requires more focus on and implementation of mechanised

tunnelling, from the vertical to the horizontal, as well as in a range of sizes of
excavations.

Orepass development by means of conventional handheld methods is fast

becoming a thing of the past and will be replaced by drop raising and blind
boring.

It is essential that the correct type of equipment be developed to suit the

conventional South African gold and platinum mines.

Safety, economics, skilled labour and international competition will be the

driving forces behind these developments.

5. SAFETY ASPECTS

Developing orepasses and reef raises at depths in excess of 3000 metres by

conventional handheld means, can today be replaced by raise or blind boring
methods.

Safety in our mining industry is paramount. To prevent injuries and deaths, we

must mechanise our development and tunnelling operations. Fewer people to do
the same work but less arduous work, will lead us to appropriate mechanisation
in the mining industry.

6. CONCLUSION

The mining industry’s requirement for safe, rapid and economical mine
development is met by the mechanical large and small diameter raise drilling,
blind boring and shaft boring methods described. The techniques provide an
economically sound solution for a large variety of different requirements,
especially in those projects executed in recent years involving deep, large
diameter holes. Raise drilling to depths exceeding 1 200 metres and at diameters
of up to 7 metres, is no longer uncommon. The methods continue to be
developed to cover an increasingly wide range of situations and conditions.

The capabilities and effectiveness of the raise drilling, blind boring and shaft
boring techniques have been proven in the execution of projects throughout the
world since 1968 and in a wide variety of rock types.

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“Using alternative scenarios, the future literally becomes a matter of choice, not
chance” - (Wolfgang Grukke)

7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author wishes to thank Murray & Roberts Cementation for allowing this
paper to be published.

8. REFERENCES

 Improved Technologies In Longhole Blast Hole Drilling, Applied To Drop

raising And Longhole Stoping As Well As The Application Of A Small
Twin Boom Mechanised Drillrig – P H Ferreira Published In Saimm
Journal 2002

 Fully mechanized sinking of deep shafts -

Dr Ing.. B. Schmucker and Dr Ing. C. Cetindis, THYSSEN
SCHACHTBAU GmbH, Germany

 Directional drilling in the mining industry -

E. Berger, THYSSEN SCHACHTBAU GmbH

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Table 1

COMAPRISON
FOR INCLINED
EXCAVATIONS
30-45 45-60 60-90
metres <30 90-200 200-400 400-700 700 >
<45 <60 <

TYPE INCLINED
Hand held

Drop raising


Alimak

Blind boring
52R


53R





33/34R


Other


65R

Raise boring
43R


53R





6 Series/RBM 6



7 Series/RBM 7



8 Series




9 Series



10 Series



12 Series




HG330




HG380

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