ABSTRACT
In sublevel stoping, ore is broken by drilling and blasting. Stope access is achieved by mining drilling and extraction drives, which can be accessed either transversally or longitudinally with respect to the orebody strike. The first stage is to create a slot between the vertical horizons defining the planned stope. This is achieved by enlarging a suitably located raise or longhole winze (LHW). The slot is created as an expansion void into which the remainder of the stope is formed by the sequential blasting of production holes. In most cases, the production holes are drilled in rings parallel to the orebody dip between the drilling drives. Mining proceeds through the sequential firing of production rings into the advancing void with the broken ore being recovered from a specific extraction horizon (Figure 2.1). The following section describes the stoping geometries required to achieve production from sublevel open stoping.
