ABSTRACT
The visual inspections of some chambers or stopes mentioned in section 3 of this paper show good stability conditions from the static point of view. The critical parameters in this problem are the strength and quality of the rocks, in-situ and induced stresses in the environment of the excavation, and damage on the stope wall induced by open pit blasting. There are a few empirical rules based on rock-mass classifications, which will be useful in verifying the stable dimensions of the stopes and may be used to analyse this problem. Numerical analysis of stope and mining sequences using a three-dimensional analysis for a number of orebody shapes could give indication of possible problems and the estimates of support requirements.
