ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the development of optimal design guidelines of highwall mining and several case studies in Australia. This work started in the late 1990s and it covers more than 10 years research conducted by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The aim of the study was to provide general guidelines for highwall mining design for Australian mining conditions. The guidelines will help guide mining engineers/mine managers through the process of feasibility evaluation to final execution of highwall mining in their mining lease. A number of new tools for feasibility studies, including the Highwall Mining Index (HMI), the Auger Mining Index (AMI) and Percentage Extraction Estimate (PEE) are presented in this chapter.
The chapter covers the following aspects of highwall mining: (1) Feasibility study, including the geotechnical evaluation to determine the suitable for highwall mining; (2) Site investigation to gather data for layout design; (3) Span stability assessment to evaluate the stability of the entry spans; (4) Layout design to specify pillar size and whether barrier pillars are to be left between panels; (5) Design verification against past experience in Australia; (6) Mining operation and feed-back including monitoring of the stability of the highwall, spans and pillars during mining.
