On the Possibility of Solving the Problem of Increasing the Average Advance Rates of Exploratory Mine Workings to 250 m per Month

V. G. Lukyanov

(Presented by the scientific seminar of the Department of Geodesy, Mining, and Construction)

The existing average advance rates of horizontal exploratory mine workings for the Ministry of Geology of the RSFSR (1970—72 m per month, 1971—75.1 m, 1972—79 m, and in 1973—94.3, and in 1974—107 m) do not meet modern requirements.

With the ever greater technical equipping of driving operations and the use of high-performance machines and equipment, the driving of workings cannot be slow, since only in this case will savings be ensured in the driving of 1 m of working. Otherwise the cost will increase significantly.

High-speed driving of workings is part of the directed technical policy of a mining enterprise, serving a definite purpose. Therefore, in different cases the aim of high-speed driving of workings may be: exploration and acceleration of the commissioning of new mineral reserves; shortening the construction period of a mine; ensuring the preparation of production sections under conditions of concentration of work and enlargement of mines and ore mines; reducing the duration of maintenance of workings; and a number of others.

For many years already, workers in production and science have been trying to create real conditions for a substantial increase in the advance rates of exploratory mine workings. Much has already been done in this direction. Over ten years (1965—1974) the average advance rate of exploratory mine workings increased from 49 to 94.3 m/month. In 1973, 55.4% of the total volume of driving work was carried out by high-speed methods.

The economic efficiency of high-speed driving of workings is determined not only by the cost of 1 m of driving, but mainly by the achieved effect from accomplishing the set objective in each specific case. Thus, for example, an increase in reserves made possible as a result of high-speed driving of exploratory mine workings makes it possible to reduce depreciation charges on buildings and structures, since they will be distributed over larger reserves. In addition, at present one of the main criteria for evaluating high-speed drivages should also be the growth of labor productivity. When the rate is increased from 50 to 200 m/month, the cost of 1 m of working will decrease by 15—20%.

The existing equipment for conducting mine-driving work and the experience of high-speed driving of workings make it possible to develop average tech-

...technical (stably attained) rates of horizontal workings of 125–150 m/month and more, which contributes to a significant increase in the level of the average rate of driving mine workings by geological-exploration organizations of the RSFSR.

Examples are provided by high-speed drivages: in 1967 the drifting crew of F. Z. Lukyanov drove 341 m of horizontal workings in a month; the crew of L. N. Koltyshev, under difficult mining-engineering conditions, drove 421 m in a month; the crew headed by M. A. Oleksyuk drove 448 m in a month in 1967. In 1969 the crew of L. N. Koltyshev drove 611 m, and the crew of M. A. Oleksyuk 644 m in a month. In 1972, in the Karamken expedition of the SVTGU, the crew of K. E. Shefer drove 342 m in a month and achieved a record labor productivity for a drifter—30.5 meters per month. (The work was carried out according to a technological scheme developed by TPI staff.) In 1973, in the Dukat expedition, the crew of V. E. Shefer drove 500 m in a month and achieved a record labor productivity for a drifter—36 m per month. In 1974, in the Karamken expedition, the crew of N. S. Nesterenko drove 650 m in a month and achieved a record labor productivity for a drifter—42.5 m per month.

It should be noted that the high production indicators in the expeditions mentioned were achieved not through the use of some particularly new, highly productive, or technically advanced equipment. Of decisive importance here were a higher saturation of the face with drifting equipment and uninterrupted supply of empty cars, support materials, as well as the creation of conditions ensuring their full use. The high qualifications of the drifters; the inclusion in the crew of electrical fitters, a blasting worker, a mechanic, and material carriers; the introduction of a well-thought-out multi-cycle organization of work at the face; and the maximum overlapping in time of individual operations of the drifting cycle all contribute to the achievement of high drifting rates. If the experience of high-speed drivages is analyzed sufficiently well and introduced into the day-to-day practice of expeditions, this will make it possible to increase substantially the average rates of driving workings, especially in expeditions with large annual volumes of underground mining work.

Still greater possibilities may be realized through the introduction of the results of a number of research and experimental-design works. Naturally, to ensure further growth in the rate of driving underground workings and to reduce the labor intensity of operations, it is necessary to introduce improvements in the mechanization of all operations of the drifting cycle and to create machines for comprehensive mechanization. As is known, the principal processes in the drilling-and-blasting method of driving workings are drilling blast-holes, loading rock, and supporting the working.

To reduce the labor intensity and time expenditures for drilling the face, high-performance long-feed drilling machines of rotary action (for rocks up to \(f = 10\)) and rotary-percussive action (for drilling blast-holes in rocks with \(f > 10\)) should be introduced everywhere. For installing drilling machines on existing loading machines, more modern manipulators and mounting mechanisms should be created in the near future. This task must be posed to researchers and machine builders as one of the top priorities. Without good manipulators and mounting mechanisms it is impossible to achieve success even with the most advanced designs of drilling machines. It is necessary to improve and, where possible, introduce more widely the drilling carriages SBKNS-2, BUR-2, SBKN-3, BU-1, BUE-1. In hard rocks, the most effective application ...

hand-held PR-18LU and PR-30LU rock drills on pneumatic supports.

At the same time, serious research and experimental-design work must be carried out to create drilling-and-loading units. The successes already achieved in improving the designs of drilling and loading machines make it possible to solve this problem in the near future. It is advisable to create drilling-and-loading units both on the basis of continuous-action loading machines and on the basis of periodic-action machines that have been well mastered in practice. As experience is accumulated, drilling-and-loading machines should be improved so that they also perform the functions of machines for mechanizing the work of supporting workings.

To increase the efficiency of drilling-and-blasting operations, the depth of the blast holes should be increased to 2.0–2.2 m, the quality of explosives and electric detonators should be improved, mechanization should be provided for the preparation and execution of stemming of blast holes, as well as mechanized charging of blast holes with granular explosives, which makes it possible to reduce the time for charging and blasting.

Improvements should be introduced into the design of loading machines (increase the capacity of buckets, improve their configuration, reduce cycle time). These recommendations have already been well developed and have long awaited implementation. Serious attention should be paid to increasing the capacity of mine cars and improving the means for exchanging mine cars.

When driving workings of great length, it is advisable to use cars with a solid (non-tipping) body (UVG-1.0; UVG-1.4), which, in comparison with tipping cars, have better operating qualities. The use of solid-body cars makes it possible to shorten the length of trestles when using any tippler. It is necessary in the near future to select the best designs of devices for exchanging cars, as well as appliances that eliminate car exchange (suspended and bridge conveyors, bunker conveyors and bunker trains), the use of load-haul-dump machines and self-propelled conveyor transfer loaders, and to introduce them widely into practice.

The scraper method should find wide application in driving short adits and crosscuts 80–100 m long; it ensures a lower cost of muck removal than loading machines with pneumatic drives.

In parallel with the improvement of drilling, loading, and transport machines, possibilities should be sought for substantially reducing heavy manual labor in supporting workings; the experience of using various designs of support-setting machines should be generalized, the best of them should be widely introduced, and an attempt should be made to mount their principal components on the basis of existing loading and drilling-and-loading machines.

The wooden frame support most widespread in mineral-exploration practice is the least economical and therefore, wherever possible, should be replaced by cheaper types: rock-bolt support, shotcrete support, roof support, combined support (roof support with bolts, shotcrete support with bolts), as well as yielding arched support made of special sections.

For transporting rock along short straight adits (to the dump) and in crosscuts (into mine cars in the main working), it is advisable to use a KI inertia conveyor.

For accident-free operation of tunneling equipment, all types of its repair must be planned and a full reserve created. At a rate of driving workings of 400 m/month and more, it is organizationally and economically advisable to allocate the driving face as a separate ייִ

as an independent section with the necessary staff of engineering and technical personnel and service workers assigned to it. The wages of the service workers (electric-locomotive operators, mechanics, blasting specialists) must be calculated depending on the results of work at the heading they service. Their bonus system should be the same as that of the drifting crews.

It should be especially noted that, for the development of high-speed driving of workings, in addition to technical factors, a number of factors of an organizational nature are of the greatest importance, such as concentration of work, unification of workings, the correct choice of the method of high-speed driving of workings (the technological scheme), and especially the implementation of the principle of the material interest of the collective in achieving high technical and economic driving indicators.

The highest technical and economic indicators in the driving of exploratory workings can be ensured with maximum concentration of work and an increase in the rates of their driving. Therefore, in detailed exploration within a single geological subdivision (Glavvostokgeologiya or a territorial geological administration), it may be recommended to create specialized drifting brigades, sections, or parties, provided with personnel and mobile drifting equipment, for the successive driving of workings at various sites.

Much has already been done to resolve these questions, and therefore it is entirely possible to solve the problem of increasing the average rates of driving horizontal exploratory mine workings in the SVTGU system, and subsequently in Glavvostokgeologiya, to 250 m/month. This is confirmed by the experience of the brigade of N. S. Nesterenko, G. E. Khodyrev, and others over the course of three years.

For this purpose, it is necessary in the near future to carry out a serious generalization of the existing and already partly forgotten recommendations and to conduct targeted additional research and experimental-design work in the following four interrelated directions:

1. Improvement of drilling machines, manipulators, and blasting means.

2. Improvement of loading machines, transport devices, and means for exchanging mine cars.

3. The search for methods and machine designs that facilitate support of workings.

4. The search for a rational organization of labor when using new mechanization in the driving of workings, and the economic expediency of various technological schemes.

To solve these tasks, the system of the Ministry of Geology of the RSFSR has every possibility. There are scientific-research organizations that deal with these problems, plants manufacturing mining machinery and geological-exploration equipment, and qualified cadres of drift miners and engineering and technical personnel. To realize these possibilities, genuine coordination is necessary, making it possible to carry out this work in the shortest possible time with the greatest depth of study of the questions.

Therefore, it would be desirable, under the technical administration of the Ministry of Geology of the RSFSR or Glavvostokgeologiya, to create a special working coordination commission that would draw up a plan of the work necessary for solving the problem in the next 2–3 years and would exercise scientific and administrative leadership over this work. In addition to scientific-methodological questions, this commission should also resolve ques-

the financing of work on the problem and to evaluate the results obtained by the individual executors.

Such a commission must include the most highly qualified researchers and production workers. The work plan for solving the problem, drawn up by this commission, should take into account the active involvement of all organizations that may prove useful.