Underground Mining- An Efficient Method

The Mining process follows various phases, from the initial process of thorough study the site, decide the process to apply for extracting the ore, digging out the ore, and then make it ready for export to the market. 

Although, there are 2 methods used for the mining purposes, i.e Underground and Surface mining. But surface mining is restricted for depths above 200 feet, and become inefficient above it. Here, the use of underground mining becomes more useful in the cases, of depth about 750 meters into the earth and even more deep, if required. 

Mining in India has taken so many folds of changes from past centuries. From the

time when people with shovels manually make sure that the underground air was not toxic, modern mines contain proper ventilation, water drainage systems, high-tech communication networks and increasingly computerized machines.

A typical underground mine possess few of the necessary components for its smooth working and satisfactory results. 

 

•      Escape routes

• Proper ventilation shafts to clear toxic fumes from drilling and blasting

• access shafts to lower workers and equipment

• ore-transport tunnels;

• recovery shafts for carrying excavated ore to the surface; and

• Smooth communication systems to send information back and forth between the surface and the depths

No two mines are the same actually, and this can differ the technology applications and basic decisions about design and mining method based on factors like type of ore being mined, composition of surrounding rock, shape and orientation of the ore deposit, geologic features persist underground, and simple economics there.

There exist 2 kinds of underground mines, namely-

• Soft-Rock Underground Mining (longwall and room and pillar)

• Hard-Rock Underground Mining

The minerals like coal, salt, uranium ad phosphate live in relatively soft sedimentary rock, while gold, diamond, copper, silver, nickel and zinc deposits persists in igneous or metamorphic rock, which is relatively hard. But, no matter which type of mine is there, basic techniques are there which are commonly followed.