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Minerals
Special Issues
Practical Solutions for Underground Mine Backfilling Systems
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Practical Solutions for Underground Mine Backfilling Systems

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Mineralogy and Biogeochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2020) | Viewed by 9057

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Tikou Belem

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Reserach Institute on Mining and Environment (RIME), University of Quebec (UQAT), Rouyn-Noranda, QC J9X 5E4, Canada
Interests: mining waste management; environmental geomechanics; mine backfills; rheology and transport of tailings and mine backfill; geomechanics of backfilled mine stopes; rock mechanics; ground control; physical, analytical, and numerical modeling of backfilled mine stopes
Dr. Abdelkabir Maqsoud

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Reserach Institute on Mining and Environment (RIME), University of Quebec (UQAT), Rouyn-Noranda, QC, Canada
Interests: mine site reclamation; hydrogeology; hydrochemistry; water quality; soil and water conservation; environmental geochemistry; water resources management; water analysis; environment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, most modern underground mines use backfill as an integral part of their mining methods. For precious and base metal mines, this backfill may be prepared from waste rock (crushed, screened or unscreened) and/or tailings (total or classified). Backfill is used in the mining industry for several purposes such as for ground stabilization/control, extracting ore from adjacent or under another stope, extending the life of the mine and lowering the cost of mine closure. There are three main types of filling techniques used in the mining industry; cemented hydraulic fill (CHF), cemented rock fill (CRF) and cemented paste backfill (CPB). Depending on the need for ground stabilization and solid waste management, there are also composite backfills that are a combination of tailings and crushed waste rock: the cemented aggregate fill (CAF) which is a mixture of CHF and aggregates, and the paste aggregate fill (PAF) which is a mixture of CPB and aggregates. However, the backfill can perform only if the mixture is designed correctly, transported properly and poured in the open stope according to the initial design strategy and cured as planned to achieve its required strength. This Special Issue aims to bring together practical solutions for underground mine backfilling systems, including, backfill mix design, physical and hydro-mechanical properties and behaviors, rheology and transport, underground placement and self-weight consolidation, long-term properties, stability analysis, experimental studies (lab and in situ), physical modeling, analytical solutions, constitutive modeling and numerical modeling of cemented mine backfills. We welcome original and state-of-the-art papers covering all these aspects.

Prof. Dr. Tikou Belem
Dr. Abdelkabir Maqsoud
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • pastefill, cemented tailings or paste backfill
  • cemented hydraulic fill
  • cemented rock fill
  • cemented aggregate or paste aggregate fill
  • underground mining
  • backfilling operations
  • mechanical properties of cemented mine backfill
  • behavior of backfilled mine stopes
  • stability analysis of exposed mine backfilled stopes
  • experimental works (lab and in situ) on backfill systems
  • physical, analytical and numerical modelling of backfilling systems
  • rheology, transport and mine backfill placement
  • effect of the temperature on the cemented mine backfill properties

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 10762 KiB  
Article
Experimental Tests on a Small-Scale Model of a Mine Stope to Study the Behavior of Waste Rock Barricades during Backfilling
by Mutaz Nujaim, Tikou Belem and Albert Giraud
Minerals 2020, 10(11), 941; https://doi.org/10.3390/min10110941 - 23 Oct 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2779
Abstract
This paper presents a reduced-scale physical model of a mine stope used to reproduce the underground stope backfilling practiced in some Canadian mines. The objective is to study the geomechanical behavior of the waste rock barricades in interaction with the mine backfill. The [...] Read more.
This paper presents a reduced-scale physical model of a mine stope used to reproduce the underground stope backfilling practiced in some Canadian mines. The objective is to study the geomechanical behavior of the waste rock barricades in interaction with the mine backfill. The instrumentations, along with visual observations and preliminary results, are presented. The main results demonstrated that: (i) the stability of the barricade depends on its physical properties (e.g., size, location, particles gradation and compaction) and the frictional behavior at the barricade/drift walls interface, and (ii) for two backfill formulations, cemented and uncemented, prepared with 70% of solid mass concentration, the volumetric strain due to self-weight consolidation of the backfilled room was higher for uncemented backfill (16%) than for the cemented one (4.5%). In addition, the results highlighted the importance of using shotcrete around the downstream face of the barricade, mostly at the top, to close the gaps and bind the barricade particles, which improves its stability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Practical Solutions for Underground Mine Backfilling Systems)
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16 pages, 3007 KiB  
Article
Industrial Experiment of Goaf Filling Using the Filling Materials Based on Hemihydrate Phosphogypsum
by Kuanwei Rong, Wentao Lan and Hongyan Li
Minerals 2020, 10(4), 324; https://doi.org/10.3390/min10040324 - 04 Apr 2020
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 2845
Abstract
The surface stockpiling of phosphogypsum not only occupies a large amount of land, but also seriously harms the surrounding ecological environment. The preparation of phosphogypsum into filling materials for mine filling can not only maintain the stability of surrounding rock, reduce surface subsidence, [...] Read more.
The surface stockpiling of phosphogypsum not only occupies a large amount of land, but also seriously harms the surrounding ecological environment. The preparation of phosphogypsum into filling materials for mine filling can not only maintain the stability of surrounding rock, reduce surface subsidence, enhance the recovery of resources, but it can also completely solve the problem of phosphogypsum stockpiling. Under certain activation conditions, hemihydrate phosphogypsum has a strong cementing property. It is an important way to reduce the filling cost by using hemihydrate phosphogypsum instead of cement as a cementing material. Through laboratory experiments, the filling materials based on hemihydrate phosphogypsum were developed. In order to further verify its feasibility in practical filling engineering, the industrial experiment of goaf filling was carried out in a phosphorus mine. The results show that the filling system was simple, reliable, and easy to operate and manage. The strength of the filling body basically reached the expected strength target of 2.5 MPa in 3 days. The consolidation speed of the filling materials was faster, which is beneficial to the safe underground construction of the mine. The results of the industrial experiment of goaf filling indicate that the filling materials based on hemihydrate phosphogypsum are suitable for mine filling engineering practice, the work amount is small, and the filling cost is low. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Practical Solutions for Underground Mine Backfilling Systems)
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19 pages, 16056 KiB  
Article
The Mechanical and Microstructural Properties of Composite Structures Made of a Cement-Tailing Backfill and Rock Core
by Yu-ye Tan, Kai Zhang, Xin Yu, Wei-dong Song, Jie Wang and Cheng-long Hai
Minerals 2020, 10(2), 159; https://doi.org/10.3390/min10020159 - 12 Feb 2020
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 2272
Abstract
In underground metal mines that use sublevel or stage open-stope and backfilling mining methods (SSOBMMs), there is a special structure around which both sides of the rock pillar are wrapped by backfill. As a permanent part of an underground mine, how much can [...] Read more.
In underground metal mines that use sublevel or stage open-stope and backfilling mining methods (SSOBMMs), there is a special structure around which both sides of the rock pillar are wrapped by backfill. As a permanent part of an underground mine, how much can backfill improve the rock pillar’s compressive strength? What is the difference in the mechanical properties between the special structure and the signal rock? To explore these questions, a composite structure made of a cement-tailing backfill (CTB) and rock core (RC) was designed. Uniaxial and triaxial compressive strength tests and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were used to research the mechanical properties, failure process, failure characteristics, and microstructure characteristics of the cement-tailing backfill and rock core (CTB-RC) specimens. It was found that the full stress–strain curve of the CTB-RC specimen under triaxial compressive strength (TCS) test had two times the stress increases reaching a lower peak deviator stress two times after the RC was destroyed. The CTB can reduce the destruction and slow down the deformation speed of the inner rock cor (IRC). It can also prevent rigid slip of the IRC after it is damaged and maintain the stability and integrity of the overall structure. The findings of this study can provide some basic knowledge on the mechanical properties of the CTB-RB and provide theoretical guidance for the optimization direction of the width of the rock pillar and the room in mines using SSOBMMs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Practical Solutions for Underground Mine Backfilling Systems)
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