The problem, and what changesAfter a blast, broken ore re-contaminates back areas that were already swept clean, and catching up before measuring day costs a blast. Conventional barricading needs mine poles and sticks, and a winch to advance it. The SMI Blasting Barricade is a suspended conveyor-belt wall, advanced daily with the face, that keeps the swept footwall clean to mine standard.
Underground application- Across the full panel width, 4 m from the face
- Conventional stoping
- Advanced daily with the face during in-stope roof bolting
- No mine poles or sticks required
- No winch needed to move the barricade forward
Development statusDesigned and costed — not yet trialled underground. The suspension rail, the belt and the Sondela Jack are specified and the method is worked out shift by shift. What it needs now is a panel.
Specifications- Suspension rail
- 3 m × 60 mm interlocking rail, suspended from the hanging wall across the panel width, 4 m from the face, on pigtail eyebolts drilled daily during in-stope roof bolting
- Barricade
- 1.5 m wide, 6 m long conveyor belt attached skin to skin across the full panel width
- Overlap
- Belts overlap by 200 mm from the up-dip side
- Sondela Jack
- Supplied with a 3-ton lever hoist to pull each conveyor up to the face after a blast, required only when the barricade is weighed down by broken ore
Snatch Mining Industries