Desinging coal mine development galleries for room and pillar mining for continuous miner operations - Indian experience

Most of the about 300 underground coal mines in India operate with room and pillar mining method using drill and blast cyclic operations. Output per man shift from these mines has been stagnant since decades and a cause of concern. Introduction of continuous miner technology, though it works for 10% of its cycle time, is considered as an appropriate technology to boost productivity from already developed coal mining properties. This paper briefly describes Indian experience with using the continuous miner technology in a few of its mines. The paper also projects geo-technical conditions for the mines planned to use this technology. A case study is explained for geotechnical aspects of designing development galleries of a coal mine. The design procedure includes empirical rock mass characterisation, performance appraisal of the proposed roof support system, geotechnical instrumentation to characterise roof rock behaviour and numerical modelling for designing the operations.