Experience in the adoption of Room & pillar mining method in the company OKD a.s., Czech Republic

Abstract

A significant quantity of available hard coal reserves in the area of Upper Silesian Basin in the Czech Republic occurs below the areas where surface mine subsidence is unacceptable or may be only minimal. An effort is made to mine these reserves by means of a new, mining method yet not approved for the joint-stock company OKD, a.s., namely a special modification of the continuous mining method Room & Pillar. The main objective is to eliminate the mentioned surface restraints by leaving stable pillars of coal to support the overlying strata.

For this reason, CSM Sever, Mining Plant 2 of OKD, a. s. realised a test run to verify the problems arising during mining at high depths, when implemented in an area where it has never been used before.

The article is based on published in Journal of Mining Science in the year 2015. In the article, the authors are concerned with the description of stress-strain monitoring of pillars left after test operation, including its continuous evaluation and evaluation of important operating conditions and activities.

The objective of monitoring is to gather sufficient information to assess whether the Room and Pillar extraction method can be used in areas where there is a risk of rockburst.