Stope gully support and sidings geometry at all depths and at varying dip.

Abstract

The report indicates that best practices for gully layouts have been well recognized, but often poorly applied for many years. Recommendations provided in this report do not attempt to develop any new techniques for gully protection. The objective has been to try to provide a guide to the practices that are best adopted under various geotechnical conditions. All recommendations either are, or have been, successfully applied somewhere in the industry. Based on depth and stress environment, a broad-based recommendation for selection of gully geometry has been developed. Based on numerical modelling coupled to underground observation, optimum widths and spans for each mining layout used at different depths is provided as a non-prescriptive guideline. Recommendations for support are based on local observed ground conditions.