Ground Support Strategies at the Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture, Nevada

Weak rock masses of high grade Carlin-trend gold mineralization are encountered in the Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture underground mine. The sediments consist of very weak and altered limestone, mudstone, and carbon-rich clays. The rock mass ratings are described as very poor to poor (Bieniawski in Pr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Rock mechanics and rock engineering 2013-05, Vol.46 (3), p.437-454
Main Authors: Sandbak, L. A., Rai, A. R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arches
Civil Engineering
Design criteria
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Geophysics/Geodesy
Joint ventures
Limestone
Mineralization
Mining
Original Paper
Quality control
Ridges
Rock
Rockfill
Rocks
Sediments
Shotcrete
Undercuts
Weak rock
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Summary:Weak rock masses of high grade Carlin-trend gold mineralization are encountered in the Turquoise Ridge Joint Venture underground mine. The sediments consist of very weak and altered limestone, mudstone, and carbon-rich clays. The rock mass ratings are described as very poor to poor (Bieniawski in Proceedings of the symposium on exploration for rock engineering, Johannesburg, South Africa, pp. 97–106, 1976 ). The undercut and fill or boxes stoping mining methods are used because of the low dipping ore body geometry, complex geology, and weak rock mass. Design criteria are chosen to keep openings in weak rock as small as possible to prevent unraveling and to minimize supplementary support. Typical ground support for drifting includes the use of bolts, mesh, spiling, and shotcrete. Quality control of cemented rock fill (CRF) through sampling and aggregate sieve testing is necessary to insure high support strength. Specific support may include shotcrete arches with steel ring sets and CRF “arches” as a replacement of weak rock masses around long-term mine openings. Movement monitoring is utilized in problem areas and is needed to quantify and validate computer modeling.
ISSN:0723-2632
1434-453X
DOI:10.1007/s00603-012-0342-y