About the innovations of the Iletsk deposit – in the “Mining Journal”

27.10.2021

The cover of the September issue of the specialized edition “Mining Journal” published views of the famous salt mines in Sol-Iletsk, where the development is carried out by the Russalt company. The journal is widely known in scientific circles and is a reference book for engineers and geologists in Russia and neighboring countries. “Mining Journal” was founded in 1825 at the Mining Cadet Corps, and now it is the basic publication of the Intergovernmental Council of the CIS countries on exploration, use and protection of mineral resources, as well as the official publication of the federal UMO “Applied Geology, Mining, Oil and Gas Business and Geodesy “.

The ninth issue of the journal is devoted to the development of mineral deposits. Thus, the Moscow Mining Institute NUST MISiS, with which Russalt has been cooperating for many years, conducted a study on the topic: “Automated system for integrated monitoring of the fastening of an inter-chamber pillar of large cross section and length at the Iletsk rock salt deposit”. The article presents the experience of using such systems and the results obtained in the course of pilot tests of indicators.

“The 200-year exploitation of the Iletsk rock salt deposit was disordered. In addition to a number of open developments, several mines were laid (Elizavetinskaya, Mariinskaya), which did not last long and were flooded.

– is described in the article.

“The reason for the flooding of these mines, as well as mine No. 1, was that they were all laid in the upper fractured and karst part of the salt stock. At present, a chamber mining system is used at mine No. 2, leaving strip pillars under the water-protective layer from the flooded mine No. 1 with a thickness of 130 m. Previously, the excavation of salt in the upper floor – 132 … floor – 185 … -215 m – using combine technology.

…According to the new technical project for the development of the Iletsk rock salt deposit on the floor -240 … -270 m, production is designed for 15 years (2018-2032) with a mine productivity of up to 1700 thousand tons / year … For the period from 2006 to the present the subsidence of the earth’s surface in different parts of the profile lines occurred relatively evenly at a rate of 4-15 mm/year. Based on the nature of the subsidence of the earth’s surface over the past 10 years, it is possible to predict its further uniform subsidence without any significant deformations in the near future.

For fixing the MCC 9/18, a specialized system was developed, which consists of an anchor bolt, a high-strength MINEX surface mesh and self-fixing anchors.”

The study notes that observations were made not only of the stress-strain state of the anchor fastening system, but also studies of the depth of deformation of the edge zone of the inter-chamber pillar (MCC) were organized. The authors of the article came to the conclusion that the installed system fulfills its main functions: load distribution by providing a connection between the anchors and holding small pieces of rock salt between the anchors after falling out. In addition, integrated monitoring made it possible to visually record the processes of deformation and distribution of the load on the pillar attachment.

The linear dependencies of the growth of loads and the study of the depth of deformation of the marginal zone of the MCC, revealed during the analysis of the data, made it possible to predict and carry out safe mining operations at the mine.

In the welcoming speech of the September issue of the Mining Journal, V.A. Eremenko, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Research Center of the Mining Institute, noted that in conditions when the need for resources increases and the pressure of the anthroposphere increases, the resolution of this systemic contradiction is possible with the development of geotechnologies used to develop subsoil resources:

– Over the past decades, the development systems, for example, of ore deposits, which were created by our fathers and grandfathers, have been changing both in Russia and abroad. Currently, they are changing and improving mainly as the parameters of the structural elements of traditional mining systems, as new high-performance and dimensional equipment is being introduced to provide various mining processes.