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Underground Mining with Backfills

Article in Soils and Rocks · May 2007

DOI: 10.28927/SR.302093

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 Underground Mining with Backfills
R. Rankine, M. Pacheco, N. Sivakugan
The mining industry worldwide has typically not conducted the development of mines with the overall design objective of a safe,
environmentally sound and aesthetically satisfactory post-operational mine-site. Mine waste has typically not been engineered to
any large degree but has rather been disposed of in the easiest or most cost effective manner with little (if any) regards for the
social and/or environmental consequences. The backfilling of mines is an integral part of the mining process and requires the
same level of attention generally afforded to the more commonly recognised “profit-producing” parts of the operation. The
change in perception of backfilling from an additional cost to mining operations to one of a pre-profit activity will aid the required
advancement in technology required for backfills. Backfilling is required for the continuance and efficiency of mining
operations. Additional benefits include: improved regional and local rock stability through the support provided by the backfill,
reduced costs of building significant tailings disposal structures on the surface, and the reduced environmental impacts by the
underground containment of waste material. All these focus the operation towards the overall design objective of a safe,
environmentally sound and aesthetically satisfactory post-operational mine-site. With these objectives in mind, the purpose of
this paper is to highlight the basic geotechnical issues regarding undergroung mining with backfills, following new developments
by the Australian mining industry.
Key words: paste fill, stope, underground mining.

1. Introduction the world. The main mineral raw materials are gold, dia-
monds, platinum, chromium, vanadium, manganese, iron
Discovery of gold in Minas Gerais in 1693 made
ore and coal. These goods make up about 60% of the entire
Brazil the leading gold producer then. A brief historical
export. With platinum, manganese, vanadium and chro-
overview of the mining activities in Brazil was given by
mium, South Africa is number one globally, as far as min-
Machado & Figueiroa (2001). The mining sector, with
eral resources as well as the actual mining and export
more than 1400 active mining companies operating in the
volumes are concerned. The mining industry in Canada is
country, has an important role to play in the overall econ-
strong also. Canada has over 200 producing metal, non-
omy of Brazil. Brazil is the world’s leading producer of iron
metal and coal mines over 3,000 stone quarries and gravel
ore and Latin America’s leading producer of manganese,
pits. Diamonds, oil sands and uranium are the main export
aluminium, ferroalloys, tin, gold and steel. The major min-
commodities, with Canada producing over one-third of the
erals recovered from the Brazilian mines include bauxite,
worlds global output of Uranium. Canada also has signifi-
gold, iron ore, manganese, nickel, phosphates, platinum, tin
cant mineral deposits of coal, iron ore, nickel, gold and cop-
and uranium. The states of Minas Gerais (40%), Pará
per. These mines and their economic output accounts for
(20%), São Paulo (10%), Bahia (8%) and Goiás (6%) repre-
about four percent of Canadian GDP. The USA have abun-
sent 84% of the mining Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in
dant natural resources and are the world’s leading producer
the country. In 2000, the mineral-based industries produced
of beryllium, soda ash, molybdenum, phosphate rock and
US$50.5 billion, contributing to 8.5% of GDP. In 2004,
salt. California is the largest producer of non-fuel minerals
Brazil opened Sossego mine, it is the largest and a world-
of any US state, producing approximately 10% of the na-
class copper mine, in the state of Pará, owned and operated
tional mineral product. The concentration of the mining op-
by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD).
erations located along the western seaboard in Fig. 1 pays
Australia, by any standards, is extremely well en-
testament to the contribution of the Californian mineral re-
dowed with most minerals even though it has barely
serves.
scratched the surface of its mineral resources. The nation
holds the world’s largest known economic resources of Since the introduction of favorable mining laws in
bauxite, lead, zinc, silver, uranium, industrial diamonds Chile in the late 1970’s, it has become a very attractive min-
and mineral sands. The need to ensure the longevity of the erals target for a number of large national and international
nation’s economic wealth through the proper and efficient mining companies including BHP Billiton, Anglo Ameri-
mining operation of mines is then obvious. can, Rio Tinto, Placer Dome, Phelps Dodge, Falconbridge,
South Africa is also particularly rich in mineral re- Barrick Gold, Newmont etc. Chile is the undisputed capital
sources and is one of the leading raw material exporters in of mining in Latin America and is the world’s largest cop-

R. Rankine, Ph.D., Development Engineer, Cairns City Council, Cairns City, Australia. e-mail: [email protected].
M. Pacheco, Marcus Pacheco, Ph.D., Professor of Civil Engineering, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. e-mail: [email protected].
N. Sivakugan, Nagaratnam Sivakugan, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Head, Civil and Environmental Engineering, James Cook University, Towsville, Australia. e-mail:
[email protected]
Submitted on May 6, 2006; Final Acceptance on October 24, 2006; Discussion open until December 30, 2007.

Soils and Rocks, São Paulo, 30(2): 93-101, May-August, 2007. 93

 Rankine et al.

Figure 1 - World-wide mining and exploration activities (Infomining Inc., 2006).

per producer (approximately 20%) as well as exporting sible for the stability of the colliery likening them to “moles
gold, silver, molybdenum, zinc, manganese and iron ore. being asked about the habits of birds”. Since then the dis-
Escondida is the world’s largest copper mine and contrib- posal of mine waste has had a great deal more attention paid
utes 8% of the world’s copper output alone! It is nestled in to the design and placement of tailings, resulting in a highly
the cuprous porphyry ore bodies that occur prolifically in engineered “designer waste” (Jones 2000).
the high altitudes and harsh environments of the Andean Mining activities generally involve several social and
Cordillera. economical issues. While millions of tons of soil and rock
Experience gained from the failures of the Ok Tedi are removed from the earth’s crust, to extract a very small
Mine (Papua New Guinea) (Kirsch 1996, 2002; Harper and fraction of useful minerals, the rest of the waste material
Ravi Rajan 2002) and Marcopper Mine (Phillipines) needs to be disposed of. There are strict environmental
(UNEP 1996, PDTS 2001), underlines the need to dispose guidelines stipulating that the mine site is left in good con-
of mine waste in a safe, stable and economically attractive dition on the completion of the mining operation, with all
manner. This has highlighted the requirement to be able to the underground voids backfilled, all toxic material dis-
accurately predict backfill behaviour and performance. The posed in an environmentally friendly manner, the flora and
empirical relationships and operator experience used in fauna in the region be protected etc. Mines are required to
yesteryear needs to be replaced by the specific engineering allocate significant funds to carry out the mine site rehabili-
of mine waste. Canada, United States, South Africa, China, tation program, in bringing back the site to a condition sim-
Australia, Brazil and Chile are some of the countries that ilar to what was there before.
are at the forefront of mining and exploration activities, as
Upon extraction of minerals from the ore, there is
shown in Fig. 1. In this paper, a brief description of the
very large amount of crushed rock, in the form of tailings
main types of backfill is presented, with emphasis on hy-
that has to be disposed of. The most sensible thing to do is
draulic fills and paste fills, the most popular backfills used
to send them back to where they came from. i.e., to backfill
world-wide.
the underground voids created in the mining process, using
2. Environmental and Safety Issues these tailings. With the specific gravity of the parent rock in
the order of 2.8-4.0 and the dry unit weight of the backfill of
3
The report of the Tribunal (Davies 1967) appointed to about 15-20 kN/m , only about little more than 50% can be
inquire into the Disaster at Aberfan (Wales) on October placed back into the underground voids. The rest of the tail-
st
21 , 1966 detailed the events leading up to and causes of the ings have to be sent to the tailings dams or disposed on the
massive tailings slip from the Merthyr Vale Colliery onto surface. Backfills are placed in stopes, which comprise the
the small mining village of Aberafan, killing 144 people, excavated volumetric unit holding approximately the shape
116 of whom were school children. The Tribunal was of a rectangular prism, which is subsequently backfilled
scathing in its appraisal of the competency of those respon- with some type of waste material. Therefore, any waste ma-

94 Soils and Rocks, São Paulo, 30(2): 93-101, May-August, 2007.

 Underground Mining with Backfills

terials that are placed into the underground voids (stopes) in binding agents mixed in with the filling material. The me-
the mine are referred to as backfills or minefills. A sche- chanical behavior and performance of uncemented back-
matic diagram of a mine stope with access drains is shown fills can thus be studied using soil mechanics theories.
in Fig. 2. While serving as an effective means for the tail- Hydraulic fills are the most common uncemented backfills
ings disposal, the backfilling process improves the stability used world-wide. These are sandy silts or silty sands, with
of the surroundings, facilitating the mining activities in- no clay fraction, classified in the Unified Soil Classification
cluding excavation for ore removal in the nearby areas. Not System (USCS) as ML or SM. The fine fraction is removed
taking adequate care in the tailing disposal in the under- by a process known as desliming. Rock fills (RF) are pro-
ground mine stopes can result in catastrophic accidents that duced by crushing rock to grain sizes of 25- 300 mm. Mate-
can include fatalities. Mine accidents are reported world- rials finer than 25 mm that has been rejected from RF
wide, and often these are due to the breach of barricades production is described as Aggregate Fill (AF).
that prevent fills from flowing into the drives. Cemented backfills incorporate the use of a small
amount of binder material, normally Portland cement, or a
3. Main Types of Mine Backfills blend of Portland cement with other pozzolans such as
In mining engineering, backfill refers to any waste fly-ash, gypsum or blast furnace slag to the parent backfill
material that is placed into the voids mined underground material to produce a binding agent for the fill. Cement Hy-
(stopes) for the purposes of either disposal or to perform draulic Fill (CHF) is the most common type of cemented
some engineering function. Backfills that are used only to backfill. CHF is produced by the addition of 3-5% cement
fill the voids created by mining need only to have sufficient to deslimed mill tailings, which have the grain size distribu-
strength to prevent any form of remobilisation through liq- tion very similar to those of hydraulic fills. CHF is the most
uefaction, typically caused by dynamic loading. However, similar form of backfill to paste fill with the most signifi-
where backfills are used as engineering materials, suffi- cant difference being the larger grain size distribution of
cient strength is required to ensure stability during expo- CHF when compared to paste fill. Typically in CHF all tail-
sure during ore pillar mining in tall vertical faces or ings particles are less than 420 μm and have been deslimed
undercuts, particularly in the case of paste fills or other ce- (Bloss 1992), whereas paste fill utilizes the very fine frac-
mented fills. In addition to the excavated rock, other forms
of backfill are commonly used such as surface placement of
hydraulic fill in a tailings dam or discharge of paste fill
from a reticulation pipe underground, as shown in Fig. 3.
Backfills can be divided into two broad categories,
cemented or uncemented. Cemented backfills generally in-
clude a small dosage of pozzolanic binder such as cement,
fly ash etc. to improve the strength. This includes cemented
rock fills (CRF), cemented aggregate fills (CAF), cemented
hydraulic fills (CHF) and paste fills (PF). The uncemented
aggregate fills can be in the form of hydraulic fills (HF),
rock fills (RF), sand fills (SF) and aggregate fills (AF).
Uncemented backfills, as the name suggests, do not use any

Figure 3 - Various forms of backfill: (a) surface placement of hy-

Figure 2 - Schematic diagram of a mine stope with access drains: draulic fill in a tailings dam; (b) discharge of paste fill from a retic-
(a) front view of a stope; (b) possible drain layouts in plan view. ulation pipe underground.

Soils and Rocks, São Paulo, 30(2): 93-101, May-August, 2007. 95

 Rankine et al.

tion of the tailings that provide large specific surface areas

and absorb the excess water within the slurry. The grain
size distribution of paste fills is significantly finer than
CHF and contains a minimum of 15% of particles smaller
than 20 μm.
Cemented rock fills (CRF) are prepared by transport-
ing the rock fills to the stope and mixing with cemented hy-
draulic fills at the ratios of 1:1 to 3:1 (RF:CHF), by weight.
The properties of CRFs vary significantly within the stope
as the two fills segregate during placement. The ratio of
RF:CHF at any location is the dominant factor of the fills
behavior at that point (Bloss 1992). As with CRF, AF are
mixed with CHF at a ratio of approximately 1:3 AF:CHF by Figure 4 - Grain size distribution curves for various hydraulic fills
weight. The resulting fill is termed Cemented Aggregate from Australian mines, Rankine et al. (2006) and Sivakugan et al.
Fill (CAF). CAF typically suffer from segregation during (2005).
placement, and thus properties at any location within a
stope are again dependent on the ratio of AF:CHF at that
point as in the case of CRF (Bloss 1992).
Paste fill is the newest form of mining backfill. It is
produced from the full mill tailings and has a much finer
grain size distribution than any other form of backfill.
Typically it has a minimum of 15% of the material smaller
than 20 μm, and the maximum grain size in paste fill is be-
tween 350-400 μm. Hydraulic fills and paste fills, the two
most popular backfills used world-wide, are discussed in
detail below.
4. Hydraulic Fills
Hydraulic fills are granular soils with no clay frac-
tion. The fines are removed through the desliming process
using hydrocyclones. Rankine et al. (2006) and Sivakugan
et al. (2005) summarised the geotechnical characteristics of
the Australian hydraulic fills, based on an extensive labora- Figure 5 - Scanning electron micrograph of a hydraulic fill.
tory testing program carried out at James Cook University
to study more than 25 different hydraulic fills representing retains the settled fill and allows the water to drain through.
all major mines in Australia. It was shown that the grain Filling of the stope does not always occur continuously. For
size distributions for all the fills fall into a narrow band, as example, depending on the site constraints, the filling
shown in Fig. 4. The specific gravity of the grains can be in schedule can be 12 h fill and 12 h rest, continued till the
the range of 2.8-4.5 due to the presence of heavy metals. stope is filled. The drainage starts as soon as the filling
Since the tailings are fresh from the grinding process, the commences, and continues for weeks, well after the filling
grains are often very sharp and angular, giving higher fric- ends. At the time when the drainage seems to have finished,
tion angles than those for natural soils. A scanning electron the hydraulic fills still have a residual water content, typi-
micrograph of a hydraulic fill sample is shown in Fig. 5, cally about 20-30%, and this residual water remains within
where the angularities of the grains can be seen. All hydrau- the fill indefinitely.
lic fills, settling only under self-weight, manage to settle to
rather high relative densities of 50-80% and porosities of 4.1. Drainage issues
37-49%, and to dry density (tf/m3 or gf/cm3) of 0.57 times
3
the specific gravity or dry unit weight (kN/m ) of 5.7 times Drainage is the prime consideration in the design of
the specific gravity, what is equivalent to dry unit weights hydraulic fill system for a stope. In the absence of good
3
in the range of 12 to 25 kN/m . drainage, pore water pressure builds up and reduces the ef-
The hydraulic fills are initially transported to the fective stresses within the stope, causing liquefaction,
stope in the form of slurry, through pipe lines and bore which is one of the prime causes of the barricade failures of
holes, at solid contents of 65-75%, corresponding to hydraulic fill stopes. Any breach of barricades takes place
33-54% water contents. The drives are blocked by a barri- when the hydraulic fill is wet and therefore, every attempt
cade wall, made of special porous concrete bricks, which should be taken to get the water out as quickly as possible.

96 Soils and Rocks, São Paulo, 30(2): 93-101, May-August, 2007.

 Underground Mining with Backfills

Several trials are generally carried out to arrive at a

suitable grain size distribution that will give good drainage
characteristics. Herget & de Korompay (1978) suggested
the value of 100 mm/h as the minimum hydraulic conduc-
tivity required for the hydraulic fill in the mine to perform
satisfactorily. Grice (1998) suggested that ensuring D10
value greater than 10 μm will ensure adequate drainage
throughout the fill. Nevertheless, more than 25 different
hydraulic fills, tested at James Cook University laboratory
had hydraulic conductivity values in the range of
1-40 mm/h and all these stopes performed satisfactorily.
All these fills had D10 values in the order of 10-40 μm, satis-
fying Grice (1998) recommendation. This shows that
Herget & de Korompay’s threshold value of 100 mm/h is
too conservative. Rankine et al. (2004) measured the hy-
draulic conductivity of the barricade bricks using a unique
permeameter, under one-dimensional flow conditions as in
the barricade wall in the mine. The results showed that the
hydraulic conductivity of the special porous brick is 2-3 or-
ders of magnitude greater than that of the hydraulic fills.
This enables the fill-barricade boundary to be modelled as
free-draining in numerical modelling. The laboratory test
procedures and the apparatuses are discussed by Sivakugan
et al. (2006a).
Isaacs & Carter (1983) developed the first computer
model, for two-dimensional stopes, to simulate the hydrau-
lic filling schedule and to monitor the heights of water and Figure 6 - Flow nets in 30 m wide stopes with one and three
tailings within the stope, the pore water pressures, and the drains: (a) single drain; (b) multiple drains.
discharge through various drains. Rankine et al. (2003) ex-
tended these to three dimensions and showed that, for the til the mid 1990’s with the construction and successful op-
usual stope sizes, two dimension models can simulate satis- eration of several paste backfill systems in Canada and
factorily the flow in the central portion of the stope. The Cannington Mine in Australia in the late 1990’s.
flow nets of stopes with single and multiple sub-level The definition of “paste backfill” has been one of
drains, as obtained by numerical analyses, are shown in great debate since its inception in the late 1980’s. Pri-
Fig. 6. It can be seen in Fig. 6 b that most of the flow takes marily because a number of different industries were in-
place through the bottom drain, and this has been observed volved in the evolution of paste and the definition which is
in the mines. Therefore, for practical purposes, the upper adopted by each industry reflects their respective needs
level drains can be neglected, and the stope can be analysed and experiences. In an attempt to unify the various defini-
with only one drain at the bottom. Sivakugan et al. (2006b) tions of “paste”, Fig. 7 was devised and is formally recog-
proposed a simpler model with closed form solutions, nised by a number of industry experts and academics
based on the method of fragments (Harr, 1962), to estimate (Jewell et al. 2002). It should be noted that the boundaries
the maximum pore water pressure and discharge in a two-
dimensional stope with a single drain at the bottom. Re-
search is currently underway to extend this closed form so-
lution to 3-dimensions.

5. Paste Fills
Paste fill falls into the broad category of thickened
tailings, a concept which was introduced by Dr. Eli
Robinsky in the mid 1970’s while describing surface dis-
posal of concentrated tailings using pipeline reticulation
(Robinsky 1975, 1978). However the first true “paste”
backfill was produced at the Bad Grund Mine in Germany
in 1979. Acceptance of paste backfill, as a viable alterna- Figure 7 - Concept of thickened tailings continuum (Jewell et al.,
tive to hydraulic slurry and rock fill, did not truly occur un- 2002).

Soils and Rocks, São Paulo, 30(2): 93-101, May-August, 2007. 97

 Rankine et al.

between the mediums are not defined at specific levels or

concentrations. Rather they depend on a number of physi-
cal and material characteristics of the tailings materials.
The shaded area represents the backfills that are com-
monly referred to as “thickened tailings”. Thickened tail-
ings are a special case of slurry tailings and tend to show
many similar characteristics to paste. The similarity of
thickened tailings and paste, while moving, is the basis for
thickened tailings being commonly confused with or
wrongly identified as paste. The primary difference be-
tween thickened tailings and paste is that thickened tail-
ings will segregate or settle out once a minimum velocity
is reached. A more detailed description of the characteris- Figure 8 - Rheological curves for particulate fluids.
tics which define the difference between slurry, thickened
tailings and paste is given in Table 1. When referring to Newtonian flow characteristics have no “yield stress” to be
Fig. 7 “thickened tailings” is typically referring to the overcome to initiate movement and have a constant viscos-
shaded portion of the graph. ity. Viscosity is defined as the rate of rise of shear stress
Paste fill rheology closely conforms to the Bingham with the increase in shear rate. Water is an example of a
plastic flow model (Rankine 2004), which is strongly non- Newtonian fluid. Fluids exhibiting non-Newtonian charac-
Newtonian in its behaviour. Fig. 8 shows a number of fluid teristics are the Power Law (pseudo plastic and dilatant)
models and plots the change in shear stress that is experi- flow and Bingham plastic flow regimes. Pseudo-plastic flu-
enced as a function of the shear rate. Fluids which exhibit ids are characterised by the reduction of the viscosity with

Table 1 - Material properties for thickened tailings continuum (Jones 2000).

Material property Slurry Thickened tailings Paste

Particle size Coarse fraction only. No parti- Some fines included Additional / most fines (typi-
cles less than 20 μm. Segrega- (typically < 15%), Fines content cally 15%(min) > 20 μm
tion during transportation and tends to modify behaviour from
or placement is dependent only slurry - i.e. rheological characteris-
on the coarse fraction tics more similar to paste, however
does segregate when bought to rest.
Segregation during transportation
and or placement is dependent only
on the coarse fraction
Pulp density 60%-72% 70%-78% 78%-82%
Flow regimes/ line Critical flow velocity. To main- Critical flow velocity. To maintain No critical pipeline flow veloc-
velocities tain flow must have turbulent flow must have turbulent flow ity. i.e. no settling in pipe. Lam-
flow (v > 2 m/s). If v < 2 m/s (v > 2 m/s). If v < 2 m/s partial set- inar/ plug flow
settling occurs. Newtonian flow tling occurs. Newtonian flow
Yield stress No minimum yield stress No minimum yield stress Minimum yield stress
Preparation Cyclone Cyclone end elutriation Filter/ centrifuge
Segregation in stope Yes/high Slight/partial None
Drainage from stope Yes Partial/limited None/insignificant
Final density Low Medium/high High
Supernatant water High Some None
Post placement shrinkage High Insignificant Insignificant
Rehabilitation Delayed Immediate Immediate
Permeability Medium/low Low Very low
Application Above ground Above ground Above ground and underground
Water consumption High Medium Low
Reagent recovery Low Medium High

98 Soils and Rocks, São Paulo, 30(2): 93-101, May-August, 2007.

 Underground Mining with Backfills

an increased shear rate (shear thinning), whereas the vis- 6.2. Self supporting ability of the fill mass when
cosity for dilatant fluids increases with an increased shear exposed
rate (shear thickening).
The backfill must have sufficient strength to prevent
Bingham plastics exhibit a significant shear stress collapse when exposed during the mining sequence, as the
that must be overcome before movement (shearing) com- surrounding ore is sequentially removed and the backfill is
mences. This value of shear stress is commonly referred to unsupported. Static failure is deemed to have occurred
as “yield stress”. Once shearing has commenced, the vis- when the principal applied stress is greater than the uncon-
cosity remains approximately linear. The key determinant fined compressive strength of the fill mix. This may be con-
of the rheological properties of paste fill is the yield stress servative for the confined fills within the center of the
and can be shown to be exponentially proportional to the stope, but provides a reasonable approximation to the fill on
solids density of the mix before the effect of cement is real- the face of the exposure.
ized. To evaluate the risk associated with either form of
Pullum (2003) suggests that there are effectively two failures, it is necessary to develop a thorough understand-
separate forms of paste: homogeneous and heterogeneous ing of the stress developments within the minefills. A
paste. The heterogeneous pastes satisfy the minimum rule closed form solution for estimating the average vertical
of thumb of 15% finer than 20 μm. However, during trans- normal stress ant any depth within a narrow stope contain-
port, Pullum (2003) has shown stratification of paste during ing a cohesionless soil was developed originally by Mars-
pipe flow with all paste fills with a maximum grain size of ton (1930), and later extended by Terzaghi (1943) to
over 20 μm. Paste fills with a maximum grain size of under include cohesive soils. The general equation to determine
20 μm tend to form homogenous paste fills during both the average vertical normal stress (σv) at a depth of h within
transportation and deposition. a fill contained in a narrow stope is:
(γB − 2c) ⎡ ⎛ 2Kh tan δ ⎞⎟ ⎤
6. Stress Developement in Backfilled Stopes σv = ⎢1− exp⎜ , (1)
2K tan δ ⎣ ⎝ B ⎠ ⎥⎦
The most important issues regarding the stability of
backfilled stopes are the failure of the barricade walls and B in Equ. (1) is the stope width, γ is the unit weight of the
the self supporting ability of the fill mass when exposed. fill, c is the cohesion at the fill-wall interface, δ is the fric-
tion angle between the fill and the wall, and K is the ratio of
6.1. Failure of the barricade walls horizontal to vertical normal stress. The corresponding hor-
Catastrophic failure of a barricade results in the in- izontal normal stress is given by:
rush of material into the mine workings, which is com- σ h = Kσ v . (2)
monly referred to by miners as a “mud rush” (i.e. liquefac-
tion). Also, the barricade can fail under static loading, when Marston (1930) assumed K is the same as Rankine’s
the paste lateral stress overcomes the barricade yielding active earth pressure coefficient, and δ ranging from 0.33 to
strength. Prior to the curing of the cement, backfill materi- 0.67 times φ, where φ is the friction angle of the fill.
als have very little self supporting ability. Subsequently, Terazghi assumed δ = φ, and K = 1/(1+2tan2φ), which gives
during the backfilling process, an isotropic stress condition a slightly higher value for K than the coefficient of earth
equal to the product of the fill’s unit weight and gravity de- pressure at rest K0. Aubertin et al. (2003) suggested a wide
velops. As the cement cures, fibrous bonds form between range of values for K, from the active to passive earth pres-
the fill particles and the shear strength of the fill increases. sure coefficients. Intuitively, neglecting the yielding of the
The ability of the fill to sustain and transfer loads through rock walls, the coefficient of earth pressure at rest seems
shear stress increases until such time as the cemented fill is more plausible. Accordingly, Pirapakaran & Sivakugan
strong enough to support the self weight and any additional (2006) compared the above values with numerical model
loads placed on top of the fill. At this point in time the verti- predictions, and suggested that δ = 0.67φ and K = K0 in the
cal shear stresses acting in the stope walls reach the maxi- above equations would match numerical predictions and
mum value, as a result of arching. Accordingly, the vertical measured results better. They also extended the above
normal stresses at a point within the hydraulic fill stope can equations for rectangular and circular stopes, containing
be substantially less than what is estimated as the product of cohesionless fills.
the depth and unit weight. Therefore, a significant fraction Numerical models appear to be quite effective in pre-
of the fill weight is carried by the rock walls in the form of dicting the stress developments within the minefills. The
shear stresses. Similarly, arching causes the lateral stress at variation of the vertical normal stress with depth, along the
the barricade to reach its maximum value when the paste vertical centre line, as obtained from numerical modeling,
cures. To ensure structural integrity of the barricade, its ul- for a 30 m wide very long stope and a 30 m diameter circu-
timate strength must be greater than the applied lateral earth lar stope of 150 m height is shown in Fig. 9. Pirapakaran &
pressures at all times. Sivakugan (2006) compared the vertical stress values

Soils and Rocks, São Paulo, 30(2): 93-101, May-August, 2007. 99

 Rankine et al.

PhD Dissertation, The University of Queensland, Aus-

tralia, 363 p.
Davies, H.E. (1967) Report of the tribunal appointed to in-
quire into the disaster at Aberfan on October 21st, 1966.
London H.M.S.O., 151 p.
Grice, A.G. (1998) Underground mining with backfill.
nd
Proc. 2 Annual Summit - Mine Tailings Disposal Sys-
tems, Brisbane, Australia, pp. 234-239.
Harper, K & Ravi Rajan, S. (2002) International environ-
mental Justice: Building the natural assets of the
world’s poor. International Conference on Natural As-
sets, Tagaytay City, Philippines, pp. 1-31.
Figure 9 - Variation of vertical normal stresses along the centre
line of narrow, circular and square stopes (Pirapakaran & Siva- Harr, M.E. (1962) Ground Water and Seepage, McGraw-
kugan, 2006). Hill, Inc, New York, 315 p.
Herget, G. & de Korompay, V. (1978) In situ drainage
properties of hydraulic backfills. Proc. Mining with
within a square and circular stope of same dimensions and
Backfills, Research and Innovations, CIM Special
found them to be very close. They used numerical, analyti-
v. 19, pp. 117-123.
cal and laboratory model tests to demonstrate this point.
Infomine Inc., map.infomine, http://www.infomine.com/
7. Summary and Conclusions maps/, (May 11, 2006).
Isaacs, L.T. & Carter, J.P. (1983) Theoretical study of pore
The use of backfills in underground mining has be-
water pressures developed in hydraulic fill in mine
come a more critical issue in the modern era of the “re-
stopes. Transactions of Institution of Mining and Metal-
source boom”. Increased commodity prices and production
lurgy, Section A: Minerals Industry, v. 92, pp. A93-
demands have increased mining rates and required filling
A102.
rates to record levels. Backfill technology has more capital
Jones, H. (2000) Designer Waste. Paste Technology 2000,
investment focused into it now than ever before. To ensure
An International Seminar on the Production and Dis-
that backfilling carried out in underground mines is con-
posal of Thickened/ Paste Tailings for Mine Backfill or
ducted in a technically proficient and economically attrac-
on the Surface, Australian Center for Geomechanics,
tive manner, a review of the current practice was deemed
Section 1, pp. 1-11.
appropriate, in addition to a brief review of the mining in-
dustry in the wider global sense. In addition to this the over- Jewell, R.J.; Fourie A.B. & Lord, E.R. (2002) Paste and
all environmental and safety issues in relation to backfilling Thickened Tailings - A Guide. Australian Center for
were reviewed, highlighting the need to learn from histori- Geomechanics, Perth, 152 p.
cal events. Kirsch, S. (1996) Cleaning up Ok Tedi: Settlement Favors
A variety of backfill types were reviewed and specific Yonggom People. The Journal of the International In-
focus placed on the two most popular forms of backfill: hy- stitute, v: 4:1, pp. 1-3.
draulic and paste fill. Both were reviewed and the critical Kirsch, S. (2002) Anthropology and advocacy: A case
issues of stability, drainage, and rheology identified for the study of the campaign against the Ok Tedi Mine. Cri-
hydraulic and paste fills respectively. tique of Anthropology v. 22:5, pp. 175-200.
The vertical stress development in the fill masses was Marston, A. (1930) The theory of external loads on closed
investigated in relation to the stability of backfill barricades conduits in the light of latest experiments. A research
and the static stability of backfilled stopes when exposed. report from Iowa Engineering Experiment Station,
The current analytical solutions were compared against nu- Ames, pp. 5-8.
merical modelling techniques which were found to be an Machado, I.F & Figueiroa, S.F. (2001) 500 years of mining
effective means of predicting vertical stress within a back- in Brazil: A brief review. Resources Policy, v. 27:1,
fill stope. pp. 9-24.
PDTS - Placer Dome Technical Services (2001) Post Spill
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 Underground Mining with Backfills

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Soils and Rocks, São Paulo, 30(2): 93-101, May-August, 2007. 101

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