Underground mining method selection(UMMS), mine ventilation & rock supporting software.

Abstract

The usage of computer applications in the mining industry has become extensive though small scale mining companies have had challenges to access these softwares due to their high price and scarcity. This therefore called for the development of a software that can be used to select the best mining method, and determine rock supporting & ventilation requirements for underground mines since these are some of the key areas in mine design. The mining method selection is based on Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and University of British Colombia (UBC) methods for which the AHP method is preferred due to its versatility and flexibility. The rock supporting requirements are determined using Rock Mass Rating (RMR) and Q-system where RMR was preferred because it was giving detailed support requirements based on (Beiniawski, 1989) tables. The ventilation requirements are determined based on calculating the air flow requirements in the mine, this was based on air flow resistances in series and parallel circuits as well as depression and air quantity flow. The software displayed excellent performance on windows 7, windows 8 & 8.1 and windows 10 both on 32 bit and 64 bit computers. Though there's need to include various tools and other factors that are desired in mine design to improve the scope and provide various fields to meet the users' needs. These including modelling rock failures, modelling air flows in underground mines and giving detailed analysis of the mining method selection process. There should also be an inclusion of a module that allows the user to print results to enable comprehensive record keeping.