Abstract
The best way to increase the rate of advance in deep underground mines remains a topic debate between drill-blast and mechanical excavation, although they each have their place. What both techniques have in common, however, is the need to move the broken rock out of the drift heading as quickly as possible and to install ground support in a way that minimizes the delay in having the heading progress. Regardless of the rock breakage mechanism, the critical path for these activities is to be minimized. The first step is to unify the rock-flow process by replacing the conventional LHD with a continuous loader. The second step is to design the rock-removal and ground installation units narrow enough (2m wide in a 5m drift) to operate concurrently, in tandem. Current bolting techniques are constrained by safety requirements made redundant by automated bolting. The common automated drill-bolt installation unit can be set-up on a platform with a four-drill, staggered layout, set on the narrow carrier. Beginning on the centre line of the drift, in front of the last row of bolts, the four-drill platform can install four bolts, moving laterally across the carrier to the next position to install four more, and then to the wall side of the carrier to rotate and install corner and wall bolts. The carrier also has two rotating arms to position sheet mesh correctly to be pinned by the four-drill set-up. Once the half-drift bolting is complete, the loader discharge and bolting carrier switch positions laterally to complete the bolting while rock removal continues almost uninterrupted.