Abstract
Cave mining involves the removal of large volumes of rock that result in the generation of high stresses and large deformations. A major challenge is ensuring that the extraction level of a cave mine remains operational during the life of a cave block with drawpoint pillars being particularly susceptible to large changes in stress that occur from cave initiation to maturity.
A cost-effective ground support strategy for the extraction level should be able to accommodate significant static and dynamic loads. In this context the use of cable slings has demonstrated significant potential as part of the ground support strategy to support the junctions between the drawpoints and production drives. This paper provides an update on a long-term research program on the performance of pillar wrapping using cable slings at the extraction level of a block cave mine. It continues the on-going analysis of monitoring data to explore the potential influence of various mining activities on the performance of pillar wrapping through the progressive stages of the block caving operation. This paper also presents observations on the response of instrumented cable slings installed at the extraction level.