Falconbridge, 3M Canada and Sandvik Tamrock are developing a spray-on polymer liner to replace the awkward mesh wiring bolted into mine walls to prevent rock bursts.
Deposits such as Falconbridge’s Nickel Rim and Fraser Morgan lie deep beneath the surface in the Sudbury Basin, where ground stress and rock bursts are common. The problems associated with making discoveries at about 3,000 metres or more below surface have to do with access. The liner could make it easier to mine deposits at significantly greater depths than what is possible today.
The trio has been testing the rubbery substance since May in some of the drifts in the Fraser mine. The polymer liner is sprayed on at a thickness of 3 mm from a giant machine after high-pressure water spraying removes loose rock and washes the surface so that the liner will adhere to it.
The material being used on the project was created by 3M and is being applied using equipment supplied by Sandvik Tamrock. The cost of the project is pegged at $3 million.
The partners hope to bring the spray-on liner to market by the end of 2005. It is not the first liner of its kind, but it could prove to be the safest.
The old wire sheets measure 5 by 10 ft. and weigh 40 lbs. each, making them heavy and difficult to transport over long distances. A 4-man crew can apply a polymer liner in as few as four hours, whereas the steel-mesh versions can take between eight and 20 hours. It’s bolting the sheets into the wall that takes the lion’s share of time.
The liner will likely aid in Falco’s development of the Onaping Depth nickel deposit, which is being drilled at 2.8 km below surface.
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