Effect of mining rate on the working face with high-intensity mining based on microseismic monitoring: A case study

Abstract

Serious geological disasters and environmental damage have been caused by the high-intensity mining in Western China. The mining rate of the working face is one of the important factors of high-intensity mining. In order to study the effect of mining rate on the working face in high-intensity mining, we introduced the microseismic (MS) monitoring system in Xiaojihan coal mine, which is a typical high-intensity mine in Western China. This research indicates that the number of MS events and the stress redistribution zones induced by coal excavation reduced with the increase in mining rate. Consequently, the volume of rock with inelastic change and failure zones decreased. Since the uniformity of stress redistribution was even worse, the energy release was unstable and dynamic geological disasters could occur. Determining the reasonable mining rate of a working face by analyzing the characteristics of MS parameters is feasible, and could provide some technical guidance for mining production activities.