SELECTION OF THICK COAL SEAM MINING METHOD USING ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS

Abstract

In thick coal seams, it is very important to select the correct mining method. Choosing a wrong method may be very costly to the company. All the factors affecting the mining method and the relations in between should be considered. When there are many factors under consideration, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a very useful tool to analyze them. By use of AHP, errors that show up in conventional methods are minimized. In this study AHP is employed to select the mining method in a thick coal seam. The proposed approach starts with identifying the alternative mining methods that are applicable in thick coal seams. Then all the criteria affecting the mining method and the relations between them are defined by experts of the system. Finally AHP is used to find the method with the highest performance according to the selection criteria defined. Within this study the highest performance scores belong to Multi-slice retreatment longwall with filling (M4), Multi-slice retreatment longwall with caving (M3), Multi-slice advanced longwall with filling (M2) and Room and pillar (M9).