Comparison of Ground Support Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Comparison of Ground Support Systems - Essay Example This essay discusses ground support that has been employed in underground mines in order to ascertain the security and protection of the personnel as well as the equipment working there as well as to fulfill the desired engineering purpose of the aperture. The rockmass around an aperture may be considerably fragmented and fractured as a result of the combination of stresses, discontinuities and also, because of the blasting activities for the production or development purposes. Also, pieces of rock, that may range from a few grams to many tones in mass, may fall or slough into the openings of the mine as a result of gravity. Moreover, rock can be violently dumped into the mine openings because of the seismic bursting. The support methods have been developed in order to avoid the falling or ejection of the rock into the mine openings. Screen mesh, resin or mechanical rock bolts, and plain or reinforced shotcrete have been found to be the indispensable features of the production cycle of mining in Canada for year and have improved in the safety of the operator and the equipment along with enhancing the recovery of the minerals. Beginning from the late 1980's, Urylon Plastics Inc. (previously Guelph, Ontario) and in the present times, Mine guard Canada , in association with the Department of Mining Engineering at Queen's University and the MIROC - Mining Industry Research Organization of Canada created an innovative and new rock support system that is known as MIROC MineguardTM. MIROC Mineguard comprises of a thin, durable and highly flexible 2-component polyurethane spray-on liner. The RockguardTM is another polyurethane/polyurea hybrid liner, which has been developed by Futura Coatings Incorporation in Missouri, USA, has become available recently. MineguardTM and Rockguardâ„ ¢ are considered as the best forms of spray-on liners and both of them will referred as polymer liner support in this study. The other spray-on products under testing and development are Master Builder’s epoxy-based product and Fosroc’s latex-based Tekflex product. All systems have been demonstrated not only in the laboratory but also in the underground so that they may work in a various ways. The technical aspects and properties of every support system have been documented well in the literature. Each support system has some technical constraints and benefits, but they will not be included in detail in this study. Although being technically sound with respect to engineering concepts, however, it is also vital to take in to account that whether it is also cost effective or not, and that how each method