THE

 EVOLUTION  AND  OPTIMIZATION  OF  SUBLEVEL  CAVE  

Luca I. Popa, Newcrest Mining Limited, Australia

Leslie P. Trout, Perilya Limited, Australia

Clive E. Jones, Newcrest Mining Limited, Australia

The Sublevel Cave (SLC) mining method has evolved through technological advances to be accepted
as a viable low cost and productive method that is representative of modern underground operations.
A number of mines have implemented SLC as a primary extraction method to achieve good ore
recovery results. The recent success of SLC mines is largely attributed to better understanding of the
caving process, improved mining equipment and innovative technical and operating practices. A
critical success factor has been the ability to effectively fragment and mobilise the rock mass using
confined blasting techniques.

Ridgeway Gold Mine is an example of an innovative modern SLC operation. The mine was designed
to produce 4 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) however, within three years, Ridgeway reached 5 Mtpa
(2002/2003) and in the subsequent years production rates of over 6 Mtpa were achieved. The smooth
rampup and sustained production was made possible by the implementation of innovative drill and
blast practices and a methodical approach to understanding and improving operational performance.

This paper is the first of two publications that describe the evolution and optimisation of confined
drill and blast practices at Ridgeway with specific application to SLC slot and production ring design.

Slot rises and rings are used to initiate production on each sublevel so it is essential to establish the
slot excavations to the required dimensions in a rapid and reliable manner. Ridgeway achieved this
outcome through an evolutionary process of slot rise and ring design, including several innovations
relating to blind uphole rises and oblique slot geometry, that is detailed in this paper. The companion
paper (Popa, Trout and Jones, 2012) describes the drill and blast practices developed for the
production rings that both fragment the ore between sublevels and form the retreating drawpoints.

1  |  P a g e  
 
  

INTRODUCTION  
Ridgeway Gold Mine is located 25 km west of Orange, New South Wales (NSW) and 250 km from
the city of Sydney, Australia. It is part of the Cadia Valley Operations (CVO), a wholly owned
subsidiary of Newcrest Mining Limited, which also includes the Cadia Hill Open Pit and Cadia East
Panel Cave Project. Full descriptions of the application of the sublevel caving (SLC) method at
Ridgeway are detailed by Trout (2002).

The Ridgeway Mine feasibility study identified that drill and blast design and practices were essential
requirements for a successful SLC operation. The mine’s initial operational focus was to implement
the feasibility study recommendations which provided the basis for understanding the rock mass and
blast performance. This experience enabled a succession of incremental technical and operational
changes that further increased the efficiency and reliability of the SLC process that was fundamental
to the mine production rate increasing from 4 Mtpa to over 6 Mtpa.

The purpose of this paper is to present the evolution of Ridgeway SLC drill and blast practices
including methodologies considered unique or innovative when compared to current industry practice.
Rather than outlining past experience (Trout, 2002), the paper focuses on the latest methodologies and
practices and, as such, it includes knowledge developed by the principal author from recent
experience with other CVO underground operations (Ridgeway Deeps Block Cave and Cadia East
Panel Cave). This experience has caused the authors to better appreciate the complexity and
challenging nature of SLC confined blasting while strengthened the belief that tailored drill and blast
design and implementation are essential to the success of SLC mining. Consequently this paper
focuses on the fundamentals of slot design, slot rises and variants while a companion paper addresses
SLC production ring design, drilling and blasting practices.

PRINCIPLES  
The primary purpose of the SLC slot is to provide, on each production level, the initial “free face” that
allows the subsequent firing of the adjacent production rings. In principle, a relatively narrow trough
slot with, for example three blastholes per ring, should be adequate for this purpose. The slot must be
established rapidly and reliably as a precursor to the more efficient extraction of ore from production
rings in the adjacent crosscuts. Hence it is advantageous to restrict the slot ring volume so that the
volume of slot production is minimised and the cycle time between ring blasts is reduced. The narrow
slot design also permits multiple ring blasts which can further accelerate slot development. However
the design geometry for sublevels established beneath other sublevels can be more complex as the slot
trough must be sufficiently wide to promote the mobilisation and propagation of the compacted ore
above the slot. This led to the design of a five-hole ring pattern at Ridgeway with a slot width of 14m
at the toes to provide the sufficient width to mobilise ore from the overlying sublevel.

Regardless of the geometry, the slots were not drawn open prior to the blasting of production rings
from the adjoining crosscuts. The slot rings were confined by blasted or caved rock such that each
subsequent blast was “choke blasted” and the excavated rock did not expand into a conventional
stoping void. Hence the success of a confined blast relied on both ejection and compaction
mechanisms to accommodate the blast movement. It was observed that a portion of each ring blast
was ejected into the slot drive while porosity (interstitial voids) in the broken rock ahead of the blast

2  |  P a g e  
 
was compacted to allow expansion relief for the freshly blasted rock. Experience at Ridgeway
demonstrated that rings should be blasted soon after mobilising the broken rock to create porosity.
Approximately 200 to 400 t was extracted at Ridgeway in the 12 hours prior to blasting of a ring.
This process was locally termed “fluffing the cave”. Prior to this practice it was observed that the ring
volume would fragment but not displace after a blast and this commonly resulted in a “frozen ring”.
The hang-up caused by a frozen ring was typically released by mucking to undercut the ring volume
and created a void that allowed the fractured rock to collapse and flow under gravity. However, there
were many occasions where a frozen ring required removal by concussion blasting, water cannon or
drilling.

RISES  
The slot must commence adjacent to an initial void that is normally created by drilling and blasting (in
a single blast event) of a high slot rise that is typically, but not always, vertical. It is critical that slot
rises be excavated in a single blast to enable the reliable and rapid establishment of the slot
excavation. The practices applied at Ridgeway enabled dozens of slot rises to be excavated without a
single failure.

A variety of rises and rise geometries are used at CVO and include cylindrical, rectangular and square
patterns. The selection of a rise pattern depends on the intended function of the rise, degree of wall
smoothness required and geological conditions.

Rectangular  Rise  
Figure 1 depicts the rectangular footprint pattern and location of a 30 m high rise used to initiate
production blasting in XC26 on the 5040 Level as an alternative to traditional slotting. The rise was
established in one blast in August 2009 using a combination of 102 mm blastholes and 200 mm relief
holes, 1.1 g/cm3 emulsified explosives and conventional nonelectric LP detonators.

Figure 1: 5040 XC26 rise

3  |  P a g e  
 
Cylindrical  Rise  
Figure 2 illustrates the 12.5 m x 3.2 m diameter cylindrical rise pattern (single shot firing)
successfully trialled at Ridgeway in 2010 before being incorporated in the Cadia East “one shot”
drawbell designs from June 2011. The hexagonal pattern, drilled with 76 mm blastholes and 200 mm
relief holes, initiates the formation of a 16.5 m high and 17.5 m diameter drawbell having a volume of
2,100 m3.

Figure 2: Cylindrical rise

Square  Rise  
Figure 3 depicts the pattern and location of a 4 m x 4 m x 15 m inclined rise established in a single
blast in March 2010 at Cadia East for use as an escape ladder way. This blast used a combination of
76 and 89 mm blastholes and 200 mm relief holes, emulsified explosives and electronic detonators.

Figure 3: Inclined square rise (smooth)

4  |  P a g e  
 
Design  Principles  
Ideally slot rises should be located mid-way along the length of the slot drives so that the slot
excavation can retreat simultaneously in both directions and reduce the time required to excavate the
full slot length. However other factors, including operational constraints and sublevel geometry, may
dictate the actual placement of the rise. At Ridgeway the slot rise was established by sequentially
initiating 20 x 102 mm diameter blastholes around 5 x 200 mm diameter reamed relief holes in a
single blast event using Titan 7000 gassed emulsion and conventional LP detonators (Figure 1).
Technological evolution now allows electronic detonators to be used at CVO for greater timing
accuracy. Most holes forming the rise are drilled 1.5 m short of breakthrough to the overlying
sublevel. The exception is the first reamer pilot hole which is used to determine the breakthrough
depth so that subsequent reamer holes are drilled 0.5 m short of breakthrough. This practice ensures
that the explosive energy is confined within the boundary of the rise (rather than venting into the
overlying broken rock) and also prevents falling cave rubble from obstructing the blastholes. In very
wet conditions all reamers can be drilled to breakthrough to minimise the amount of water running
down the blastholes. In this situation the relief hole collars are blocked to avoid potential injury to
personnel and damage to mining equipment caused by rubble falling from the relief hole.

ORTHOGONAL  SLOTS  

Stand-­‐up  Rings  
The stand-up (slashing) rings are used to expand the void created by the slot rise and the burden
between rings normally does not exceed the nominal burden. Smaller spacing to burden (S:B) ratios
are preferred and blastholes in these rings are loaded with a lower density bulk emulsion explosive
(1.0 g/cm3) because of the higher blasthole concentration. The blastholes in the stand-up rings are
drilled at the same time as the slot rise such that the blasthole toes are drilled short of slot rise
boundary. This practice avoids blasthole damage from the slot rise blast and preserves the integrity of
both the slot rise and the stand-up rings. At CVO, the standoff distance between the slot rise and
stand-up ring toe is typically 0.8 m (horizontally) between the toes of the stand-up blastholes and the
design rise boundary.

The stand-up rings are designed to progressively expand into the rise volume to create additional
height (to breakthrough into the overlying sublevel) and width (required for slot ring blasting).
Additionally, the stand-up rings provide a second opportunity to expand the slot rise in the event that
the initial slot rise does not excavate to the design volume. Figure 4 shows the ring geometry for the
5040 Level Slot West 04 (SW04) stand-up (R2, R4, R6 and R8) where the stand-up rings were drilled
but not charged when the rise was fired. The first ring (R2) was collared 4 m laterally from the rise
and drilled at 43° forward dump angle while the dump angle of the last stand-up ring (R8) was drilled
at the standard 10° forward dump angle. This geometry allowed a high bund to be constructed after
the slot rise blast so that the stand-up rings were charged by operators who were located a safe
distance away from the brow of the open rise. Figure 4 also illustrates the challenging ring plane
geometry for drilling into the SLC ring pillars on the overlying sublevel.

5  |  P a g e  
 
 Figure 4: 5040 SW04 slot rise, stand-up and rings

Slot  Rings  
Slot rings are designed, where possible, to form a symmetric trough with the geometry of an inverse
trapezoid that expands from 5 m wide at the slot drive to 14 m at the elevation of the sublevel above.
In general, the standard slot ring comprises five 102 mm diameter blastholes with a horizontal ring
burden of 2.6 m (collar to collar) and toe spacing of 3.5 m within the ring plane. Weakness planes in
the rockmass and the position of any adjacent excavations are considered and displayed on the drilling
and charge plans for the benefit of operators and technical personnel. A blasthole standoff (buffer)
zone of 1.5 m is maintained between drill holes and the cave (or other openings) to preserve blasthole
integrity. Often the geometry of the upper sublevel required higher slot excavations which required
additional blastholes, particularly when the rings a drilled between the apices formed by SLC rings in
adjacent crosscuts on the level above (Figure 4). This practice established consistent wall geometry
along the length of the slot which, in turn, greatly simplified and standardised the ring design for SLC
stand-up rings in the adjacent crosscuts. Figure 5 shows the consistent geometry of two 5040 Level
SW04 rings (R16 five-hole pattern and R20 six-hole pattern) over different ring heights.

6  |  P a g e  
 
 Figure 5: 5040 SW04 rings

Charging  
It was standard practice for the charging operators, after precharging a ring, to measure the depth of
holes in the next ring with the results reported to the Drill and Blast Engineer. This practice, known
as “dipping”, allowed blocked or collapsed blastholes to be identified in advance of charging so that
the holes could be cleared or redrilled to avoid operational disruption. Blastholes were usually
charged at a bulk emulsion density of 1.1 - 1.2 g/cm3. The lower 4 m charge column in the central
hole was always loaded at a lower bulk emulsion density (0.9 g/cm3) to protect the integrity of the
brow. Security priming with standard MS series nonelectric detonators was used in all holes with a
charge column greater than 10m. This practice placed the top primer 1 - 2 m from the blasthole toe
and the second primer 2 m from the lower charge collar but at least 5 m from the brow. The initiation
sequence and timing varied depending on the geometry of the slot and geological conditions.
Generally higher rings were fired with longer delay intervals.

Intersection  Blasts  
The most difficult or complicated blast was the mass blast of the last five rings at the end of a slot
drive known as a T- intersection. This blast configuration, termed an “intersection firing”, was due to
the nature of the sublevel geometry as represented by R28 to R34 in Figure 4. The geometry dictated
that up to 12,000 t was blasted into a compacted slot while the only available expansion relief was
provided by the slot drive and crosscut intersection. Additionally, the blast had to be managed in a
manner that:

1. allowed breakthrough to the sublevel above,

7  |  P a g e  
 
 3. allowed the blasted rock to mobilise and flow to the drawpoint.

The number of delay intervals in the regular MS nonelectric detonator series constrained the number
of blastholes that could be used in this geometry. Consequently five rings, each with five blastholes,
were designed for these intersections. The slot drive blastholes closest to the crosscut boundary were
precharged at an explosive density of 0.9 g/cm3 to preserve the integrity of the adjacent crosscut brow
while the remainder of the blastholes were precharged at an emulsion explosive density of 1.1 g/cm3.

There were occasions where the intersection was larger, particularly for oblique slots and/or when
poor rockmass conditions were encountered. In these situations the intersection firing comprised up
to nine rings and more than sixty blastholes. One particular intersection, having a 2.6 m burden for
the first ring and 8 x 2.0 m burden rings, spanned 18.6 m and was charged at a bulk emulsion density
of 0.9 g/cm3 with a combination of MS and LP nonelectric detonators. The results were very good
with perfectly preserved crosscut brows and very fine fragmentation.

The advent of electronic detonators allowed the intersection blast design to be further refined. The
improved timing control allowed:

1. blastholes to be fired at shorter intervals to promote intra-ring “hole cooperation”, and

With the exception of the first ring, all rings are designed at a reduced burden (2.0 - 2.1 m) and 2.6 -
2.8 m toe spacing. The first ring is charged at a 1.1 g/cm3 explosive density while all other rings are
charged with 0.9 g/cm3. Although this approach is more expensive, it provides greater certainty with
a 100% success rate over the past five years at CVO’s block cave operations.

OBLIQUE  SLOTS  
Oblique slots were first introduced at Ridgeway on the 5100 Level for the purpose of avoiding the
“Purple” Fault which intersected the slot at an awkward 20° angle because the weakness plane was
oriented semi-parallel to the traditional slot drives and rings. The poor rockmass conditions
associated with the fault made the development of the slot drives and subsequent slotting extremely
costly, difficult and time consuming. These conditions led to the concept of orientating the slot to
avoid drilling through the fault which would also eliminate the need to extract waste rock on the
northern side of the Purple Fault. Hence the conventional orthogonal SLC slot design was modified
to create an innovative oblique geometry represented in Figure 6 which shows 5040 Level SW20 and
its interaction with the Purple Fault. SW20 intersected the crosscuts at an angle of 22.7° and this
necessitated a reduction in crosscut width from 6 m to 5 m along the 10 m closest to the oblique slot.
This practice ensured that a 2.5 m pillar remained to permit the first stand-up ring to be drilled at a
lateral centreline distance of 3 m from the slot.

8  |  P a g e  
 
 Figure 6: Purple Fault intersecting 5040Level

The most challenging aspect of the oblique slot design was the awkward geometry between the slot
ring toes and the intersection of the upper sublevel. The slot rings were designed with great attention
to the hole location, explosive distribution and mobilisation of the cave. Figure 7 depicts the end of
5040 Level Slot West 24 (SW24) intersecting the adjacent crosscuts and the overlying 5070 sublevel
at an angle of 22.7°.

Figure 7: 5040 - 5070 sublevel interaction and blasthole orientation

The success of the oblique slot design resulted in this layout being applied to subsequent sublevels
(5070, 5040 and 5010) to dramatically reduce the quantity of lateral development and decrease
production costs.

Stand-­‐up  Rings  
On the extraction (drill) level, the oblique slot drives created an unfavourable geometry for SLC
stand-up ring design and implementation. Specifically, the last pillar must be established at the
correct distance from the slot to:

1. avoid an unplanned breakthrough to the slot during the slot retreat, and

9  |  P a g e  
 
 2. allow optimum placement of blastholes within a wedge-like geometry while maintaining a
brow perpendicular to the crosscut centreline.

For instance, SW20 and its continuation SW24 intersected the production crosscuts at an angle of
22.7° and the last 10 m length of the crosscuts intersecting the oblique slot was reduced from 6 m to
5m width (Figure 6). This became standard practice to ensure that a 2.5 m pillar remained intact for
the purpose of drilling the first crosscut stand-up ring.

Figure 8 depicts the design of the initial stand-up rings at the extremity of 5040 Level SW24 where
the oblique slot geometry required a variable “wedge” burden. In this situation the first ring was
collared at a distance of 4.5 – 5 m the slot.

Figure 8: 5040 SW24 Stand-up Geometry

Figure 8 shows that the eastern blasthole of R35 and R36 is relatively short with a shallow burden and
ample relief void whereas the western blasthole has excessive burden and is extremely confined near
the blasthole toes. The stand-up rings were therefore fired individually to ensure that the slot height
was achieved with the initiation sequence progressing from the shortest to the longest blasthole.
Figure 8 also shows the collar position of the SW24 - XC24 intersection rings (R102 - R110) and the
reinforcement required before the intersection firing. This reinforcement typically comprised 2.4 m x
6.0 m steel mesh pinned “shoulder to shoulder” with 2.4 m Split Set friction bolts and 3 x 6 m
cablebolts to ensure:

1. the integrity of the intersection before the mass blast, and

CONCLUSIONS  
Drill and blast design and practices for slots and rises were important for the safe and productive
establishment of new SLC sublevels at the Ridgeway Gold Mine. The initial designs were

10  |  P a g e  
 
progressively refined through the application of technical and operational principles which led to
innovations such as oblique slots and circular rises. The effect of these practices is partly reflected in
the sustained SLC production expansion from the design rate of 4 Mtpa to 5 Mtpa within three years
followed by a further production increase to more than 6 Mtpa. The smooth rampup and sustained
production was made possible by the implementation of these innovative drill and blast practices and
a methodical approach to understanding and improving operational performance.

The experience gained from 2000 - 2010 at the Ridgeway Mine has provided a platform for the
analysis and evolution of drawbell establishment and undercutting methodologies at both the
Ridgeway Deeps Block Cave and more recently at the Cadia East Panel Caves.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  
The authors would like to thank the many people who have worked at the Ridgeway Gold Mine and
contributed to the advancement of SLC drill and blast practices. We would also like to thank
Newcrest Mining Limited for authorizing the publication of this paper. Finally we acknowledge those
people who, during recent years, have encouraged us to prepare this paper so that this knowledge can
be shared with the international mining community.

REFERENCES  
Popa, Trout and Jones, 2012 [ Luca – insert the full details of the production ring paper here ]

Trout, L.P., 2002, Production Drill and Blast Practices at Ridgeway Gold Mine, in Eighth AusIMM
Underground Operator’s Conference, 29 to 31 July 2002 Townsville Queensland, publication 5/2002,
The Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Melbourne, pp 107-117.

11  |  P a g e