Seismic Exploration: A Powerful Aid to Mine Planning Profitability

摘要

Seismic techniques have a wide range of applications within longwall mining operations where seam continuity is of crucial economic importance. All the techniques described here are well proven in a variety of geological environments around the world. However, their performance within a given mine can never be guaranteed until a trial has been completed, and such trials need to be sufficiently comprehensive to assess the full potential of a technique within a given geology. Apart from their applicability in longwall planning, the techniques described may also have relevance to coal bed methane and in-situ coal gasification where geological structure can be a critical controlling factor. Advances in all fields of seismic geophysics are consistently being made because of their crucial role in exploration for hydrocarbons. These developments need to be routinely monitored by those involved in longwall mining in order to minimise the risks to the ever increasing level of investment involved in a highly mechanised modern mine.