Hydroscaling technology for rapid drift development

摘要

Rapid drift development is still a high priority for many mining companies, as it can reduce costs and also access orebodies faster to increase net present values significantly for any operation. Hydroscaling (water jet scaling) trials have been conducted at various mine sites in Canada and also at Perseverance Mine, Western Australia, Australia, to evaluate this as a potential technology to enhance rapid drift development. The technology in each of these cases removed most of the loose rock within the different rock mass conditions experienced. The success of hydroscaling was measured by either checking the scaling manually or monitoring the shotcrete spraying activity afterwards to monitor rockfalls. During shotcreting, prior to the trials, rockfalls always occurred, whilst there was minimal rockfall after hydroscaling. Monitoring of the shotcrete spraying process prior to trials, and after hydroscaling, has demonstrated an improvement in reduced rock and shotcrete fall out, with commensurate reduction in re-work required. This paper proposes that hydroscaling is now ready for implementation as a technology across a wide range of rock mass conditions and summarises the role for technology within a rapid drift development context.