Underground Mining Methods

Used when the deposit lies deep beneath the Earth's surface. The types of mining methods in underground mining are room-and-pillar mining, longwall mining, sublevel stopping, cut-and-fill mining, block caving and sublevel caving.

Room-and-Pillar Mining – A method that recovers ore from ore-bodies. Miners obtain the ore-body as completely as possible. This is the most useful method of underground mining in the United States. Materials commonly mined with this technique are coal, lead, limestone, potash, salt and uranium.

Longwall Mining - Also used to dig ore from seams. Miners use a machine to cut or break ore from a single long face, called a long-wall. These procedures are real similar to room-and-pillar mining.

Sublevel Mining - Used in ore-bodies with a steep dip. Miners develop sub-levels between the main levels and drill and blast the ore from both the sub-levels and main levels. Stopes form as the ore is removed from the ground.

Cut-and-Fill Mining - A method of removing ore from vertical veins, starting at the bottom of the stope and moving upwards. After getting the ore, they refill the stope with waste material called gangue.

Block Caving - This is a way of mining ores such as copper and iron when they are scattered through out the waste material. The miners dig levels, and divide the ore-body into large sections or blocks. Large machines export the ore to openings called passes.

Sub-level Caving - Used in large, steeply dipping ore-bodies. Miners divide the ore-body into sub-levels 25 to 50 feet apart. Procedures are similar to block caving.