Assessment of karst cave influence on ore body stability during development of Western Yakutia deposits

The development of ore deposits is accompanied by a number of problems, one of which is the presence of underground caves in the host and ore mass. Underground caves of large size and complex shape can have a negative impact on the safe mining of the deposit and cause rock collapse. A review of existing methods used to assess the stability of the rock mass near underground caves, as well as methods of assessing the stability of the rock mass in the development of an ore deposit by the system of development of under-story caving in the presence of underground caves of anthropogenic origin. Numerical modeling based on the finite element method was used to predict the stress-strain state in the vicinity of a underground cave located at deep horizons during the development of the deposit. The Coulomb–Mohr elastic-ideal-plastic model was used to describe the ore and host mass near the mining and underground horizons. Structural disturbance was accounted for by reducing rock strength properties using the empirical Hoek-Brown methodology. A geotechnical specialized program was used to process the test data of rock samples and to construct a strength passport for the disturbed rock mass. The Coulomb-Mohr and Hoek-Brown criteria are used to assess the stability of the ore pillar between the mining horizon and the underground caves at various stages of ore body mining. The minimum thickness of the ore pillar at which it will be stable is determined. The obtained numerical results are compared with analytical calculations according to the above-mentioned methods. As a result, conclusions are drawn about the possibility of using some methods to determine the stability of the ore pillar between a underground cave and mining horizons.

Protosenya A. G., Veselova A. V. Assessment of karst cave influence on ore body stability during development of Western Yakutia deposits. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2025;(1-1):33-46. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2025_11_0_33.

A.G. Protosenya¹, Dr. Sci. (Eng.), Professor, e-mail: Protosenya_AG@pers.spmi.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7829-6743,
A.V. Veselova¹, Graduate Student, e-mail: veselova.nastia2015@yandex.ru, ORCID ID: 0009-0004-6450-183X,
¹ Empress Catherine II Saint-Petersburg Mining University, 199106, Saint-Petersburg, Russia.

A.V. Veselova, e-mail: veselova.nastia2015@yandex.ru.

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