Abstract: The invention relates to a mine stopping for underground mines which may be readily mounted within a mine airway to form a gas-tight seal to control the flow of fresh air to the working face of the mine and the efficient exhaust of dirty gas laden air from the working face. The stopping is typically formed of a flexible, gas impervious, fire resistant sheet material provided with means for mounting the same within the interior of the mine. The mounting means embody inherent characteristics of permitting the main body of sheet material to separate from the mine interior walls upon the occurrence of a certain predetermined pressure difference between the opposing major surfaces of the main body of the stopping as may occur by a blasting or underground explosion. Thereby the main body portion of the stopping is not damaged and may be reused.

Abstract: A method for driving tunnels in rounds is disclosed in which, after each round, the tunnel is left with an inclined transition to the floor. In the subsequent round, a cut is opened up in the transition towards the floor and the tunnel face is then stepwise drilled and blasted in cycles until the roof is reached and the round is completed. A machine for carrying out the method is disclosed which comprises a plurality of drill-and-blast units that are mounted on a frame that is pivotable about a transverse horizontal axis.

Abstract: Spaced apart single entries are driven into a mineral deposit to be developed by means of a short wall mining machine. A specially designed concrete-receiving slip-form located in the center of the entry is pulled along by a battery of roof supports which are advanced in line behind the mining machine. Quick setting concrete pumped into the anchored slip-form sets up into a wall isolating the two sides of the entry. The slip-form is then released for each successive mining run.

Abstract: This invention relates to the recovery of valuable minerals from deposits thereof in the earth and is particularly directed to a method of mining which affords recovery of at least a major portion of a seam of valuable mineral lying relatively near the surface of the earth without seriously involving the destructive effects upon the environment, inherent in surface mining. In practicing the method a relatively small proportion of the overburden covering a seam of useful mineral is removed, for later replacement, and a proportion of the valuable mineral in the seam much greater than that underlying the removed overburden is recovered by operations conducted in the pit formed by removal of overburden from selected areas, the recovery of these portions of the mineral seam being conveniently accomplished by what is known as augur mining from spaced pits disposed in predetermined patterns relatively to the mineral seam.

Abstract: In a longwall mining system, a work face extends between parallel sets of multiple head- and tailgate entries, adjacent entries of each set being separated by rows of chain pillars. Lengths of a headgate entry immediately adjacent the longwall panel and the pillar breakthroughs to the next headgate entry are progressively pump packed in advance of the longwall face with a coherent thixotropic roof supporting material. As the longwall face is mined, a bidirectional shearing machine cuts through the roof supporting material and the chain pillars, which are then removed in a continuous operation.

Abstract: Material is continuously dislodged by a pair of conical cutters and displaced outwardly toward the ribs of the room as the mining machine advances. The dislodged material is picked up by a transversely extending spiral conveyor and conveyed inwardly from the ribs onto the bottom strand of a flexible belt. The flexible belt has one end portion coiled on a lower rotatable spindle at a fixed discharge station adjacent the room entry. The other end portion of the flexible belt is coiled on an upper rotatable spindle positioned above the lower rotatable spindle. The intermediate portion of the flexible belt forms a lower conveying strand portion extending from the lower coil around a cylindrical idler or turn around pulley and an upper strand portion extending from the upper spindle to the turn around pulley. The upper strand portion extends between a pair of driven compression rollers to pull the upper strand toward the mining machine from the upper spindle.

Abstract: A hydraulic mining system for a mine including a plurality of horizontal stopes each of which has a mining face. The apparatus comprises a main slurry mix tank at the lowermost stope, a hydraulic mining device in each stope, slurry forming mechanism in each stope for converting mined ore into slurry form, a flexible conduit extending from each stope to the main slurry mix tank for conveying mined ore in slurry form to the mix tank, an upflow tube having its lower end at said slurry mix tank and extending upwardly to the ground surface, and a pump for moving slurry upwardly in said tube.

Abstract: A parachute-type mine stopping used in ventilation control comprises a parachute-like canopy suspended from straps or lines secured to a roof bolt or the like. After the lines are so secured, the stopping is erected by merely lifting the upper edge of the canopy into the airstream in the passage, the airstream causing the canopy to simply "pop" into place. In a preferred embodiment, a skirt is sewn to the peripheral edge of the canopy to improve sealing.

Abstract: This invention comprises two improved mining methods as such and combined with mining equipments for the mining and rock industries. The first, called the screw-mining-method, comprises benches which rotate around a turning-point area in a downwardly sloping screw shaped path. The benches are positioned radially to the turning-point area which contains a shaft or other transportation means between two points located at different altitudes. The second, called a method with horizontal-radial-rotating benches, operates similarly to the first method except that the benches rotate solely in a horizontal plane rather than in a downwardly sloping path. The method and equipments are adapted for use with material such as rock, ore, coal and any other commercially useful, as well as mineral materials excavated from the earth's crust.

Abstract: Improvement structure for use in mine slurry conveyor systems of the type which transport mined material from a plurality of work spaces in the mine to a remotely disposed recovery and finishing plane. The system utilizes permanent tank or silo storage of slurry and water at a centralized point within a mine for reception of material slurry from all work faces in order to re-regulate slurry concentration for further conveyance out of the mine to a recovery station. The slurry silo communicates with a positive solids feed device which deposits mined material into a submerged slurry pit for re-slurry mixing at controlled rate of positive solids feed and agitation of re-slurry water whereupon the adjusted slurry is hydraulically conveyed to the recovery station.

Abstract: In the underground mining of friable mineral deposits such as bituminous sands, method and apparatus are disclosed in which a working crosscut in the mineral deposit, is established, connecting two parallel operating tunnels, the front wall of the crosscut being unsupported and forming the mining wall, the roof and rear wall of the working crosscut being supported by a novel mining shield comprising a plurality of forwardly inclined, base supported arch members positioned in adjacent abutting relationship and each independently advanceable towards the mining wall. A conventional mining machine is employed under the mining shield in the working crosscut, operating across the full width of the mining wall. As the mining machine removes a cut, apparatus upon the mining machine advances individual mining arch sections forwardly into the mining face the depth of the cut, leaving the backs unsupported and free to collapse behind the advancing mining shield.

Abstract: The invention is directed to a method of in situ extraction of a constituent of a rock formation, e.g., copper deposits or particular petroleum deposits as found in oil shale, and to a method of preparing the rock formation for in situ extraction of the rock constituent. Various embodiments of a side excavating machine are also disclosed for preparing the rock for in-situ extraction of a constituent therefrom. The excavating machine breaks the rock in-situ in a manner to form a narrow, horizontal flow-directing chamber in the rock-filled with fluid-permeable broken rock.

Abstract: An in situ retorting method and system for recovering hydrocarbons from an oil shale deposit. A retorting zone is formed in the deposit and is comprised of at least two galleries which are separated by a barrier of oil shale thick enough to prevent leakage of gas between galleries. A plurality of rooms are formed within each gallery and are defined by walls of oil shale having substantially less thickness than said barriers. As a gallery is completed, it is sealed and rubblized oil shale within the rooms of said gallery is retorted and the products recovered. Since the barriers between galleries protect workers against gas from a retorting gallery, work can continue on adjoining galleries while said gallery is being retorted.