JUSTIFICATION OF UNDERGROUND GEOTECHNOLOGY FOR DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL DEPOSITS OF GRANULAR QUARTZ BASED ON ENVIRONMENTAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT

Abstract

Expansion of the raw material base of high-purity quartz
is possible owing to small cores with small reserves being
involved into development. The main objective herewith is
to justify economically efficient and environmentally safe
geotechnology for the development of these cores. The solution may be to use an underground method of development using the capacity and infrastructure of an existing underground mine and processing plant. As exemplified by the mine № 193 of Kuznechikhinskoye granular quartz deposit, the underground geotechnology has been developed for deposit opening by road transport slope and chamber development system with the laying of the developed space with the rock from the excavation of workings and the waste of primary ore sorting of the veinstone. As a result of ecological and technological assessment and comparison with the open method of development it is established the superiority of the underground method. The economic efficiency is ensured by the rational method and scheme of deposit opening, the development system with open treatment space and area discharge of ore, the use of self-propelled equipment for preparation and treatment works, transportation of the extracted veins to the surface. The environmental safety is ensured through the reduction of land allotment and the preservation of forest cover of the territory owing to the abandonment of open-pit method, the enrichment production in the developed chamber space, the use of the tailing dump of the existing concentrating plant.