DEEP-BASING EGRESS

THE DEEP-BASING CONCEPT REQUIRES THE CAPABILITY FOR FAST EGRESS FROM THE UNDERGROUND FACILITY. THIS EGRESS REQUIRES THE USE OF INCLINED RAISE BORERS, THE UTILITY OF WHICH DEPENDS, TO AN EXTENT, ON THE FLOW OF MUCK IN THE INCLINED RAISE. THREE METHODS FOR DETERMINING THE FLOW PROPERTIES OF MUCK ARE THE EMPIRICAL, THE ANALYTICAL, AND THE NUMERICAL. THE WORK PROPOSED HERE OFFERS A COMBINED EMPIRICALNUMERICAL APPROACH. A SERIES OF BENCH-SCALE LABORATORY TESTS ARE DESIGNED TO DETAIL THE FLOW PROPERTIES OF BROKEN ROCK AS A FUNCTION OF THE ROCK TYPE, SIZE GRADATION, WATER CONTENT, AND RAISE CONDITIONS. A MULTI-VARIATE LEAST-SQUARES ANALYSIS WILL PRODUCE AN ANALYTICAL EXPRESSION FOR DETERMINING THE MUCK FLOW PROPERTIES. IN ADDITION, IT IS PROPOSED TO DEMONSTRATE THE ABILITY OF THE DISTINCT ELEMENT METHOD TO PREDICT MUCK FLOW. THIS COULD PROVIDE THE CAPABILITY FOR EXTRAPOLATION OF FLOW TO NEW MUCK AND RAISE CONDITIONS WITHOUT THE NEED TO RESORT TO PARAMETER STUDIES.