Environmental geotechnology for low-grade ore mining with the creation of conditions for the concurrent disposal of mining waste

Due to the constantly deteriorating environmental situation in the regions with mining enterprises, the article considers the topical issue of disposing the maximum possible volume of waste from the mining and processing of low-grade ferrous ores through the creation of an effective underground environmental geotechnology. Traditional procedure with descending mining of reserves with a caving system does not allow waste to be disposed of in a gob. The idea is to use geotechnology based on the ascending order of mining the ore body, room excavation, leaving truncated pillars, and staggered arrangement of adjacent rooms in height, which makes it possible to form containers for waste disposal in the form of a cementless backfill. The main characteristics of the proposed procedure are investigated and compared with the traditional procedure of low-grade iron ores mining. It was established that from the point of view of the complete extraction of reserves and the unit costs for the preparatory-development operations, the processes are comparable, while in terms of the mining quality, the proposed option is much more efficient. Evaluation of environmental geotechnology by the criterion of waste disposal, performed according to the proposed methodology, showed that the combination of these technical solutions ensures the placement in the formed gob from 80 to 140% of all waste generated during the mining and beneficiation of low-grade iron ores.