Experience in the development and use of a dynamic reactive (ballistic) grenade thrower designed for transporting a scraper cable across a mining chamber

Conclusions

Tests of a new method of transporting the cable of a scraper winch through a mining chamber led to the following conclusions.

• 1) Using an auxiliary Capron rope thrown across the open mining area by firing an inert grenade from a dynamic-reaction system, the emplacement of a scraper winch cable is mechanized and the safety problem entirely solved.

• 2) The range of applicability of high-output mining systems with open mining areas is extended: the use of such systems was formerly limited by the danger to personnel present in the open mining area during mining of the ore.

• 3) In some cases the room-and-pillar system can be replaced by a system of mining by blasting in a partly mined-out chamber. The necessity of mining the chambers without the presence of men in the mining area was formerly the main hindrance to the introduction of a system in which ore is won by blasting (when the dip of the ore body is less than 35°).