Problems of extracting deposits of useful minerals at great depths

The construction and exploitation of mine workings at great depth is a problem of great social and economic significance. Numerous publications in this sphere have allowed a number of complex problems to be solved successfully. However, many important questions in science and technology are unsolved, await theoretical validation, or require research and practical work to be carried out. Of these the main ones are the principles of progress in science and engineering, which provide for a sharp increase in labor productivity, a lowering of production costs, and the creation of comfortable and safe working conditions, taking into account the deterioration in geologic and mining conditions. The problems of working deep deposits are also related to the search for fundamentally new methods of fracturing rocks, and the development of specific mining equipment. Obviously, new solutions have to be found to the problems of controlling and forecasting the composition of a rock mass surrounding mine workings, ventilation and the protection of personnel from high temperatures, differential pressure, and other specific factors, which appear at deep levels.

The editors are publishing the article by Bovin, Kurlenya and Shemyakin and opening a discussion on the problem of the mining of useful mineral deposits at great depths, since we consider the further, wide discussion of these and other questions to be expedient.