Abstract
In underground mining, hang-ups due to coarse fragmentation are frequently observed in drawpoints, drawbells, and ore passes during ore draw. Hang-ups can often require operational interference and hang-up removal activities. Drawpoint and drawbell design has been shown in some studies to influence hang-ups; however, the full extent of this influence remains open to question. In this study, the discrete element method was used to analyze the effect of hang-ups on three distinct drawbell geometries: the Drawer type, Circular type, and El Teniente type. The drawer type was used as the base case given that data was available from a physical model in which hang-ups were studied. The drawer type base case data was then used to calibrate our numerical model. Results show that the El Teniente drawbell geometry sustained 13% more hang-up events as compared with the base case, while the circular drawbell geometry had 16% fewer hang-up events than the base case. From this study, it can be concluded that fewer hang-up events will occur with a rounded drawbell geometry.
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Acknowledgments
This paper was funded by the CONICYT/PIA Project AFB220002. The authors thank Diane Greenstein for her support in editing.
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Castro, R., Cid, P., Gómez, R. et al. The influence of drawbell geometry on hang-ups during ore extraction. Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration 40, 787–792 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42461-023-00756-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42461-023-00756-8