The study of collimated aperture cutting method

The parallel cutting method is the main technique of drivage cutting that is adopted by a underground hard rock uranium mine located at the southern China. In terms of the parallel cutting method, it is known as extensive drill-holes, prolonged drilling process, high labour intensity and also the regular consumption of electricity and explosive. Whereas the collimated aperture cutting method is a recent adopted drivage cutting method which combines the advantages of oblique cutting method and parallel cutting method. It requires less drill-holes, shorter drilling time, lower labour intensity and also it achieves a higher performance of explosion but requires less electricity and explosive. The collimated cutting method has now obtained a widespread application in underground coal mining and also the railway and highway tunnelling process. Based on the experiments under different conditions, it is proven that the application of collimated aperture cutting method can efficiently lower the cost of extraction and the underground labour time. Therefore the collimated aperture cutting method should be conducting on extensive underground mines as its remarkable advantages on drivage cutting processes. (authors)