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Long hole stoping

Where large blocks of ore can be identified and the surrounding rock is reasonably strong, then a long hole mining method is generally the lowest cost mining method. The result is not unlike an underground quarry. Access to the top and bottom of the ore block is established with drifts or tunnels. A vertical hole (slot raise) is created within the ore from the top of the block to the bottom. Long holes are drilled to blast vertical slabs off the ore block. Normally a loader will pick up the broken ore from the lower tunnel and take it away to an ore pass. For safety reasons, the loader is operated remotely by a radio control when it is inside the large open stope. Once the ore block has been blasted and extracted, the stope will normally be filled with waste rock to stabilize the void and make possible the extraction of adjoining ore blocks.

This mining method is very popular, and is almost the underground analogy to the advances achieved in mechanizing a large open pit. Where large blocks of ore can be identified in relatively strong rock this method is productive and has low costs.