Upward mining unlocks untapped coal reserves, boosts energy security for communities.
The study used ANSYS to investigate mining a coal seam near an over gob left by room and pillar mining. The results showed that a 6m coal pillar remained stable after mining, the middle coal seam could be mined upward, the floor of the middle coal seam was stable with longwall mining, and the maximum surface subsidence was 613mm with a maximum horizontal movement of 13.6mm. This suggests that mining the coal seam near the over gob left by room and pillar mining is safe and feasible.
