Vertical transportation system of solid material for backfilling coal mining technology

For transportation of solid backfill material such as waste and fly ash from the surface to the bottom of the shaft in a fully mechanized backfilling coal backfilling coal mining technology, we developed a new vertical transportation system to transport this type of solid backfill material. Given the demands imposed on safely in feeding this material, we also investigated the structure and basic parameter of this system. For a mine in the Xingtai mining area the results show that: (1) a vertical transportation system should include three main parts, i.e., a feeding borehole, a maintenance chamber and a storage silo; (2) we determined that 486 mm is a suitable diameter for bore holes, the diameter of the storage silo is 6 m and its height 30 m in this vertical transportation system; (3) a conical buffer was developed to absorb the impact during the feeding process. To ensure normal implementation of fully mechanized backfilling coal mining technology and the safety of underground personnel, we propose a series of security technologies for anti-blockage, storage silo cleaning, high pressure air release and aspiration. This vertical transporting system has been applied in one this particular mine, which has fed about 4 million tons solid material with a feeding depth of 350 m and safely exploited 3 million tons of coal.