Application of Highwall Mining System to Recover Residual Coal in End-walls

At open pit coal mines, a large amount of coal is left around the end-walls due to the stability of slope, mining boundary, and so on. In order to increase coal recovery of open pit coal mines,the application of a highwall mining system for residual coal around the end-walls is proposed. This mining method can be extracted the coals abandoned around end-walls efficiently. However, in order to introduce this mining system to open pit coal mines safely and efficiently, the adequate mining design considering n ot only stability of end-walls but also coal recovery ratio has to be investigated.This paper discusses the applicability of a highwall mining system for recovering plenty of coal left around the end -walls and its appropriate design by means of numerical analysis.