Technology of back stoping from level floors in gateway and pillar mining areas of extra-thick seams

According to the special requirements of secondary mining of resources in gateway-and-pillar goaf in extra-thick seams of Shanxi, this paper presents a technical proposal of back stoping from level floors. Numerical simulation and theoretical analysis are used to investigate the compaction characteristics of cavities under stress as well as an appropriate mining height of the primary-mining layer based on different mining widths and pillar widths. For Yangjian coal mine, the mining thickness of the first seam during back stoping from level floor is determined to be 3 m, which meets the relevant requirements. Gateway-and-pillar goaf of a single layer has a range of influence of 9 m vertically. If gateway-and-pillar goaf occurs both in 9-1 and 9-5 layers, the range is extended to within 11.2 m. When the mining width of a gateway is less than 2 m or larger than 5 m, the gateway-and-pillar goaf in the upper layer of the primary-mining seam can be filled in and compacted after stoping. When the working face is 2 m away from the gateway and pillar before entering into it and after passing through it, the coal body under the gateway and pillar is subjected to relatively high stress. During mining of the upper layer, moreover, the working face should interlock the goaf in primary-mining layer for 20 m.