Longwall mining for room and pillar systems - in which panels enclosed by headings have centre road

摘要

Longwall mining in the coal industry involves parallel roads linked by right angle rise headings to enclose panels for winning back to the residual pillar, with the aid of a machine with either independent loader or a conveyor travelling in the rise headings. The panels (1) run lengthways parallel to the machine track and are worked in two units. The rise headings (3) of the two rows of panels formed by the centre road (2) are offset. When the machine (5) and loader (13) or conveyor (4) have extracted a panel (1) back to the pillar (A), the machine etc, stands at the rise heading (3) serving the next panel. It can thus be run through the centre road to the rise heading on the opposite side.