Longhole stope overbreak has always been a source of unwanted cost
within the underground mining industry, and efforts to control it using
various rock reinforcement systems have long been a rock engineering
challenge. At the Pasminco Mining Broken Hill Operations trials have been
carried out using an innovative cable bolt reinforcement system known as
Rib-Roc. The system, based loosely on the Swedish Rib-in-Roc concept,
utilises zones or ribs of heavily reinforced rock in the troublesome
hangingwall and back areas of longhole stoping. The trials were carried out under a strict qualitative and quantitative
scientific stope measurement program utilising rock mechanics
instrumentation. Not only did the trial demonstrate the success of the
system but data obtained was useful in implementing the system virtually
as standard practice throughout the operation.