Recently the inclined return airway on -288m was successfully connected with line 18 drift on -195m, which tremendously enhanced the ventilation and working conditions on -288m, thus increased the efficiency and created better environment for long-hole drilling operations.
The inclined return airway is the key path for the development on -288m, it is 195m in length and connected with not only the bottom but four different sub-levels on -288m through preparatory decline. Therefore the connection of inclined return airway is critical for the sufficient ventilation at all work faces and for the timely commencement of long-hole drilling on -288m, which is also on the priority list of management attention.
Due to tight schedule, single end development, bad condition, multiple workshops were held to come up with plans to ensure sooner completion of inclined return airway; with specific measures such as using hand-held drills for preparatory decline, shift to Boomer 281 for excavation of inclined return airway. Meanwhile 24hrs operation is implemented for the airway in order to minimize the interruptions by other operations with jumbo, i.e the repetition of drilling, scaling, charging, blasting, ventilation and mucking is non-stoppable until the successful completion of excavation.
The timely completion of inclined return airway bought valuable time for future mining and blasting on -288m. As ventilation is enhanced, long-hole drilling operation has commenced, which laid a solid foundation for Q2 target.
