Fully Mechanized Longwall Mining in an Underground Bauxite Deposit: A Case Study

Based on the boundary surfaces of bauxite deposit modelled by the two-dimensional biharmonic spline interpolation, it was ascertained that the fully mechanized longwall mining of bauxite is feasible in terms of lithological characteristics, orebed occurrence, physical–mechanical properties of ore–rock, faults, Karst caves, permeable fissures, etc. Furthermore, a comprehensive target function consisting of waste-rock interfused ratio and ore loss ratio was used to obtain the optimal cutting height of shearer by a virtual mining procedure that was proposed to numerically perform the fully mechanized longwall mining. For the 1102 longwall mining panel in Wachangping Bauxite Mine, the optimal cutting height of shearer ranges from 1.16 to 2.32 m supplied from two 1.16-m-diameter cutting drums, which meets the requirement of low-waste and high-recovery mining to achieve high-grade and low-loss exploitations of underground bauxite. These efforts can improve the application and popularization of fully mechanized longwall mining in non-coal underground mines. © 2017, Springer International Publishing AG.