Study Of Stresses Around Underground Excavations Of An Operating Mine By Photoelastic Models

The purpose of this study is to determine the distribution of stresses in a particular portion of the ore body of an operating mine. DESCRIPTION OF GEOLOGY The ore body of this base metal mine is a lenticular mass of copper-zinc-iron sulfides, enclosed in a drag-folded quartz mica schist. The schistose host rock has steep dip which varies from north to south and an east-west strike. The drag-fold plunges eastward at about 35º, and this gives a rake of similar inclination to the bottom horizon of the ore zone. The core of massive sulfides is surrounded by an irregular envelope of disseminated sulfides in the schist, so that stope walls are comprised, in most cases, of strongly foliated schist. Adjoining the schist on the south is competent gneiss, while instrusive into the schist in a direction nearly parallel to the foliation is a series of discontinuous quartz diorite dikes, whose contacts with the schist often prove to be lines of weakness. Coarse to fine-grained pegmatites of irregular dimensions are a second type of intrusive associated with the ore body. These dikes generally strike north-east and dip westerly at about 65º. They therefore intersect the schist at an obtuse angle. The dikes are considered to be older than the massive