458 A new mining method: double post mining

A new mining method:

Double post mining

Octavio Alvídrez O. 1 , Javier Berumen M. 1,

Charles Gryba 2 , Iván Arriagada 3,
Michael Arriagada3

1
Industrias Peñoles

2
DPM Mining Inc

3
EDC Mining Ltd

Abstract
As part of Peñoles’ strategic vision a decision was made to search the globe for alternative mining
methods which would vastly improve production and safety at their mines. A dinner meeting at the
PDAC in Toronto in March 2010 between Ivan Arriagada, then with Wardrop (Tetra Tek), and Armando
Sanchez of Peñoles led to a discussion of Double Post Mining (hereafter referred to as “DPM”). This
led to a DPM presentation for senior members of Peñoles mining team followed by a positive cost and
technical study, which ultimately led to the current phase of DPM test mining at the Madero Mine in
Zacatecas, México.
DPM is a patented mining method that generates room and pillar productivity in midsized
underground orebodies. Mine planning starts by generating a 7.5m x 7.5m x 6m high block model,
with mining progressing from the top down in 6m lifts. The initial lift (the “Top Slice”) is standard drift
and fill mining, but prior to CRF backfilling concrete posts are inserted into the ground and concrete
floors are poured. On completion of top slicing one ends up with a continuous reinforced concrete
floor, which then becomes the roof of the next lower lift, supported by a 7.5m grid of posts.
A combination of inserted and filler posts allows for a continuous system to set up as part
of the mining/backfill cycle; mining and backfilling proceed in parallel. With DPM, 100% of the
orebody is mined. Subsequent mining is similar to working in a car parkade with a concrete roof and
posts. DPM substantially reduces the amount of scaling, rock bolting, cable bolting, shotcreting, long
hole drilling, slot raising etc, thus safety statistics will improve. Economic factors such as 50% less
capital development, earlier production, better dilution control, 100% ore recovery, higher labor and
equipment productivity plus improved safety more than offset the cost of posts, concrete and rebar.
Golder FLAC 3D modeling indicates that 15m wide panels (stopes) can be set up; primary
panels are mined and backfilled to form pillars so the secondary panels can be mined and backfilled.
All aspects of mining and backfilling over the life cycle of the DPM área can be monitored with load
cells in real time, thus ensuring safety and the possibility for future optimization as the method is being
mine-proven at the Madero mine.
This paper will explain the DPM mining method, the Golder modeling of the concept, the
instrumentation to be used in the mine and the advantages of the DPM process. This will be followed
by a description of the research and development process Peñoles followed that led to the decision to
mine prove the DPM mining system at the 7000 tpd Madero base metal mine.

Introduction: Dpm Mining Method
DPM mining is based on mining 6m lifts of 800 to 1200 ton
blocks of ore generated by a Gemcom or Datamine 3D geolo-
gical block modal. Each DPM room is mined by 2 drift rounds
or a combination of drift rounds and slashes that dimensiona-
lly match the geological block model; the model becomes the
stoping plan for the orebodies with 100% ore recovery.
DPM mines the orebody from the top down. The ini-
tial lift utilizes standard drift and fill mining except a grid
of 7.5m concrete posts and a continuous concrete floor is
installed prior to backfilling with cemented rock fill (CRF).
Lower lifts are similar to room and pillar mining but carried
out under a concrete roof temporarily supported by a grid of
concrete posts. As with any new technology there are a few

AIMMGM, XXIX Convención Internacional de Minería, Acapulco, Gro., México, Octubre 26–29, 2011.
 Octavio Alvídrez O., Javier Berumen M., Charles Gryba, P.Eng, Iván Arriagada, Michael Arriagada
new terms that have been developed to explain the system
e.g. DPM top slicing, DPM rooms, double posting, pre brea-
king around posts and filler posts.
DPM is a very flexible mining method that can use
drill blast muck techniques for hard ore and roadheaders for
Figure 1: Typical DPM Rooms and Terminology.
softer ores. Mining can be done in any direction under the
concrete floor and it can extend out past the concrete to fo-
llow the ore – this new área then becomes a top slice. Every
DPM room within the orebody will have exactly the same
standard design. The outer perimeter rooms have the addi-
tion of wall pins and rebar hangers to support the perimeter
of the concrete floor slab.
The backfill cycle is very standardized; install the
Figure 2: DPM Post Layout – Plan View.
Acta de Sesiones
459
posts, prepare and pour the concrete floors, then fill with
CRF. Posting starts with drilling a grid of post holes surve-
yed to match the corner location of each ore block. A precast
concrete post is than installed into each hole, followed by
drilling pre-shearing holes around the post.
Figure 3: DPM Post Layout – Section View.
Preparation for installing the concrete floor starts with
spreading a layer broken followed by a layer of plastic; the
ore acts as a cushion to prevent blast damage to the concrete
roof while the layer of plastic keeps wet concrete from lea-
king into the cushion material. At this time filler posts are
installed in the DPM lifts – they are bolted to the bottom
flange of the post from the previous lift forming the double
posting system.
Rodolfo Corona Esquivel y J.A. Gómez Caballero, eds .
460 A new mining method: double post mining

Rebar and welded concrete mesh can now be installed,
followed by special concrete forms that are backfilled with
sand. Removing the sand after the adjacent room is mined
allows the rebar to be over lapped, thus forming a continuous
concrete floor. Standard 3000psi concrete is pumped to com-
plete the reinforced slab. Once the concrete floor sets the
CRF is tight filled using a push blade on an LHD plus a Paus
Slinger truck for the nooks and crannies.
The DPM mining and backfill cycles use only stan-
dard mine proven equipment, concrete and CRF. Subse-
quent DPM mining is then carried out under the pre-posted
composite roof beam comprised of reinforced concrete plus
tightly-packed CRF. Ivan Arriagada and his current company
– EDC Mining Ltd. – has been involved in developing DPM
from the beginning and has now been retained to provide
the detail engineering required to bring DPM to completion.
However, before production could begin, there remained two
large question marks: what is the loading on the concrete
posts; and does post loading increase with each additional
mining lift?
Golder Modeling
Joe Carvello, PhD of Golder Toronto was retained to model
the test mining área using FLAC 3D. Based on previous 2D
modeling 0.4m diameter concrete posts and a 7.5m x 7.5m x
6m room size was fixed. An 8 room wide x 12 room long by
5 lift high (or 400,000t) área was selected to allow for maxi-
mum load development within the backfill; excavation is via
primary and secondary panels 2 rooms (15m) wide accessed
from a central entry drift. The concrete floor was modeled

Figure 4: Golder Modeling Plan.

Figure 5: Golder FLAC 3D Model Results.

AIMMGM, XXIX Convención Internacional de Minería, Acapulco, Gro., México, Octubre 26–29, 2011.
 Octavio Alvídrez O., Javier Berumen M., Charles Gryba, P.Eng, Iván Arriagada, Michael Arriagada
only as a tension member as the concrete floor plus cemen-
ted rock fill act as a composite beam.
A total of 10 computer runs were performed using va-
rious stiffness’ for the backfill, posts and floors; each run
taking about 120 to 150 hours to completely mine the 480
blocks. Snapshots of data results were captured every 15 mi-
nutes for analysis.
Some of the results were:
1. Normal 6% cemented rock fill generated post
loading mainly between 100t and 250t and the loads sta-
bilized after 4 lifts. Posts were designed for 400t thus post
loading is about 50% of the design strength of the posts in
compression.
Figure 6: Golder FLAC 3D Post Loading Results.
2. To mobilize the backfill strength of typical 6% CRF
the posts had to be compressible; weaker fills have to move
further to arch loads to the walls thus causing more post
compression. DPM has designed 400t capacity compression
springs that can be adjusted to match the required movement.
3. The concrete floors act only as a tensile member to
confine the CRF and the loads arched as predicated. Backfill
arching is seen on 2 scales – initially it remains within the
DPM rooms; as additional lifts are mined it expands to cover
the lift.
4. Surprisingly with weaker fills the tensile loads on
the posts in the backfill reduced to 300t. The concrete posts
in effect become large friction rockbolts in the composite
CRF beam. To take advantage of this anchoring phenomenon
the posts were redesigned with flanges to attain a continuous
150t tensile strength for individual posts and 300t for double
posting.
Wardrop was then retained to provide an initial civil
design for the posts and floors. As actual mine data is collec-
ted the Golder model will be updated to verify results and to
find improvements in the DPM system.
Acta de Sesiones
461
Instrumentation
Through the years many attempts have been made to fully
instrument a mine to provide useful, real-time feedback with
regards to loads, stresses, etc. DPM provides the framework
for this type of instrumentation coverage. Dr. Andrew Hy-
ett of Yield Point is on board to design the instrumentation
package in conjunction with DPM Mining Inc, EDC Mining
Ltd and Golder.
The main item to be instrumented is the concrete post
loading as one goes through the mining and backfill cycle.
However this alone will not provide a snapshot of what is
happening within the backfill and concrete floors – for
example is the fill separating from the stope back while the
backfill arches? This type of technical questioning soon lead
to list of the various items that had to be monitored with uni-
que instrumentation to provide the necessary answers.
Figure 7: Instrumentation Layout
A summary of the instrumentation installed in a qua-
drant of the test mine área or 9 sets of posts is as follows:
1. Instrumented cable bolts installed in the back above
9 post locations to measure the movement of the hanging
wall or the convergence of the HW into the backfill thus
loading the backfill. Similarly cables could be installed in
the perimeter walls to see if the walls converge into the bac-
kfill
2. Similar instrumented cables anchored at the back,
extending through the CRF and bolted to the top of the 9
posts supporting the top concrete floor will measure the ele-
vation of the concrete floor vs. the back to see if there is any
separation of fill from the back.
3. Instrumented cables will measure a range of ten-
sile loads in key áreas of floor slab loading to monitor the
tension in the rebar. Cables can also be installed around the
perimeter of the floor slab to see what stresses are encoun-
tered near the edge of the floor. Similarly by draping cables
over a 2 inch diameter wall pin with the ends anchored in
Rodolfo Corona Esquivel y J.A. Gómez Caballero, eds .
462 A new mining method: double post mining
the floor slab the loading along the walls can be measured.
4. The concrete post compression movement and post
loading will be measured by the reduction in height of the
compression members below the posts. The concrete posts
have been designed with a conduit pipe to allow instrumen-
tation wires to run though the post and through conduit im-
bedded in the concrete floor slabs. Post compression pads
bolt to the post bottom flange and are reusable.
5. The tensile loading of the post can be measured in
several ways, instrumented cable bolts cast in the concrete
parallel to the rebar or a standard mine extensometer could
be installed into a conduit in the post and anchored to the top
and bottom steel flanges.
6. Instrumented 3/4inch dia. flange bolts will be used
between the instrumented posts to monitor tensile loads from
one post to the next.
7. The Golder 3D modal shows the backfill loads ar-
ching to the walls. Custom instrument packs are being deve-
loped to monitor the loads within the backfill to ensure the
arching is developing as predicted, to check if the backfill is
separating from the floor or back, and to monitor in real-time
what is happening as the backfill is being compressed (pac-
ked) into place.
8. Tilt meters will be located in various áreas of the
concrete floor to see how the floor is bending near the con-
crete posts or how the floor edges bend as one goes through
the mining or backfill cycle.
All of the instrumentation that leaves the Yield Point
factory is calibrated with it’s own on board computer and ba-
ttery power supply. Each instrument has its own custom data
file thus downloading data from a number of instruments au-
tomatically feeds into the proper data file. Results can be
transmitted to Golder at regular intervals as each lift is mined
to update the 3D model.
DPM Changes Mine Planning
DPM mining provides a new mining method that has the po-
tential to totally revolutionize underground mine planning
of midsized orebodies. The key breakthrough comes from
the small stope size - 7.5m x 7.5m x 6m - that has a rein-
forced concrete roof held up by 4 large concrete posts. The
individual blocks in the initial geological block model now
becomes the stoping plan!
DPM was developed 25 years ago but until recently
computer modeling wasn’t powerful enough to recalculate
the redistribution of loads every time a drift round was remo-
ved in an individual DPM room. The Golder FLAC 3D mo-
deling answered many of the what if questions: what is the
loading on the posts? Does the loading increase with each
lower lift? How strong does the backfill have to be? How
AIMMGM, XXIX Convención Internacional de Minería, Acapulco, Gro., México, Octubre 26–29, 2011.
thick do the concrete floors have to be? With these questions
now answered, DPM and all the advantages associated with
it can now move forward.
DPM Mining Inc. is approaching the initial mine in a
very methodical way to eliminate risk in the process as much
as possible. We are in the early stages but the benefits to
the mine owner are immediately apparent – these are listed
below:
1. DPM mine planning - The mine plan for DPM
mining is the geological block model; all that is required is
access to the top 6m high mining lift and a second access
for ventilation and egress. Mining and backfilling of 100%
of the 6m lift proceeds in parallel. A safe planning rule of
thumb is that an orebody can support a 1000tpd mining rate
per 100 ore blocks – with the number of blocks known the
mining rate can be estimated and then the mine infrastructure
designed to suite. Parallel mining and backfilling plus 100%
of the ore lift in production gives a much higher mining
rate per million tons of orebody compared to other mining
methods such as blasthole or cut and fill stoping.
2. Following the Ore - the normal mine planning pro-
cess of designing and scheduling stopes and pillars is an ite-
ration process; planning various scenarios takes time and a
change in orebody size or shape or a change in metal prices
requires a complete redesign. The versatility of DPM means
that mining can halt at any point under the concrete floor if
the orebody ends or the grade diminishes. Similarly mining
can continue past the concrete to follow the ore, in effect
becoming a new top slice. This means that a change in the
shape of the ore body or grade will not affect production or
require a redesign. Also, if ore values increase, a road header
can drive through the backfill to reach now profitable ore at
the far end of the ore body.
3. Elimination of Work – DPM eliminates most
ground control functions such as rock bolting, cable bol-
ting and shotcreting (except for the top slicing). Other mi-
ning functions like cut lose raises, long hole drilling and the
equipment to carry out the functions are reduced. DPM also
eliminates a lot of higher cost mining functions – primary,
secondary and sill pillar recoveries, fill fences or bulkheads
etc. Most mines spend 30% of their labor and material on
ground control. Ground control work also reduces develop-
ment advance rates by 30 to 50% - more development foo-
tage or headings, more delays. By eliminating development
work, both productivity and safety statistics improve by that
percentage.
4. Ore Recovery - The initial geological block model
with conventional mining methods is usually chopped by
20% or so by the mining engineers as the size of stopes and
pillars don’t necessarily follow the orebody. Room and pillar
 Octavio Alvídrez O., Javier Berumen M., Charles Gryba, P.Eng, Iván Arriagada, Michael Arriagada
or post pillar mining methods leave an additional 20 to 30%
of the orebody behind. DPM recovers 100% of the ore iden-
tified by the geological block. DPM mining can also remove
internal dilution as well, thus the mining grade can be hig-
her than the original block model average geological grade.
Room grades are confirmed by mapping, face sampling and
post hole chip sampling. The orebody can be mined selec-
tively with minimum of internal and wall dilution. Econo-
mic mine life of Madero could be extended 4 or more years,
plus DPM ore grade may substantially increase mill revenue.
Other Peñoles mines may have a similar increase in mine life
or revenue per ton milled.
5. Capital Development Cost – DPM mines the ore-
body from the top down; pre production waste development
is limited to providing access to the top 6m lift or multi-
ple locations depending on the size or shape of the orebody.
Two other factors come into play – less development leads to
quicker ore production plus a higher mining rate is achieved
earlier. Operating revenue reduces the capital cost dollar for
dollar thus the ROI of the project is substantially increased.
6. Mechanized Mining – DPM provides room to ma-
neuver large road headers and the concrete roof eliminates
falls of ground. Ground that is soft enough to cut with a
roadheader usually limits the safe size of openings; the DPM
concrete roofs and posts eliminate most ground imperfec-
tions. If there is a combination of weak and hard ore the hard
sections can be drilled and blasted.
7. Cemented Tailings Fill - Future development of
DPM will examine other opportunities for improvement,
such as using paste fill to replace CRF. Using paste fill the
posts may have to compress 250mm and post spacing may
have to be reduced to 6m x 6m. Once the Golder 3D model
is calibrated by mining with stiff fill, weaker fills can be mo-
deled.
8. Safety – Reducing accidents is a complex opera-
tion; the largest source of accidents is development work,
scaling, rock bolting and other ground control functions.
Falls of ground, falls of backfill or unexpected pillar or back
failures, working on broken ore, runs of fill, driving raises
etc are all source of injuries. In base metal mines large stope
blasts often cause dust explosions. DPM creates a shop like
work environment that can be monitored, uses large equip-
ment with high productivity and reduces the number of mi-
ners underground. New hazards such as tripping on rebar or
chemical burns from working with concrete will have to be
identified and managed.
Peñoles Approach to Research and Development
Peñoles has been underground mining in México for 130
years. With multiple mines in production, Peñoles has conti-
Acta de Sesiones
463
nuously purchased all of the modern mining equipment as it
became mine proven, including raise bore machines, road-
headers, electric hydraulic drills, automated shotcrete and
cable bolting machines etc. Modern equipment has proven
to be only a partial mining solution. Productivity and cost
savings have plateaued for all conventional mining methods
such as room and pillar, cut and fill and blast hole stoping.
Rather than just funding R&D Peñoles started sear-
ching globally for mining systems that had the potential
to make a fundamental change on how they mined. Javier
Berumen, a very experienced Peñoles mining engineer, re-
membered DPM mining from the CIM 2000 Conference in
Toronto. Armando Sanchez approached DPM mining at the
2009 PDA in Toronto via Ivan Arriagada who was Senior
Mining Engineer for Wardrop – Tetra Tech. A DPM – War-
drop presentation was made to 20 senior Peñoles technical
and operating staff in Torreon.
Peñoles, Wardrop and DPM mining had a series of
meetings to pick the test mine location and secondly to de-
sign a program to independently 3D modal and cost DPM
mining using the Madero Mine cost components. Subse-
quently several meetings were held with Golder to design
FLAC 3D program parameters. Once the 3D Golder mode-
ling and Wardrop preliminary civil engineering was comple-
te; Wardrop mining engineers were able to estimate costs and
recommend a test mining project to confirm the 3D mode-
ling parameters.
Peñoles chose the Madero Mine in Zacatecas for the
test mine location. Madero is Manto type low grade 3% zinc,
2% Pb and 1 opt silver mine. The NSR dollar value of the
ore at the time test mining location was chosen was $47 per
tonne. The mine has been in production for 10 years, and
mills at 7,000 tpd. The main mining method is room and pi-
llar mining with 6m wide rooms and a grid of 6m x 6m post
pillars; development waste is used for fill when available.
The initial test mine location covered a 7 room by 12
room plan área with separate ramp access to each of 5, 6m
high mining lifts or about 470 rooms. Updating the ore reser-
ves plus extending the test mine along strike has tripled the
number of rooms to 1500. The DPM test mine and the Gol-
der 3D model have similar plan dimensions thus allowing
rapid updating of the FLAC 3D model.
Mini Test Mine
From both a safety and cost viewpoint it is critical to have
hard engineering data before top slicing a 1500 room block
of ore. One major advantage of DPM is that it is scalable.
Based on the Golder 3D modeling the maximum backfill
loading is on the 1st lift and based on the post pattern the
maximum área loading a single post is 4 rooms. All aspects
Rodolfo Corona Esquivel y J.A. Gómez Caballero, eds .
464 A new mining method: double post mining

of mini test mine can be instrumented thus obtaining real
data for a final set of civil calculations. The test mine also
allows for field proving all operational and safety aspects of
both the mining and backfill cycles.
The initial post can be a small diameter steel post with
a top flange that is the same diameter as the production posts.
The concrete floor in the 4 rooms would have an initial 1m x
1m pattern of 25mm rebar with a couple of layers of concrete
mesh. The edges of the concrete slab will be suspended from
2 inch diameter pins with hangers made from 25mm rebar.
The floor rebar, edge rebar, post compression pad and back-
fill can all be instrumented to see what happens as more and
more concrete floor is exposed. Results from the calibration
of this small scale test mine can be used to eliminate risk
from the large scale 5 lift mine.
Wardrop Cost Study
Once the Golder modeling was complete, the main parame-
ters fixed and a preliminary civil design completed, the min-
ing and backfill productivities were estimated. DPM mining
is one of the easiest mining methods to cost because each
DPM room is exactly the same. Madero actual costs for la-
bor and material were used for the Wardrop cost estimates.
Typical components for estimating the cost of top slicing and
the cost of mining a DPM room are summarized in the tables
below.
In summary, DPM mining and backfill costs will be
approximately the same as Peñoles current mining cost per
tonne. The main economic factor is that the DPM ore reco-
very increases 30%. A second major advantage is that whi-
le top slicing the post location can be test drilled to a 30m

Table 1: DPM ROOM PARAMETERS

Room Width 7.5m

Room Length 7.5m
Room Height 6.0m
Área 56.3 m2
Volume 337.5m3
Ore Specific Gravity 3.00t/m3
Tonnes per Room 1012.5t
Post to Room Ratio (Top Slice + 4 DPM Levels) 1.11
Table 2: COST SUMMARY PER DPM ROOM
Task Description Top Slice DPM
Top Slice Drift 5 m x 6 m H. x 3.75 m round (3 rounds) $9,051
DPM Drift 6 m x 6 m H. x 3.75 m round (2 rounds x 2 $5,553
Drill Post Holes 0.60 m diameter x 5.5 m length $645 $645
Insert Post 0.50 m diameter x 6.5 m length $690 $690
Drill & Blast Helper Holes 8 @ 30 mm diameter x 6m $369 $369
Stood Post 0.50 m diameter x 5.5 m length $567
Ventilation Manway and Services $87 $87
Concrete Floors 0.25 m, 19m3 (materials and labor) $3,483
Concrete Floors 0.25 m, 19m3 (materials and labor) $3,483
Tight Fill Room 6.0% cement, 700 tons fill $1,751 $1,751
Total Cost per Room $16,076 $13,145
Cost per Ton $15.88 $12.98
Weighted Cost per Ton (Top Slice + 4 DPM Levels) $13.43

AIMMGM, XXIX Convención Internacional de Minería, Acapulco, Gro., México, Octubre 26–29, 2011.
 Octavio Alvídrez O., Javier Berumen M., Charles Gryba, P.Eng, Iván Arriagada, Michael Arriagada 465

TABLE 3: AVERAGE MINING CYCLE

Man Shifts Man Shifts

PRODUCTION CYCLE
Drill- Blast –Muck 2 rds per DPM room 3.00 6.00
BACKFILL CYCLE {POSTING = UNIT WORK X POST ROOM RATIO)
Drill post holes 1 man 3 holes per shift 0.33 0.37
Insert Posts 3 men 3 posts per shift 1.00 1.1 I
Drill & Blast Helper 1 man 3 posts per shift 0.33 0.37
Stand posts 3 men 3 posts per shift 1.00 1.11
Vent Manway and Every 16 rooms plus extensions 0.50 1.00
Pour concrete floor Rebar screen, level concrete etc. 3.00 1.50
Tight fill room 1.50 1.50
10.67 12.96
Tonnes/ 78.13

depth by deepening a helper hole. This allows rerunning the
block model to identifying sub ore grade blocks that can be
mined, used as backfill or left in situ; whichever is more cost
effective.
The price of cement and rebar are two of the major
cost components. Once CRF test work is done a 4 room by 2
lift DPM test stopes will be set up and test mined to confirm
the steel design, the Golder 3D assumptions, safely check
critical components and operational procedures by actual
test mining on a small scale. DPM room costs can then be
re calculated using accurate field data for cement and steel.
The capital cost of the specialized equipment required
for DPM mining and backfilling is about $4,000,000. With
current metal prices the profit margin of mining and milling;
an extra 150,000t of ore more than pays for the extra DPM
test mining costs. Applying the 30% extra recovery to the
current Madero proven and probable reserves indicates mine
life would be extended by 4 years at the current 7000tpd mi-
lling rate. The decision was made to go ahead with the DPM
test mine.
DPM Summary
DPM offers many benefits when compared to stan-
dard methods used today. These advantages to DPM are
highlighted in the following list:
• Improved Safety – Majority of work is performed
under a pre-posted, continuous concrete floor which elimina-
tes most ground control issues. Combined with minimizing
development work and real-time feedback, these result in a
much safer work environment.
• 100% Ore Recovery
• Easier Mine Planning – The block model becomes
the mine plan.
• Block Model Updating – as post holes/drift rounds
are drilled, the ore can be analyzed and block model updated
to ensure accuracy.
• Reduction in Dilution – DPM allows for “chasing”
the ore so the mine can halt if ore grade drops, which leads
to;
• Increased Ore Recovery – if a higher grade is found
the mine can continue to “follow the ore” in whichever di-
rection is required.
• Minimal Development Work – Since DPM works
from the top down, the ore is reached much quicker. Also,
the use of internal ramps can further reduce development.
• Improved Productivity – Wide spans (made pos-
sible by the concrete ceiling) and multiple faces allow the
drill/blast/muck, posting and backfilling cycles to be carried
out in parallel which leads to improved productivity.
• Control of Big Muck – DPM produces only drift
muck.
• Real-Time Feedback – with DPM the mine can be
fully instrumented; posts, floors and backfill all contain sen-
sors providing real-time loading/stresses to the mine engi-
neer ensuring a safe work environment.
While the two main benefits to DPM mining are 100%
ore recovery and much improved safety, the combination of
all the above factors results in quicker start-up/production,
improved productivity, improved quality, and reduced costs,
all while maintaining a safe work environment.

Acta de Sesiones Rodolfo Corona Esquivel y J.A. Gómez Caballero, eds .