• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.387-399
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• 2018

Mine reclamation project is closely related to human's past mining activities and the current human's living environment. It is a reason for the national management. In order to efficiently carry out mine reclamation projects, a precise investigation and analysis of the underground space of the abandoned mine is required. Korea MINE RECLAMATION Corp. is developing a practical technology that is effective in investigating and actually measuring underground cavities. MIRECO EYE system is an exploration equipment for 3D digitization and figuration of underground cavities. As combining a laser, sonar and image acquisition technology, it enables access to information about inaccessible underground cavities and effective management of subsidence risk of mined area. and currently it is also utilized for various purposes in related areas such as investigating urban sinkholes. This article is precise numerical and geometric information analysis obtained through MIRECO EYE system.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.534-544
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• 2009

The collapse of the underground cavity can cause the abrupt local subsidence of the ground surface. It can be hazardous to the stability of road and building for human activity. Therefore it is necessary to develop reinforcement methods for the filling of the underground cavity. This study was executed to improve the material quality and systems to fill the calcium-aluminate mineral $(C_{12}A_7)$ environmentally, and minimize the loss of filling materials for the steep underground cavity. Filling material which was developed in this study is composed of rapid hardening material and additives. The developed material had rapid hardening and non-separation ability in the water cavity condition, so it made the effective underground dam in the cavity with prevention of material loss when it was poured in the water cavity. Results of heavy metal leaching test for environmental assessment showed that it was environmentally suiTable material for the filling in the mine cavity.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.174-181
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• 2001

The cavities created by underground mining, if remained unfilled, can cause ground settlement and surface subsidence as a result of relaxation and breakdown of the carven roof. Construction of structures above the underground mine cavity will have serious problems concerning both structural stability and safely even if the cavity is back-filled. This study was conducted to confirm the location and condition of the cavern as well as the state of the back-fill in A mine area using core logging and borehole camera. The bearing capacity and other mechanical properties of the ground were also measured by the standard penetration test(SPT). Obtained data were used to assess the stability of the ground and the structures to be built by numerical analysis using FLAC. The site investigation results showed that the mine cavities were filled with materials such as boulder and silty sand(SM by unified classification). Result of the numerical analyses indicated that constructing building structures on the over-lying ground above the filled cavities is secure against the potential problems such as surface subsidence and ground settlement.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.525-534
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• 2014

Environmental problems typically occurring in abandoned mine lands (AML) include: contaminated and acidic surface water and groundwater; stockpiled waste rock and mill tailings; and ground subsidences due to mining operations. This study examines the effectiveness of various geophysical techniques for mapping potential hazard and contaminated zones. Four AML sites with sedimentation contamination problems, acid mine drainage (AMD) channels, ground subsidence, manmade liner leakage, and buried mine tailings, were selected to examine the applicability of various geophysical methods to the identification of the different types of mine hazards. Geophysical results were correlated to borehole data (core samples, well logs, tomographic profiles, etc.) and water sample data (pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and heavy metal contents). Zones of low electrical resistivity (ER) corresponded to areas contaminated by heavy metals, especially contamination by Cu, Pb, and Zn. The main pathways of AMD leachate were successfully mapped using ER methods (low anomaly peaks), self-potential (SP) curves (negative peaks), and ground penetrating radar (GPR) at shallow penetration depths. Mine cavities were well located based on composite interpretations of ER, seismic tomography, and well-log records; mine cavity locations were also observed in drill core data and using borehole image processing systems (BIPS). Damaged zones in buried manmade liners (used to block descending leachate) were precisely detected by ER mapping, and buried rock waste and tailings piles were characterized by low-velocity zones in seismic refraction data and high-resistivity zones in the ER data.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.287-296
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• 2020

Mine Reclamation Project is being carried out with the aim of ensuring a sustainable green living and helping to develop eco-friendly mines by analyzing, removing and preventing the harmful factors. Mines developed during the japanese colonial period and mining boom period are still not repaired throughout the country, and from these scattered risks, public safety is worth pursuing as a top priority. The project that is close to public safety in the mine recalmation project is an emergency treatment, and the most widely used method is a filling method similar to the ground subsidence prevention. If dangerous mine cavity or tunnels are located in the mountains, charging with existing materials may not be possible, or unreasonable cases may occur, and new methods of technological development are required. Emergency actions should be carried out safely and efficiently to prevent the loss of precious people's lives on the hiking paths adjacent to dangerous mining sites. In these field conditions, urethane foam materials may be an alternative. In this study, the applicability of urethane foam materials in mining was reviewed through overseas cases. It was also tested on the appropriate depth of top soil for the protection of urethane foam materials through forest fire simulation test. The test result show that approximately 15cm of soil covering (recommended 20cm over) was suitable for maintaining the function of foam materials from forest fires.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.408-416
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• 2015

The collapse of the underground cavities and voids, which were made for developing mineral resources, can cause the subsidence of the ground surface in the residential areas. During the Japanese colonial era and the 1960's mining boom period, lots of mines had been developed indiscriminately in Korea. Due to complicated geological conditions and mining methods, many of dangerous underground mine cavities with steep slopes had been generated at the shallow surface. Due to such conditions, it is difficult to directly apply valid foreign reclamation practice for the cavities in Korea environments. It is necessary to develop the efficient ground stabilization technologies for the Korea underground mine conditions to solve abandoned mine reclamation properly. Therefore, MIRECO and Korea government have been carrying out practical researches and technical developments together with other academic researchers and reclamation business partners, and various practical solutions such as surveying and exploration methods, proper cavity filling materials and reinforcement methods have been developed with application in the mine field. In this article, up to date technologies and R&D trends in the field of mine subsidence prevention technology are broadly reviewed to establish the future direction of a research and development.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.325-334
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• 2016

Rock salt is a near-perfect material for gas storage repositories due to its excellent ductility and low permeability. Gas storage in rock salt layers during gas injection and gas production causes the stress redistribution surrounding the cavity. The triaxial cyclic loading and unloading tests for rock salt were performed in this paper. The elastic-plastic deformation behaviour of rock salt under cyclic loading was observed. Rock salt experienced strain hardening during the initial loading, and the irreversible deformation was large under low stress station, meanwhile the residual stress became larger along with the increase of deviatoric stress. Confining pressure had a significant effect on the unloading modulus for the variation of mechanical parameters. Based on the theory of elastic-plastic damage mechanics, the evolution of damage during cyclic loading and unloading under various confining pressure was described.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.455-465
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• 2016

The collapse of underground mine development void for mineral resources can cause the subsidence of ground surface. In order to prevent the subsidence of ground, data such as maps or pictures of past mining site is important information for current mine reclamation works. In particular, mine subsidence management was based on mining maps and pictures. The process of the mining area surveys, safety evaluation, and ground reinforcement are normally possible with information such as maps and pictures in past mining. During the Japanese colonial period and 1960's, a lot of mines were developed in Korea indiscriminately. However, mining information at that time is limited to use. In the future, mining information will become even more rare. MIRECO intends to establish a realistic alternative solution. In this study, the basic numerical information of developed mine tunnels in Korea is statistically reviewed, and advanced underground cavity measuring technology was studied. 4,473 mine tunnel opening data of 1,784 abandoned mines in korea were collected and sorted. As a result of the analysis, the average value of small mine tunnel openings in Korea was 1.982 m in height and 1.959 m in width. The mean value of shape factor was analyzed as 0.485. The summary of these numerical mine data will be helpful for understanding and researching Korean abandoned mines. Therefore, the development of measurement technology for abandoned mine cavities and tunnels is expected to facilitate more effective mine subsidence management works in Korea.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.107-122
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• 2009

Insufficient reinforcement for maximizing payability and benefits in mining cavities causes subsidence problems and it threatens residents' lives and properties. So many reinforcement management methods are developed and now various methods are being applied in the field. Among them, a filling method which sends reinforcement materials in the cavities is used extensively. However, domestic geological condition and coal mining methods are so complicate that make many steep cavities. Because of those problems, it is difficult to apply foreign methods directly, which is valid for horizontal cavities. In this study, the injection volume of quick setting grouting material which is developed for filling cavities in domestic condition and the shape of consolidated bodies are investigated. And a programming method for estimating proper injection amounts of filling materials is proposed. The results are verified by numerical analysis using UDEC.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.449-463
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• 2014

There are many case studies and application cases in abandoned mines for hydraulic filling method filled by slurry or paste form, but research on the pneumatic filling is not applied in Korea. The damage of steel pipe is occurred by wear due to the flow of filling material in the bent area of steel pipe in traditional pneumatic filling method. In this study, the new pneumatic filling method was developed using a newly devised improved nozzle to improve the above problem. The model test for mine filling was performed in the laboratory for the simulated accessible or inaccessible mine cavities, and the filling efficiency by the results obtained from the test was calculated. The filling efficiency was analyzed from the variation of outlet angle, feed rate and grain size of sand in model test of simulated accessible mine cavity. The superiority of improved pneumatic filling method was proved through the analysis of filling efficiency by the results obtained from each model tests of gravitational, traditional, and improved filling method in simulated inaccessible mine cavity.