open stoping

Open stoping is a method in underground mining where large rooms, called stopes, are created by excavating ore. This technique is viable when the surrounding rock is strong enough to support the excavation without artificial reinforcement.1

A common form of open stoping is room-and-pillar mining, where sections of ore are left as pillars to support the roof over flat-lying ore bodies.1

Other stoping methods exist for different ore body shapes and rock strengths. For instance, shrinkage stoping is used for steeply dipping, narrow ore bodies, while blasthole stoping is employed for steep, regular, and thick deposits. In contrast, cut-and-fill mining is used when artificial support is necessary, with waste materials back-filling the stope as ore is removed.231