State of Art of MOIL for Introduction of Modern Technology for Underground Mining Operations in Narrow and Weak Manganese Deposits of Central India

MOIL Limited is the largest producer of manganese ore and its value added products in India. Exploiting manganese from late 18th century, since then, the company has passed through many phases of technological developments by innovation and state of art for higher production, productivity and safety. MOIL operates 10 mines, except 3, rest of the mines is worked through underground. The Balaghat Mine is the largest and deepest underground manganese mine in Asia. The manganese deposits in central India are unique in respect of their formation. The ore body is basically sedimentary deposit with various types of geological disturbances and very poor rock mass quality with varying dip. The exploitation of narrow ore bodies with weak rock masses of manganese deposits in central India is a difficult and challenging task. Since 1994, all the underground mines of MOIL were using horizontal cut and fill method of stoping with various supporting systems, like pack pillars and timber square with manual rock/waste filling system. In order to improve the safety and productivity, the Company has introduced cable bolting techniques by modification of drilling rig by state of art and subsequently successfully introduced hydraulic sand stowing in all underground mines. This has changed total scenario of underground operations and helped to introduce mobile mining equipments such as SDL, LHD and Single Boomer - Jumbo Drill for underground operations in phased manner. The paper presents the successful story and state of art of MOIL that has helped for incremental improvements in safety, production and productivity of MOIL.