Underground mining methods via boreholes and multilateral blast-holes

A method for underground mining in rock comprising:

• drilling one or more service boreholes from a surface location into an underground rock body;
• drilling a plurality of multilateral blast holes branching from one of the one or more service boreholes using a drilling assembly extending from the surface;
• loading one or more of the multilateral blast holes with one or more explosive charges and one or more detonators, the one or more explosive charges and the one or more detonators inserted from surface;
• detonating the one or more explosive charges wirelessly to fragment the underground rock body;
• and
• extracting fragmented rock via an existing mine.

A method for underground mining in rock comprising:

• drilling one or more service boreholes from a surface location into an underground rock body;
• drilling a plurality of subterranean multilateral blast holes into the rock body, the plurality of subterranean multilateral blast holes branching from at least one of the one or more service boreholes using a drilling assembly extending from the surface;
• loading the subterranean multilateral blast holes with one or more explosive charges and one or more detonators, the one or more explosive charges and the one or more detonators inserted from surface;
• detonating the one or more explosive charges wirelessly to fragment the underground rock body;
• and
• flushing a fluid through the fragmented underground rock body to extract a soluble or finely fragmented constituent of the fragmented underground rock body.