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US 3,937,025 AGranted
Inflatable envelope systems for use in excavations
OwnerAlberto M. Alvarez-Calderon F.inventor
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OwnerAlberto M. Alvarez-Calderon F.inventor
Estimating the term…
This invention pertains to inflatable envelope apparatus or pressurized container structures and associated methods to be used together with slurry products of concentrated or metallurgical plants in backfilling and other operations involving subterranean works. The pressurized container structures are envelopes which can be fabricated of various materials and shapes, or other light weight pressurized containers, the shape or volume of which is sustained by internal gas pressure. The technique for extracting a metal bearing substance comprises several steps, the principal ones being the placing within a subterranean chamber a pressurized envelope structure, pouring into the chamber adjacent the envelope structure slurry products emanating from a concentrator or flotation plant which lie in contact with but external to the pressurized envelope. The slurry is dewatered or otherwise solidified after which the metal bearing substances located adjacent to the envelope are extracted using equipment acting from within the volume defined by the envelope.
A method for extracting substances containing mineral values from a region which defines a mineralized face adjacent a chamber in an excavation site, comprising the steps of disposing an inflatable envelope within said chamber with a first side of the envelope contiguous to said face, inflating said envelope with a charge of fluid under pressure, disposing fluid substance containing a mixture of liquid and solids into the chamber contiguous to a second side of said envelope whereby said fluid substance exercises an external pressure on said envelope which is transmitted at least partially by the pressure of the fluid charge within the envelope to be resisted by said face, said fluid substance being at least partially drained to become solidified within said chamber and substantially outside said envelope whereby the boundary of said solidified fluid substance is substantially defined by said second side of the envelope and whereby an accessway is defined between said mineralized face and said solidified fluid substance.
A method of mining mineral values from an excavation having a mineralized face, comprising the steps of disposing an inflatable envelope within said excavation adjacent said face, inflating said envelope with a charge of fluid under pressure whereby one side of the envelope is contiguous to said face, disposing a settable mixture of solids and liquid within said excavation contiguous to a side of said envelope which is substantially opposite said first side whereby the pressure of the settable mixture is resisted by the pressure of the fluid charge within the envelope and transmitted to be resisted at least partially by the mineralized face, setting said mixture whereby an accessway is defined between the boundary of the set mixture and the mineralized face, deflating said envelope, removing said envelope from the accessway, and removing mineral values from said mineralized face through the accessway whereby the excavation is enlarged and a second mineralized face is thereby formed spaced from the boundary of said set mixture.
The method of mining which comprises:
A method for mining and filling in which safety of personnel is attained by virtue of the disposition in each of its steps comprising:
The method of mining and filling in approximately horizontal ore cuts in which work is conducted within the space existing between the opposite faces of an ore formation being extracted and the face of a solidified backfill material, characterized in having a roof distance between said ore and backfill faces compatible with the strength of said roof, comprising the cyclic steps of:
The method of mining and filling in operations conducted in a plane which is inclined at a large angle to the vertical utilizing a low pressure inflatable elongated container which comprises the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.