Prerequisites for development of federal regulations for industrial safety in the area of stability control of underground openings in metallic and nonmetallic mineral mining and the related safety guidance

For the enhancement of safety and efficiency of mining at the present-day stage of its maturity, it has become essential to develop federal regulations for industrial safety in the area of stability control of underground openings in metallic and nonmetallic mineral mining. Considering the fact that geological and geotechnical conditions at the deposits of metallic and nonmetallic minerals differ significantly from the conditions of coal fields, it is wise to develop individual regulations for the stability control of underground openings in mining metallic/nonmetallic mineral deposits (1st document) and coal fields (2nd document). In either case, it is required to develop individual guidelines for the stability control in underground mines at the deposits of metallic and nonmetallic minerals and at the coal deposits. This article presents a general framework for the federal regulations on industrial safety in the area of the Stability Control of Underground Openings in Metallic and Nonmetallic Mineral Mining and the related Safety Guidance, including stability rating of underground openings, assessment of rock mass quality, as well as rockburst and outburst hazards, selection and design of ground support systems, including cable bolting, design and analysis of yielding support, instability control in underground openings, determination of stable dimensions for stopes, stability of mine shafts, geotechnical modeling of a deposit, geotechnical (geomechanical) monitoring, numerical modeling of underground mine stability, geotechnical auditing, etc.