Risk management of underground coal pillar extraction in South Africa

Analysis of Pillar Extraction Potential (A-PEP) is an intelligent tool that could be used as a preliminary output indicator when considering the secondary extraction of regional support pillars in the Witbank and Highveld coalfields of South Africa. Pillar extraction practices in South Africa have consumed a significant proportion of safety and fatality statistics in relation to its relative output (less than 5% of total South African coal production) and as a result research was undertaken in local pillar extraction operations and extended to similar operations in New South Wales, Australia to assess a way forward for pillar extraction in South Africa. The A-PEP tool is based on certain physical, risk and economic factors that combine to be indicative of operational success in terms of economic, health and safety attributes. In this paper it is successfully tested against two existing pillar extraction operations.