Fukasawa Section of Hanaoka Mine

Abstract

Fukasawa Mine is located in Odate City, Akita Prefecture. The orebodies are typical stratified Kuroko deposits, and weredi scovered in August 1969. They lie in a steep mountain site at a depth of 400 meters, and extend over an area of approximately 1.5km×1.0km with a thickness of 5 meters. The production and exploration are being conducted by 130 company employees and 60 contractors.The mine is operated with a fully trackless system. The mining method applied is “The underhand cut and fill with artificial roofing”. 22 drift headings are generally being worked on to produce 28, 000 tons/month of crude are with a grade of 0.89% Cu, 2.44% Pb, 8.39% Zn and 84.8 g/t Ag, and drive 250 meters/month of development drift. These drift drivings progress in cycles of drilling and blasting, mucking, and timber supporting. One of two parallel ramps with a length of 2.2 kilometers is used for the mine service. A conveyor for are and waste transportation to the surface is installed in the other ramp. Underground trucks are used for the transportation from local loading points to main are bins.In the last few years, Fukasawa Mine has accelerated the reconstruction of underground facilities, the expansion of pro-duction rate and underground exploration work, as well as the development and modernization of its mining machinery. In addition to the scale up of loaders, compact cross-cut jumbos and timbering machines were developed in the mine. To take full advantage of these machines and improve the overall efficiency of the operation, a wireless communications equipment combined with a personal computer was installed in its underground operation in early 1983. The mining system based on the communications equipment has been called the Mine On-line System (abbreviated to MOS).