Physical and mechanical properties of the rocks of the Starobinsky deposit forming the Third potash layer and its roof

Abstract

The geological structure and the physical-mechanical properties of rocks composing and overlapping the Third potash formation in the areas of the mine field mine No. 4 JSC Belaruskali, which are scheduled to practice, are studied. The geological sections of the Third potash layer and its roof were built, the thickness of sylvinite and halite layers was measured, the roof falling of the rocks of the layer with a height of up to 20 m was assessed, and the type of immediate roof was determined by the composition and structure of its constituent rocks. It was established that the strength under uniaxial compression of both sylvinite and halite layers for the areas under consideration differs slightly. Therefore, to solve engineering problems of ensuring the stability of mine workings and to calculate fastening parameters, strength values averaged over the groups of layers can be used that correlate well with the percentage of weak and clay interlayers. The same applies to Poisson’s ratio, the values of which for various layers of formation are slightly different and can be taken by their averaging. It is shown that the main factor that negatively affects the strength of rocks occurring in the roof of the Third potash seam is the presence of weak and clay interlayers, which increases with depth. The introduction of the obtained results allows us to improve the calculation accuracy of securing mining parameters, to reduce the costs of their maintenance, and to improve the safety of mining operations in developing the Third potash formation in complex geological and mining conditions.