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Hydraulic fills used in Australian mines have similar grain size distributions whilst having quite different specific gravity values, typically in the range of 2.7-4.4. When produced and distributed in slurry at 65-75% by solid content, they settle to produce fills with similar geotechnical characteristics. The fills under investigation have been found to settle, in the laboratory, to a dry density of about 0.56 · specific gravity, a saturation water content of about 17-34%, and a porosity of 37-49%. A quick estimate of the optimum water content that gives the minimum porosity may be obtained by locating the intersection of the saturation curve and minimum porosity line, which may simply be done on a water content vs. porosity plot. However, transportability of the slurry requires it to be mixed at water content substantially greater than the optimum water content. As the tailings settle out of suspension, they settle to relative density of 50-80%. This paper shows that the current empirical relationships relating relative density and N-value to friction angle for sands will significantly underestimate the friction angle of the hydraulic fills. Based on limited experimental data, a unique relationship between relative density and friction angle is proposed for hydraulic fills placed in some Australian mines.

A good understanding of the pore water pressure developments within the hydraulic fill stope and the discharge through the drain is essential for improving the designs of barricades and the safety in the mines. A finite difference software FLAC was used to study the drainage and pore water pressure developments within a two dimensional rectangular stope with a single drain at the bottom. Using the method of fragment, a simple solution was proposed for determining the discharge and the maximum pore water pressure within the stope, when the height of water is greater than the width of the stope. The predictions are within 1% of those obtained from FLAC.

Barricade bricks are fundamental to the safe operation of a mining site. Past failures have lead to loss of life and reduced mine efficiency or even shut down. The fundamental material property that determines the operational characteristics of barricade bricks is their permeability, which must be tailored to suit the operational environment of the mine. The ability of the barricade to control the hydraulic pressure within a stope application is crucial for safety and economic returns. In the current work practical barricade bricks were tested for permeability. As well, the strength and modulus of bricks were measured after being soaked in water for either 7 or 90 days so that a measure of their engineering functionality could be determined. The primary conclusions of this work are as follows. There was substantial deviation in permeability between bricks; however, the average permeability of the barricade bricks was several orders of magnitude larger than the values obtained for the hydraulic fill. This difference indicates that modelling efforts can assume that the barricade does not contribute to the pore pressure development within the fill. Hence the drainage of the system is not related to the permeability of these bricks provided that the barricades are built from the bricks in such a way that the construction or future migration of fines from the fill does not impede the drainage performance.

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