Mixing of Fly Ash with Coal Mine Overburden to Increase the Slope Stability

Abstract

Fly ash is mainly being utilized for making cement, bricks, concrete, roads and small quantity in mine void filling. The consumption of fly ash in construction activity has reached to almost saturation level and there is not much potential to consume more fly ash in these segments. Mining sector like mine void filling, underground stowing and mixing with overburden of open cast mine are the only potential area where bulk quantity of fly ash can be utilized so that 100% utilization target can be achieved. There are more than 165 opencast coal mines in India and many are near to thermal power stations. Opencast mining plays a major role in meeting the demand of coal for thermal power generation. The stability of overburden dumps stands at high priority from the safety and economic perspective. This paper investigates the suitability of fly ash to be disposed of by mixing it with overburden (OB) dumps to increase the slope stability in coal mines. This paper attempts to highlight the utilization of fly ash for slope stabilization of overburden during backfilling, in order to save our environment. This paper presents various open cast coal mine where fly ash has been successfully disposed in overburden dump material.