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VERTICAL CRATER
RETREAT
 INTRODUCTION
VCR, or Vertical Crater Retreat, is a method originally developed by the
Canadian mining company INCO. Today, Vertical Crater Retreat is an
established mining method, used in mines all over the world.
Vertical crater retreat is based on the crater blasting technique.
Powerful explosive charges are placed in large diameter holes and
fired.
The concentrated, "spherical" charge is positioned at a specified
distance from the surface underneath and the detonation creates
crater-shaped openings in the rock. When several holes are
detonated at same level, a horizontal slice is blasted.
The ore is excavated in such horizontal slices, starting from the
stope bottom and advancing upwards. The ore produced by crater
blasting falls down in the open space underneath, where part of it
will remain during the production. Finally, stopes are mucked clean
and prepared for cement stabilized backfilling.
 SUITABILITY
Wide orebodies
Steeply dipping orebodies(75-90Deg)
Medium strength of ore
Smooth ore body to wall rock contact
Competent wall rocks to minimize dilution
Non selective
 CYCLE OF OPERATIONS
Development
Drilling
Blasting
Mucking
Backfilling
 DEVELOPMENT
1)Haulage drift along the orebody at the
drawpoint level.
2)Drawpoint loading arrangement
underneath the stope.
3)Undercut of the stope.
4)Overcut as access for drilling and
charging.
 DRILLING
By highly efficient In-The-Hole drills
Dia—150mm
Length—60m
Drilling from overcut at the top of stope
 DRILLING
Holes are drilled downward, breaking through
into the undercut. Vertical holes are preferred,
wherever possible. Hole diameters vary from
140 to 165 mm, but even 205 mm ( 8") holes
have been tried in a few mines. The most
common hole diameter is 165 mm, allowing
holes to be spaced 4.0 m x 4.0 m.
 BLASTING
Based on crater technique of blasting
Holes are charged from the overcut using powerful "spherical"
charges, contained in a short section along the blast hole. The crater
charges are placed at specified distance to the free surface
underneath. . All work is done from the overcut and records are
required to keep track of blasting progress in each hole. First the hole
depth is measured, then the hole blocked at proper height. Explosive
charges are lowered, stemming of sand and water placed on top of the
charge. Holes are grouped with charges at same elevation and
distance to rock surface. Explosive charges co-operate in breaking
rock, normally loosening a 3.0 m slice of ore, falling into the space
below.
The ore is mucked from stopes through the under-cut, using remote
controlled LHD-loaders, or recovered by a drawpoint system
underneath the stope, similar to sublevel stoping.
 An inverted crater formed on blasting.
Spherical charge—
when length of charge<6 times hole dia.
This allows the ore to be broken into the bottom
sublevel in successive horizontal slices using
the same blasthole for each successive deck or
blast.
At each blast 1-2m slice falls down.
When last 4m left ,it is blasted at one time.
 LOADING
By remote controlled LHD –loading blasted
material from the lower undercut.
LHD dumps ore into an ore chute outside of
the drawpoints.
 BACKFILLING
Worked out stopes to be backfilled.
Barricades erected at drawpoints
Hydraulic backfill through pipes from upper
level
Advantages
Safe method—no persons to go to unsupported area
Minimum ventilation required as no persons inside the
stope.
Large production---large dia holes
Very economical.
Mechanisation possible.

Disadvantages
No method of dealing with failed blast
Out of alignment holes cannot be corrected.
 Notes on Vertical Crater Retreat Method †

Crater Blast: This theory propounds that when a spherical charge is placed at an optimum depth below
ground, it will break the maximum volume in the shape of an inverted crater.

The optimum depth, N is obtained from the relationship:

N = EW1/3

where E = strain energy factor (a constant) and W is the weight of the explosive. In practice,
experiments are conducted where the rock type and explosive weight are kept constant.

A spherical charge is a column of explosives whose length is less than 6 times the hole diameter.

Blasting of a cylindrical charge: Explosive energy

propagates predominantly laterally. Blasting of a spherical charge: Explosive energy
propagates in all directions.

Result of an experiment: A 4.5 kg of explosive charge was blasted in the same rock, once as a charge with length-to-diameter
ratio of 15:1 (cylindrical charge) and again with a length-to-diameter ratio of 2.7:1 (spherical charge). While the crater radii
were close in both cases, the crater volume was significantly different, being 1.1 m3 for the former and 4.4 m3 for the latter.

Use of spherical charges restricts the maximum amount of explosive that can be loaded into a hole per
column segment. In one mine, it came to about 34 kg/hole/segment.

stemming
No more than 34 kg of explosives
in each of these segment

Application: Started as a pillaring technique

- steep dip and large vertical extent
- regular ore boundaries

Development
- diamond drilling to obtain ore boundaries
- the top level and the bottom level are cut
• the distance between the top level and the bottom level depends on ore consistency, drilling accuracy,
accessibility and rock strength.

†
Chapter 18.5, SME Handbook, and Chapters 14&15 “Techniques in Underground Mining”
 • The top level must be large enough for drills to operate
• A cut is sometimes made just above the bottom level to minimize blasting damage
- crosscuts made from haulage level to bottom level, for ore removal
- development equipment can be jackleg drills or jumbos and LHD’s
- large diameter holes drilled from the top level, all the way to the bottom level
• hole size selection needs deliberation. Factors that are considered are: ore and rock strength, stope
geometry, and production requirement
• down-hole-drills are used because of their accuracy and ability to drill large diameter holes efficiently
• blasting pattern (or the hole burden and spacing) can vary depending on the stope (usually, about 3x3 m)
• hole breakout location checked at the bottom level and if unsatisfactory, more holes are drilled

Production
- bottom of production holes loaded in sections and blasted to obtain a lift of pre-determined
height
• each hole measured before loading
• it is determined if there is a sufficient volume of stope available for expansion of blasted muck (the part of
the stope that has the sufficient volume is blasted first. This part is called the slot, and is equal to one-third
of the stope volume)
• holes are blocked before explosives can be loaded
• drilling factor about 11.5 tons per meter in some mines, and the powder factor is about 0.5 kg/ton
• explosives must be restricted to a maximum amount per delay
- broken ore can be left in the stope for support of the hanging wall (as in shrinkage stoping)
- mucking by electric or diesel LHD’s. Ore is usually dumped into a ore pass.
- ground control of crown pillar when the upper lift is close to the main level

Comments
- cheap, due to reduced development, ground control, man power requirements and high
mining rate

Case Studies
Falconbridge Nickel Mines
- used for rib pillar recovery (before VCR was employed, cut and fill, and sub-level stoping
were employed for pillar recovery)
- each pillar is 107-122 m long, 61 m high and 6.7 m wide.
- main stopes were 15 m wide and mined by cut-and-fill, the fill being 1:32 cement-fill ratio
mixture
- hole diameter is 165 mm (6.5 in.)
- delays are used in blasting

Carpathia Orebody, Australia.

- tin orebody, 40 m below surface, holes drilled from the surface 80-90 m long

Birchtree Mine, Canada

- 38 m long and 33.5 m high stope of width varying between 3 and 9m. 152 mm (6 in.)
diameter holes, and 3 m lifts per round.
- Satisfactory fragmentation (some large pieces due to over break from hanging wall)