Detecting Goaf Ahead of the Mine Tunnel Using SAP: A Case Study in Iron Mine, China

Estimating the goafs ahead of iron mine in advance is essential to ensure the safety of mining. Xishimen Iron Mine is located at Hebei Province, China, which faces high risk of collapse due to the goafs. To understand the geological conditions (the location and scale of goafs) ahead of the mine tunnel, the Seismic Ahead-prospecting was used to predict adverse geology ahead. Based on the ahead-prospecting method, two goafs ahead of the mine tunnel face were successfully predicted. For the artefact abnormal body in migration, the numerical simulation based on finite difference method was conducted to real the influence of exist tunnel 2#, helping better recognize and interpret the geological conditions of migration image result. Finally, the more accurate location and scale of the two goafs were deduced. Moreover, the paper provides reference and guidance for geological exploration of other similar metal mine engineering.