Can old bord-and-pillar workings be mapped from surface?
Desktop review updating two earlier assessments, weighing borehole scanning, robots and unmanned aerial platforms as routes to locating old workings ahead of opencast drilling and blasting.
No surface geophysical method can map individual bords and pillars at the depths typical of the Witbank coalfield, a limit the review attributed to physics rather than to technology, since the targets are small relative to their depth and conductive layers often lie above the seam. Borehole laser scanning remains the workable option, with sonar suited to flooded workings.
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