Research on Sustainable Development of Mining Goaf Management Based on Economic Models

The sustainable development of mines has been the focus of attention in recent years. In China, there are a large number of untreated mined-out areas, and a series of disasters caused by the instability of the goaf will bring heavy blows to people’s safety and financial resources. Filling treatment will lead to increasing costs and decreasing profits, which will seriously reduce the motivation of mining enterprises and even lead to a moral hazard. Therefore, the analysis of the economic benefits of goaf control plays a vital role in the sustainable construction and long-term development of mines. This paper proposed the mined-out area treatment economic model. The proposed method employs the guiding philosophy of the newsboy model to create a mathematical economy model that provides the basis for a goaf management mode for mines. The following research results were obtained: (1) The economic model of the mined-out area backfilling treatment is constructed, which is classified as three different modes. (2) Combined with mathematical derivation and simulation, the influence of relevant variable parameters on each type of filling mode is discussed. (3) Various types of goaf filling treatment mode are compared with a non-filling scheme (benchmark mode), to provide theoretical support to help mining enterprises choose appropriate filling schemes. The results show that the economic model of mined-out area management provides the optimal mode for mined-out area filling, and the balance of tailings and ultra-high-water filling material procurement is realized, resulting in maximum profits. In this paper, we explain how the use of economic thinking has an important impact on the sustainable development of safety goaf management.