One of the major concerns for longwall mining is the extent of surface subsidence and its
induced surface structural damages. The experiences have been that room and pillar reining with
low recovery, eg, no pillar mining can be implemented such that no measurable surface
subsidence occurs during the period of underground mining, although subsidence may occur Long
after ( say 40~50 years)mining. In contrast, the general concept about longwall mining is that
since there is a complete extraction of coal in a longwall panel, there will be much larger surface
subsidence and thus structural damages. This is to same extent justifiable because past research
has demonstrated that surface subsidence due to longwall mining occurred even when the seam
Depth was close to 1000 ft .and that minor crackings could occur in a residential house depending
on the type and location of the residential house within the panel.In other words under longwall
mining there could be some damage to some surface structures such as houses. But it can be
protected such that the damages are so minor that except minor crackings, the houses are
practically the same before and after mining.