Abstract: In this paper, the on-site investigation on the failure modes in the stope of Hongtoushan copper mine showed that there are mainly three failure modes under high stress, like spalling, splitting and shear failure.In order to study the failure modes of pillar, 3 kinds of combined model of ore-and-rock were set-up according to the on-the-spot investigation in Hongtoushan copper mine.Based on these, a numerical analysis based on the finite element method was applied to analyze the failure modes of 3 kinds of the combined model.The results indicated that, for Pillar I (copper ore), its failure is 'X shape' shear failure mode; for Pillar II (upper of pillar is rock and its bottom is ore), the initial failure occurs in the upper rock of pillar and only some cracks appear in the bottom of pillar; for Pillar III (upper and bottom of pillar is rock and its central part is ore), the initial creak occurs in the upper and bottom of pillar, then the creak propagates toward the central ore until the crack coalescence.This numerical result provided some basis knowledge for the pillar design of other similar mines

Key words: .Pillar, Numerical analysis, Stope, Failure process