Depending upon the decreasing ability of surrounding rock to store strain energy in underground metal mining methods can be ordered as
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As rock stability decreases, the preferred methods generally change as
\[
\boxed{
\text{Open stoping}
\rightarrow
\text{Cut-and-fill}
\rightarrow
\text{Sublevel caving}
\rightarrow
\text{Block caving}.
}
\]