## 5 Discussion and Conclusions  
1. China's caving mining technology started late, but it has been widely used in mines at home and abroad in recent years because of its advantages, such as low mining costs and high labor productivity. However, its shortcomings should not be ignored, including causing surface subsidence and collapse, easy loss and dilution of ore, limited applicability in certain complex ore bodies, relative difficulty in ground pressure management, and the risk of mining geological disasters such as deformation of the surrounding rock and toppling. 2. Compared with the traditional caving mining method, the filling mining method has obvious advantages in in-ground pressure control, ore recovery rate improvement, and environmental protection. Coupled with the release of relevant policies, such as the \"Green Mine Construction Code for Non-ferrous Metal Industry\" and \"Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Green Mines\", which make it clear that new metal mines prioritize the filling method as the preferred option, more mines will be further induced to transform to the backfilling method. 3. Through mining method selection, stope structure optimization, and other measures, it is determined that the sublevel open stope subsequent filling method is adopted in Luohe Iron Mine, and the recovery rate can reach more than 85%, the dilution rate is as low as 7.38%, and the ore grade is as high as 31.52%. In comparison, the sublevel caving method has a recovery rate of 81%. With the increase in recovery rate, the service life of the mine will increase by 4.55 years, while the increase in ore grade can bring economic benefits of more than 12 million RMB per year. 4. In conclusion, adopting the backfilling method can ensure the stability of the surface and prevent damage to roads, buildings, and natural habitats. In addition, the filling material acts as a buffer, reducing the impact of mining activities on the surface and enabling the mining area to achieve sustainable development while minimizing environmental hazards. In conclusion, the authors claim that this paper only serves as a guide to start the conversation. In our future research, the authors will continue to study the transformation of mining methods in domestic mines and hope that more experts and researchers will be interested and involved in this area of research. Conceptualization, S.L. ; resources, S.L. ; writing--original draft preparation, Z.X. ; writing--review and editing, Z.X. ; visualization, T.Y. and Z.D. ; supervision, Z.D. ; project management, S.L. and J.C.; funding acquisition, S.L. ; management, S.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. Funding: The authors thank the financial support from the Science and Technology Innovation Program of Hunan Province (Grant No. 2023 RC3035) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (Grant No. 2021 JJ40745). Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable. Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable. Data Availability Statement: The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors on request. Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest. References
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