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By G C. Reed, J M. Murray

During more than 100 years continuous mining of the lead-zinc orebody at Broken Hill, an immense amount of geological data has been collected about shear zones related to the orebody. The challenge to current mine geologists is to synthesise and interpret these data sets in a way that is applicable to production demands. Precise knowledge of the locations of major shear zones is important not only for the determination of ground conditions but also to develop an understanding of ore remobilisation along these structures. Traditionally, geological information has been collected from drill core and back and wall mapping underground, and interpreted on sections that are approximately 20 m apart. The recent introduction of MaptekÆs Vulcan software has enabled the shear zones to be modelled in three dimensions. The new three-dimensional shear models have been combined with seismic data from the Southern Cross area. The seismic data is collected from a microseismic monitoring system installed in the Pasminco Southern Operations in August 1996 (Rauert and Tully, 1998). The addition of seismic information to the shear zone models has led to a greater degree of certainty about the shear zone locations and has provided information about shear zones in areas yet to be drilled.

Jan 1, 2000

By B Davis, A H. Benzer, A N. Mainza, C M. Evertsson, L M. Tavares, M M. Hilden, M S. Powell, C Rule, G Asbj÷rnsson

The Mogalakwena North Concentrator of Anglo Platinum Operations was built with the capability to allow for future projected expansion. Several research groups, currently working with Anglo American on collaborative research over a range of projects, were brought in to review the existing operation, with a view to releasing some specific bottlenecks and providing specialist design input to the potential plant expansion.Based on a thorough review of the high pressure grinding rolls (HPGR) and crushing circuit, a wide range of de-bottlenecking opportunities were identified. This was followed by a series of surveys to provide performance measurements and to model the circuit in detail. From this effort a full simulation of the plant has been developed, including updated models of the HPGR, crusher, bins and screens. These models have been implemented in the researchersÆ Model Development Kit (MDK) version of JKSimMet, and in a prototype dynamic simulator based on the Matlab Simulink software.The observations, measurements and simulations have provided guidance and quantified the benefits of some proposed circuit modifications. Based on these findings a number of upgrades are being planned, with the aim of ensuring full utilisation of the installed equipment. The circuit demonstrates a potential expansion of over 30 per cent through minor improvements, and a 70 per cent increase in capacity with the addition of some strategic equipment.The HPGR-crushing upgrade project demonstrates the potential benefits of nurturing disparate Research groups into a strong inter-disciplinary technical team capable of supporting operational needs while developing future technology.CITATION:Powell, M S, Hilden, M M, Evertsson, C M, Asbj÷rnsson, G, Benzer, A H, Mainza, A N, Tavares, L M Davis, B, Plint, N and Rule, C, 2012. Optimisation opportunities for high pressure grinding rolls circuits, in Proceedings 11th AusIMM Mill OperatorsÆ Conference, pp 81-94 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Oct 29, 2012

By W Akpan

The Royal Bafokeng community in South AfricaÆs North West Province represents a unique case in Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of its positioning in the natural resource economy. It receives royalties directly from mining firms for the extraction of Platinum Group Metals, which include platinum, ferrochrome, rhodium and palladium. In 2007, royalty income of about R290 million (approximately US$32.2 million) was reported. Such direct revenues have enabled the community to invest in educational, medical and other social infrastructure, thus complementing governmentÆs social provisioning efforts. Indeed, the Bafokeng community owes its present-day modernisation efforts to mineral rights, and in particular, the legal-institutional arrangement that has enabled it to play an active role in South AfricaÆs lucrative extractive economy. However, the distribution of platinum wealth in this community is not only uneven, but also appears to have had little impact on the broader socio-economic conditions in the community. Despite claims by community leaders of heavy investment in education and skills development, the community continues to be faced with very high levels of unemployment, illiteracy, sprawling informal settlements, poor access to medical facilities and malnutrition. This paper examines the sociological paradoxes and contradictions thrown up by the approach adopted to involve community members in the mobilisation of mining royalties for developmental ends. The central argument is that the current æmodelÆ contradicts the communityÆs stated goals of using platinum wealth to drive up broad-based development and modernisation. This is mainly because it leaves out the vast majority of community members, who are uneducated and unskilled. The core analysis is based on pilot data from an ongoing study in the Royal Bafokeng community.

Jan 1, 2009

By G Senanayake, K Hazarika

The demand for iron-ore is ever increasing with the industry directly employing 60 500 people in a range of highly skilled roles in Australia. In the year 2019, the global iron-ore production was 2.85 billion tonnes. It is estimated that each tonne of beneficiated iron ore produces 400 kg of tailings. The IOTs are fine, dense and stable crystalline material mainly composed of iron oxides, alumina and silica. The current and most applied method of iron-ore tailings (IOTs) disposal is using subaqueous disposal of tailings in dams. The footprint generated by a tailings dam is massive and requires constant monitoring due to the possibility of a failure making the operation and maintenance of tailings dam extremely expensive. This review briefly discusses the known causes of tailings dam failures, their impact to the environment and day-to-day human life and potential applications of IOTs. The increase in water content enhances the pressure on dam walls. This in turn increases the liquefaction potential of the tailings and reduces the overall strength of the dam making it more vulnerable to failure. Potential applications of IOTs are in paints, aggregates in construction materials and bricks. The reuse of IOTs reduce waste and generates further revenue facilitating a path towards a sustainable future for the industry.

Nov 8, 2021

By N Guresin, A Cooper, L Lorenzen, H Muller, S C. Dominy

Sampling and metallurgical test work during various phases of engineering?studies?is of?paramount importance for a robust processing plant design. When developing a process flow sheet, risks in achieving desirable financial outcomes are minimised by ensuring appropriate sampling and adequate metallurgical test work supports the engineering and cost estimation at each phase of project development.The quality and type of samples used for metallurgical test work are just as important as the metallurgical test work itself. The key characteristic required of any sample is that it represents some defined portion of a mineral deposit. Representivity should take into account the spatial orientation, lithology, alteration, degree of oxidation, mineralogy and competency of the ore such as hardness and abrasiveness. Statistically representative sampling procedures and an appropriate metallurgical test work program should be designed to bring metallurgical understanding up to feasibility study standard and to give a basis for process plant design.Snowden has observed that the quality of sampling and quantity of metallurgical test work carried out during the various phases of engineering studies are often insufficient to truly support a robust plant design. Some designs are often the result of the plant design based on benchmarks of apparently similar orebodies or buoyant metal prices supporting cash flows until rectifications can be implemented.The paper will discuss important aspects of sampling and test work required for engineering studies in designing process plants based on industrial case studies.CITATION:Guresin, N, Lorenzen, L, Dominy, S C, Muller, H and Cooper, A, 2012. Importance of effective sampling and test work protocols for process plant design, in Proceedings Sampling 2012 , pp 95-108 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 21, 2012

Underground mine ventilation is now com monly simulated on a digital computer. Such a programme, incorporating natural ventilation has been modified by others to account for methane emission and elevated local tempera- tures. At Wollongong University, the pro- gramme was further developed and extensive interactive graphics incorporated such that any view of the three dimensional mine could be viewed, and superimposed upon that view are areas where a nominated parameter has exceeded a particular value - generally at a nominated time after a particular event and usually a fire/explosion of one type or another. A further programme was developed such that up to 20 'times' could be examined at a particu- lar location after say, a fuel rich fire at some other place in the mine. The output from this programme includes a plot of methane 1, smoke 1, temperature, pressure and air flow versus time - a most useful graphic to observe the limits of safe attendance in a particular Airway.

Jan 1, 1983

By Rayner J. G, Leckie J. F, Moorehead C. F

The Coronation Hill gold-platinum-palladium prospect is located in the valley of the South Alligator River (latitude 13'35'S, longitude 132'36'E), about 80 kilometres east of Pine Creek in the Northern Territory. Coronation Hill was one of thirteen sites in the South Alligator Valley at which uranium was mined between 1955 and 1964 after initial discovery by the Bureau of Mineral Resources in 1953. Most of the mines were operated by United Uranium No Liability. The Sleisbeck mine 25 kilometres south of Coronation Hill was operated by North Australian Uranium Corporation and the group of mines at Rockhole about 20 kilometres to the north-west of Coronation Hill was operated by South Alligator Uranium No Liability. The uranium mine at Coronation Hill produced about 26000 tonnes of ore averaging 2.6 kg/t U308 with an estimated average gold grade of 10.4 g/ gold. Gold was commonly associated with the uranium mineralisation and was recovered at the gravity treatment plant at El Sherana. Gold was also recovered in 1986 by Pacific Gold Mines Limited by treating the tailings from the Moline and Rockhole uranium leach plants at a CIP plant at Moline. With the completion of uranium contracts in 1964 mining in the South Alligator Valley ceased. Exploration for uranium continued in the area during the 1960s and 1970s with no success. The Coronation Hill Joint Venture (BHP Gold Mines Limited 45 per cent, Pioneer Minerals (Gold) Pry Ltd 45 per cent, Notgold Limited 10 per cent)carried out the first exploration specifically targetted at gold in 1984 with the drilling of five vertical drill holes which indicated high potential for a substantial gold resource at Coronation Hill with no associated uranium. The Joint Venture has sub- sequently drilled about 25000 metres of diamond drill holes at Coronation Hill alone. Analytical results from 1985 drilling established that platinum and palladium were associated with gold. An indicated resource of 3.49Mt at 5.12g/t Au, 0.21g/t Pt and 0.56g/t Pd has been calculated using a lg/t Au cut off.

Jan 1, 1991

I should like to congratulate Dr. Salamy on his most informative paper.Under the heading of "future development" Dr. Salamy states the intention of using 3 in. lifters. In this connection I should like to mention one or two of our findings at the Croesus Plant of North Kalgurli (1912) Limited. We have converted a 5i ft. x 11 ft. grate discharge ball mill to a high level overflow rod mill. When we were considering this conversion we explored the literature and decided on using 2t in. lifters on alternate liners-the results were not encouraging. The mill all but "took off" from its foundations,and performance with regard to tonnage was poor. There...

Jan 1, 1956

By R Lastra, Y Choi, C Hamilton, P Kondos

Hydroseparation (http://www.cnt-mc.com) was used to concentrate sized fractions (from <38 ¦m to 150 ¦m) of various ore products ahead of carbon-in-pulp (CIP)-treatment. The resulting size-by-size concentrates were mounted as monolayer polished sections and subjected to automated unattended precious metal searches by image analysis (see Lastra, Wilson and Cabri, 1999). Systematic variations in Au-deportment permit quantification of Au reporting as discrete grains from fresh-feed through to pressure oxidation (POX)- and CIP-feed. Application of hydroseparation, image analysis and assays to characterising tailings (from <10 ¦m to 106 ¦m) from four mine sites is also described. Results are encouraging enough to predict that the combination of hydroseparation (HS) and automated image analysis could become a standard methodology for study of precious metal ores and metallurgical products.

Jan 1, 2008

By J Li, H Hooi, D Payne

Caval Ridge Mine (CVM) is one of the newly established open-cut coal mines of BHP in Queensland, where no tailings dam is planned to be built in order to minimise environmental impacts from mining activities. The waste streams from the Coal Handling and Processing Plant, including fine tailings dewatered by belt filter presses, coarse rejects, and mixed plant rejects, are co-disposed within waste dumps built with pre-strip and dragline spoils. Due to high rejects output (35 – 60% of feed) and low spoil to reject ratio (< 5) the large quantities of rejects bring significant geotechnical and operational challenges to CVM, which are exacerbated by increasing annual production rates and additional rejects from washing coal from an adjacent mine. Further in-house geotechnical review commenced in mid-2014 based on the initial geotechnical studies during the project stage of CVM between 2011 and 2013. The outcomes have enabled rejects disposal at CVM by constructing large belt filtered tailings cells, coarse rejects only dumps, and co-disposal of the mixed plant rejects at dump tip-heads. This paper presents the rejects disposal strategies at CVM from both technical and operational aspects. It also discusses future projects for belt filtered tailings moisture reduction including assessment of tailings clay mineralogy, as well as mixed plant reject co-disposal verification and optimisation.CITATION:Li, J, Payne, D and Hooi, H, 2018. Plant rejects disposal strategies applied at Caval Ridge open cut coal mine, in Proceedings Mine Waste and Tailings Stewardship Conference 2018, pp 50–60 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 23, 2018

By H Ishikawa, H Zhou, M Spagnolo, R Halomoan, S Palaniandy

The Karara Mine concentrator commenced operation in November 2012 to produce high-grade magnetite concentrate. The circuit consists of three stages of comminution plus magnetic separation at each stage for early gangue rejection. High-Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGRs) are used for fine crushing, followed by ball mills and TowerMills in secondary and fine grinding duties respectively. In recent times, the plant throughput rate has had to exceed design by 18% to maintain the targeted concentrate productivity. Meanwhile, the ore hardness has increased by 25% to 15 kWh/t, leading to changes in the circuit operation and design. These changes led to coarser and harder feed to the TowerMill circuit that affects the subsequent separation processes. Nippon Eirich (the TowerMill manufacturer) has partnered with Karara Mining Limited (Karara) to optimise the TowerMill circuit operation to achieve a circuit product with an 80% passing (P80) of 35 µm. Several activities, including a TowerMill circuit audit and performance evaluation, multi-component analysis, modelling and simulation, were carried out as part of the optimisation exercise. The circuit audit results revealed that the TowerMill circuit feed size F80 had increased and ranged from 67–75 µm. The circuit product P80 ranged between 42–55 µm. The average circuit specific energy was 3.4 kWh/t. Moreover, the differences in density between magnetite and gangue minerals had affected the hydrocyclone performance where the efficiency curve exhibits coarse end deflection indicating that low-density coarse material was bypassing to the overflow stream. A multi-component analysis was carried out to further investigate the coarse end deflection of the hydrocyclone efficiency curve. The analysis showed that the magnetite and gangue minerals had different cut sizes of 32 and 64 µm respectively. Furthermore, 33% of the magnetite (below 35 µm) was being recycled back to the mill due to the density effect. Based on these findings, several recommendations for process improvement were identified and implemented including:• converting to a bottom feeding configuration to improve the grinding efficiency in the mill• additional grinding power in the fine grinding duty to compensate for the increase in plant throughput and ore hardness• improved classification efficiency by converting to smaller size hydrocyclones. Simulation studies carried out to evaluate the impact of these implementations had indicated that a P80 close to 35 µm with a steeper size distribution could be achieved by using the bottom feed configuration with additional grinding power. The TowerMill circuit was converted to bottom feed configuration and the performance was evaluated. The operating work index, size specific energy and circulating load were 30% lower than the top feed configuration, indicating that the bottom feed configuration had a higher grinding efficiency. This paper discusses the outcome of the circuit audit, multicomponent analysis, circuit simulations, improvement strategies and quantification of the improvements. CITATION:Palaniandy, S, Spagnolo, M, Halomoan, R, Zhou, H and Ishikawa, H, 2017. Fine grinding circuit process improvement at the Karara mine concentrator, in Proceedings MetPlant 2017, pp 101–120 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 11, 2017

Attempt has been made to determine the nature of charge on activated carbon surface by studying the electro-kinetic properties of the carbon in the presence of cations, anions and aurocyanide solutions. The zeta-potential measurements were made in the presence of individual ions and also in combinations. The cations and anions chosen were those commonly associated with gold bearing ores in Kalgoorlie area. It was found that the iso-electric point of Norit Carbon was at pH 4.45; below this pH the charge was positive, while above, it was negative. In the absence of gold cyanide solutions and in the presence of individual cations the i.e.p. shifted to the alkaline range (pH 7.2-8.5) while in the presence of anions the i.e.p. was shifted to less than pH 3.5. In the presence of aurocyanide solutions, the iso-electric point was still in the acid region irrespective of whether anions or cations were present. The probable mechanism for such a behaviour has been attempted after measuring the specific conductivities of solutions before and after gold adsorption, by studies using the electron- probe-mirco-analyser, and S.E.M. on the carbon surface.

Jan 1, 1982

By J Seppelt, B Akerstrom, A Rice, J Bubnich, T Waters

The Concentrator 1 plant at Cadia transitioned from Cadia Hill open pit to the Cadia East block cave ore body in 2013. As a result of this change, major plant upgrades were required to achieve the desired throughput while treating more competent ore. The 40-foot (40’) SAG mill now receives a feed of predominantly high pressure grinding rolls (HPGR) product with a minor component of secondary crushed ore at a combined F80 of 17 mm. The significant reduction in feed size to the SAG mill has markedly changed the operating characteristics of the mill, which has been extensively studied since commissioning in 1998.This paper examines the operation of the 40’ SAG mill in its new configuration in the Concentrator 1 circuit. Operational stability is highlighted as a significant factor in delivering mill performance, which has been achieved through several key improvement projects utilising a theory of constraints framework. Five years of successful project implementation has progressively lifted the maximum processing rate of Concentrator 1 from the design estimate of 2455 t/h to above 3000 t/h. CITATION:Waters, T, Rice, A, Seppelt, J, Bubnich, J and Akerstrom, B, 2018. The evolution of the Cadia 40-foot SAG mill to treat the Cadia East orebody: a case study of incremental change leading to operational stability, in Proceedings 14th AusIMM Mill Operators' Conference 2018, pp 217–232 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 29, 2018

By A D. Pradana, D R. Pradana, Y H. Putra, Z Zulhan, T Hidayat

The high temperature processing of nickel laterite ore is currently dominated by the Rotary Kiln- Electric Furnace (RKEF) technology. The ratio of SiO2/MgO (S/M) in the ore is one of the critical parameters that determines the success of the RKEF process. Incompatible S/M ratios in the ore can cause aggressive chemical interaction between the slag and MgO refractory. The slag-refractory interaction at conditions relevant to nickel laterite ore smelting was investigated in the present study. Synthetic mixtures representing the slag compositions of nickel laterite ore smelting were prepared by mixing MgO, SiO2, Al2O3, CaO, Fe2O3, and Fe and heating the mixtures in steel containers at 1300°C under an argon atmosphere for 3 hrs. Pure MgO crucible were used as containment material in the melting process of the mixtures to represent the MgO refractory. The kinetics of the slagrefractory reaction were investigated using samples with selected initial S/M ratios of 2.0 and 3.0 (wt/wt) (with constant CaO = 3 wt per cent, Al2O3 = 5 wt per cent, FeO = 10 wt per cent) by performing melting at 1500°C in MgO crucibles for 5, 30, and 120 mins under an argon atmosphere. The effect of the S/M ratio in slag on the slag-refractory interaction was also investigated by performing melting of mixtures with different initial S/M ratios of 1.75, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 (wt/wt) in MgO crucibles at 1500°C for 120 mins under an argon atmosphere. After the melting process, each sample was quenched in water, mounted in resin, ground, polished, and coated. The interaction between the slags and MgO refractory was then evaluated by analysing the polished samples using a scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). Thermodynamic simulations using FactSage™ 8.0 thermochemical software were performed based on the experimental slag compositions, refractory, and conditions to support the evaluation process. The results show that a higher S/M ratio in slag leads to a higher tendency for the refractory component to dissolve into the slag. A higher S/M ratio in slag also leads to an increasing extent of solid-state diffusion of iron oxide into the remaining refractory grains. The dissolution of MgO into the slag is rapid; the MgO concentration in the final slag increased by 2.4 wt per cent and 5.7 wt per cent at initial S/M ratios of 2.0 and 3.0 wt/wt, respectively, within 5 and 30 mins of the melting process.

Aug 21, 2024

By Blackham M

West Wallsend No. 2 Colliery is a new mine that is presently being developed in the New- castle Coalfield by J. & A. Brown & Abermain Seaham Collieries Ltd., a subsidiary of Coal & Allied Industries Ltd. It is situated near Barnsley and is some 15 miles by rail from the port of Newcastle. The mine will produce coal from both Bore- hole and Young Wallsend seams. The Borehole seam has a working seam thickness varying from 7 ft to 5 ft while the Young Wallsend seam presents a choice of two distinct working thick- nesses, i.e. 5 ft. or 8 ft, the upper 3 ft containing much high ash material. The inter- seam interval varies from 10 ft on the western edge of the area to more than 70 ft in the central portion. The Borehole seam lies at a depth varying from 550 ft to 750 ft and the overlying surface terrain is gently undulating bushland with limited surface development.

Jan 1, 1972

By J Geronimo, P Kumar, Z Yussupova, M Yahyaei, M Powell

This work goes beyond the general perception of how the well-known mine to mill process can be applied, by applying deeper knowledge along the mining chain. Grade deportment and dilution are considered at the mining stage, and modelled with the new SMI blast movement simulator, linking with the block model data. Assessing the shift to a considerably more competent section of the orebody is quantified via substantial milling trials at standard and higher-intensity blasts. These were stockpiled for batch processing through the mill to ensure feed integrity. The trial work included operating the mill at widely different fillings to develop Grindcurve milling responses. Additionally, model informed process control is initiated via a mill prediction tool.It has been found that accounting for blast movement for the higher intensity blasts could generate additional value of around $1.5M per blast. With the high-intensity blast and changing mill control, the plant was easily able to exceed projected mill throughputs with the far more competent Pipeline ore. Strategies to shift the workload and debottleneck the milling circuit were proposed and proven during the milling trials, demonstrating an increase in throughput of 7 per cent despite running at a lower SAG mill speed, and potential of 16 per cent for increasing the SAG mill to standard operating speed. A number of process improvement opportunities have been identified to enhance current productivity and ensure long term capability to process the considerably more competent future ores. All of this is being linked in with the major digitisation program at the Barrick Cortez site, with an objective of linking all the data into a mine-wide process optimisation system, that can embed the processes by providing process-wide data access and production support via the future dynamic models linking ore body knowledge to productivity along the full process chain.CITATION:Powell, M, Yahyaei, M, Geronimo, J, Yussupova, Z and Kumar, P, 2018. The designed approach to mill liner optimisation – experience at Pustynnoye mine, Kazakhstan, in Proceedings 14th AusIMM Mill Operators' Conference 2018, pp 595–612 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 29, 2018

By K Blay, C McCamley, P Petrucci

The Newmont Boddington Gold (NBG) processing plant was designed for 35Mt/y with ball mills expected to deliver a combined new mill feed rate of 4837 tonnes/hr. Since beginning commercial production in late 2009, the plant has steadily increased throughput to meet design capacity in 2014 and reached 37 Mt/y in 2015. Through improved efficiencies, changes to the milling circuit have taken place since commissioning to take the plant beyond its design to an actual throughput of 39.0 Mt in 2017 and a budgeted throughput of 39.4 Mt/y this year.The NBG milling circuit has four parallel ball mills, each consisting of a 7.9 x 13.4 m ball mill with twin 7.5 MW fixed speed motors in closed circuit with twelve 650 mm cyclones. Each mill is fed by two wet screens with the undersize gravitating to a mill discharge hopper where it is combined with the ball mill discharge and pumped to hydrocyclones for classification. The cyclone underflow is re-ground to a target P80 of 150 µm.This paper will focus on process improvements made to the NBG milling circuit which include cyclone reconfiguration, fine screen panel redesign, implementation of an expert control system, mill power draw increase and grinding media changes to take NBG beyond its design throughput.CITATION:McCamley, C, Petrucci, P and Blay, K, 2018. Going beyond design at Newmont Boddington Gold, in Proceedings 14th AusIMM Mill Operators' Conference 2018, pp 497–508 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 29, 2018

By J P. Sykes, T C. McCuaig, M Jessell, A Trench

The election of Donald Trump and the Brexit referendum herald a shift towards a tighter definition of economic value, at the expense of the broader value concept of sustainable development; as well as a rise of protectionism, reversing a long-term trend of globalisation. However, the situation is complex, especially over the longer term in which mine project development and exploration operates. The minerals sector should proceed with caution. A greater focus on the local impacts of mining may be strategically beneficial, not only to mitigate against a potential protectionist future, but also because sustainable development has become more ‘localist’ via the concept of ‘social licence to operate’, whilst globalisation also seems to provoke increased ‘localist’ sentiments (known as ‘glocalism’). Localist strategies, therefore, seem a good hedge against multiple political futures. By contrast, moving away from sustainable development appears strategically riskier. Not only are ‘unsustainable’ activities, such as pollution and civil rights infringements harder to reverse, but a movement towards a more sustainable global economy may already be predetermined, even if the journey there may seem oblique. It appears that the increased economic development that is coveted globally is intrinsically linked to a rise in environmental and social consciousness.CITATION:Sykes, J P, Trench, A, McCuaig, T C and Jessell, M, 2017. Charles Dickens on the (potentially) changing role of globalisation and sustainability in the long-term future of mining and exploration, in Proceedings Tenth International Mining Geology Conference 2017, pp 239–256 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 20, 2017

By E Rubio, N Morales

A common practice in the mining industry is to decompose the planning process into different tasks, so the overall process and specific schedules can be constructed easily. Nevertheless, currently there are some adverse effects, such as not capturing the real value of a project by not taking into account the construction of several underground drifts and general infrastructure. Then the common practice is to compute mining sequence and cut-off grade profiles over the life of the mine without constitutively integrating the development schedule as a means to measure the constructability of a given mine design and sequence. Thus, the investigation summarised in this paper shows a novel, integrative way of treating an underground mine sequence and production schedule while considering drift development scheduling. Moreover, it is thought that, because of this original model, the whole underground production scheduling exercise must concentrate on combining the development and the production scheduling to compute a robust and a feasible production schedule.In order to quantify the effect of the conventional way of viewing the planning, the concept of the building information model (BIM) needs to be used, which was postulated by Charles Eastman and has been used extensively since the late 1970s. BIM takes other aspects of a project into account, considering at the same time the spatial relationships, quantities and properties of building components, but especially some kind of model visualisation, which is the advantage to be incorporated. This paper presents the basis for an optimisation model that allows for defining the sequence of the mining development so that the production plan can be achieved. For this, the model considers the space dimensions, time, pattern or strategy, cost or benefit, precedence and resources available. Tests were performed considering a block caving and sublevel open stoping method. Finally these tests showed the main conclusion, that production sequence changes when the building capacity is considered.

Sep 26, 2011

By C Laming, P M. Hetherington, F A. Pym, M P. Murphy, K E. Crook

Reconciliation is a powerful tool used by mining operations to compare the mass and grade of ore produced with what was estimated before mining. The primary objective of reconciliation is to verify that the estimated planned metal production is achieved during processing, allowing issues to be identified for which adjustments can be made throughout the mining value chain to improve recovery and maximise efficiency. Traditionally, the mine plan is based on estimated mine grades using sampled exploration drill hole or blasthole grades. Reconciliation discrepancies between the mine plan and mill are common due to such factors as insufficient or non-representative sampling, poorly conceived models, or unrecognised blast movement. MineSense Technologies Limited® (MTL) has developed an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) sensor-based ore classification system that is installed on mining equipment to provide real-time grade estimates of run-of-mine material at bucket, truck, or belt-scale. Bucket level grade estimates provide insights into grade variations at the mine face that were never before available. This data set eliminates some of the leading causes of reconciliation discrepancies and enables tracking of tonnages and grades from the mine face to the processing plant at bucket resolution with confidence. Bucket-by-bucket grades at the mine face enable dynamic optimisation of the mine plan to stabilise the mill feed grade through blending of mine and stockpile loads. Beyond stabilising feed grade, Mine to Mill reconciliation combined with the full XRF spectrum response can generate proxy relationships to ore characteristics like hardness and recovery. These properties can then be predicted at the mine face, enabling further optimisation of the downstream mill feed, not only for grade, but also for power and water consumption, reagent addition, and recovery. This paper presents the benefits of MTL technology for grade reconciliation and mill performance optimisation at a Cu Mine in BC (Canada).

Mar 22, 2022