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In October 1993 it was decided to undertake the fourth phase of mining at Big Bell. This decision followed the exhaustion of open pit reserves in January 1993. Two stages of mining were proposed for the new underground mine. The initial stage would mine the remnant ore, consisting of the rib and crown pillars and lower grade ore on the hangingwall and footwall side of the old open stopes, which were mined from the 1930s to 1950s. Most of the old open stopes were backfilled with either deslimed mill tailings or development mullock, both of which were economic to recover. However, the mineable ore from this resource was difficult to evaluate. The second stage focused on mining ore outside the remnant areas and was initially proposed as a Core and Shell method under a caving hangingwall. This method has since been superseded with sublevel caving, in part due to the very high and deviatoric stress conditions encountered at Big Bell and the relatively long mining cycle required for open stoping. The problems and challenges discussed in this paper will cover the identification of remnant ore reserves, dewatering the old workings, and remnant mining.

Jan 1, 1998

By D Frost, G Harbort, T Lipiec, N Deonarain

"The use of flotation columns has remained a contentious issue among mill operators. There are those who consider them an essential part of any mineral processing operation, while others consider them a necessary evil, which should only be installed if there is no alternative. Lastly, there are those who believe they should not be installed, no matter how great the perceived benefit.This paper provides an analysis of over 4000 installed flotation columns, contained in the Amec Foster Wheeler flotation database. Changing trends in column flotation use by type, commodity and geographical region are discussed. The effect of changing commodity prices and the China ‘phenomenon’ are reviewed. Special reference is made to the changing face of column flotation in Australia.Of note is the fact that after falling to a 20 year low in installed flotation column capacity in 2014, flotation columns during 2015 went through a resurgence in popularity. This resurgence was in direct contradiction to depressed metal prices and was driven by brownfield optimisations to reduce off-site costs, particularly in base metals. A case study is presented comparing the benefits of column flotation at high commodity prices with low commodity prices.Citation:Harbort, G, Deonarain, N, Frost, D, Lipiec, T and David, D, 2016. Changing Trends in Column Flotation Use - Their Impact for Australian Mill Operators, in Proceedings 13th AusIMM Mill Operators’ Conference 2016, pp 93–104 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Oct 10, 2016

Sufficient time has elapsed since the enactment of the amendments to the mining legislation in 1981 to enable an examination to be made of the way in which the licensing system operates in practice. One of the most important decisions in resource management in New Zealand is whether or not rights of access to the resource should be conferred by the Crown upon an appropriate private sector participant. The licensing system is the means for allocating these rights of access. The manner in which the licensing system is administered, therefore, is crucial to natural resource management in New Zealand. What is the mining licensing system in New Zealand designed to achieve? This simple question admits of no easy answer. Is it the identification and development of the mineral resources of New Zealand? Are these objectives tempered by issues of resource conservation and environmental protection? Is a balance to be achieved among these competing factors? Does the legislation contain any priorities? Does the system respond in an ad hoc manner to particular facts and circumstances or does it operate within a more predictable framework? To what extent are decisions made on access to minerals with reference to the development or conservation of other resources? These questions may be summarised in the title to this paper which poses the question whether mining licences are instruments for resource management.

Jan 1, 1988

By Peeler P. K

The recent renewal of interest in hydrometallurgical routes for copper production has been brought about by the possible future reliance on mixed ores and lower grade deposits, environmental aspects, and energy considerations.A number of hydrometallurgical processes for the recovery of copper have recently been proposed. Flowsheets are developed for two processes which incorporate several treatment methods being experimentally studied in Australia.In the first process a cupric chloride leach is followed by electrowinning whilst the second is based on the formation of cuprous ions, stabuized by acetonitrile and subsequent disproportionation to cupric ions and metallic copper. For the purpose of comparison, flowsheets were also developed for the Arbiter and Cymet processes.Process economics are estimated for the four processes and the results are discussed in relation to competitive pyrometallurgy. None of the four hydrometallurgical processes, with possible exception of the Cymet process, appears to be competitive with established large scale and newly developed pyrometallurgical processes for chalcopyrite.However, because the economics of the individual hydrometallurgical processes depend strongly on specific conditions, a "tailored" process may be competitive with pyrometallurgy in particular circumstances.

Jan 1, 1977

By J Samosir, L A. Snyman

Northparkes is located 27 km north of the township of Parkes in central New South Wales, Australia. The operations consist of underground block cave mines and an ore processing plant that produces high-grade copper and gold concentrate. Production is currently sourced from the E48 Lift 1 block cave mine and open cut stockpiles. Mining commenced at Northparkes in 1994 as an open cut operation. Underground block cave mining began in 1997. Northparkes was the first mine in Australia to use the highly efficient block cave mining method, which relies on gravity and natural rock stresses to fragment the ore.An issue affecting production in 2011 was the stability of the E48 mine. A small portion of the drives on the extraction level began to deteriorate as the ground support system failed. The problem was temporarily fixed by stopping production in three extraction drives and tight filling selected areas within these drives (and drawpoints) with low-strength concrete. This action provided immediate support and stability whilst allowing time to investigate potential ground support remedies. From these investigations it was decided to use resin injection technology and additional ground support to stabilise the rock in the aforementioned extraction drives as the concrete plug was excavated in a controlled advance and sequence. This made the area safe and ensured the ongoing safe operation of the E48 mine. The redevelopment of one of these drives began late in 2011, with the remainder being progressively redeveloped over the next two years in order to maintain the extraction level stability.This paper looks at the strategies employed to safely re-open previously converged drawpoints and associated extraction drives that were subject to high abutment loading that was possibly associated with premature cave breakthrough.CITATION:Samosir, J and Snyman, L A, 2014. Redevelopment at Northparkes following significant drive closure, in Proceedings AusRock 2014: Third Australasian Ground Control in Mining Conference , pp 87–92 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 5, 2014

By A Dunne, R Kruger, H Coleman, P G. Laurens

External and internal challenges in mining are increasing the difficulty and complexity of operating mines. The external mining environment has a big impact on mining operations and is driving the focus on safety, sustainable mining, green issues, profitability and productivity. There is a very high emphasis on ‘reducing cost to improve’, lower mining and beneficiation costs by eliminating waste/inefficiencies (reduce people, use less consumables, multiskilling, etc). The internal mining environment is getting tougher to operate in, with the deposits being more difficult to mine, more difficult to manage due to external pressure along with issues associated with maintaining quality, etc.Technological and environmental developments too numerous to mention, mean that cost control models, reduction in human resource numbers, as well as other drastic measures to curtail expenditure and increase profitability have become part of everyday business. The capability to manage the mining environment in a systemic manner has been lacking and this increases the pressure for performance on those individuals operating and managing mines.Working smarter has become crucial to ensure that businesses optimise the use of their resources, become more safety conscious, more productive and remain cost-effective, while recognising the importance of sustainable mining now and in the future. The logic of determining and managing to the capability of the mining value chain will be examined and the underlying assumptions or beliefs guiding behaviour and decision-making will be highlighted.In order to identify the obstacles in the mining value chain that hinder achievement of its full potential, the following questions have to be asked:What are the factors that influence the performance of a mining value chain?What is the design capacity of the mine?How can the inherent flow and value capacity of a mine be determined?What types of solutions will allow a mine to operate at its inherent flow and value capacity?This article will discuss the way we plan, measure, assess and manage the mine value chain, by addressing the following factors:balanced capacity versus flow and value capacity designthe use of averagingoptimising individual components in a value chain versus optimising the whole value chain.Optimising flow and value through the mining value chain is one of the three pillars of Mineral Resource Throughput Management (MR™). MR™ is an entrenched and academically supported philosophy that has been successfully applied in the past decade in various mines throughout the world by EXXPLEO, a mining and beneficiation consulting company. EXXPLEO has partnered with HCL (a global IT company) to embed the MR™ philosophy, methodology and toolsets into a formal software product called Synchronised Digital Mining (SDM). The SDM system will provide mining companies with a sustainable platform to effectively apply the MR™ principles and toolsets effectively across all operations targeting increased productivity, efficiency and profitability without having to train operations and management staff into expert MR™ practitioners to successfully achieve the desired results.CITATION:Dunne, A, Laurens, P G, Kruger, R and Coleman, H, 2015. Optimising flow in the mining value chain, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2015, pp 437–442 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 13, 2015

By S Hapugoda, J R. Manuel, M J. Peterson, A Poliakov, E Donskoi

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Aug 12, 2013

By V Srinivasan, P Knights, C T. Farrelly

By 2025, with the widespread industry adoption of remote operation centres and advanced analytics, mining companies will find themselves making better, more informed decisions across the value chain. Process automation will drive significant business integration and reorganisation. Better collaboration between functions will make cross value chain optimisation a reality. Wherever possible decisions will be automated, based on analytical models and embedded in an enterprise decision management (EDM) architecture. This will take care of many of the minor day-to-day or the minute-to-minute decisions that consume operators and managers today. More flexible information technologies and architectures derived from the extensions to Web 2.0 and service oriented architecture (SOA) will solve many of the integration issues of today. The ongoing business imperatives for doing more with less people will make true collaboration with partners such as mining contractors, equipment vendors, transport providers, suppliers and maintenance contractors commonplace throughout the industry. All these organisations will be linked in and share common goals and objectives in real-time while providing visibility of internal constraints and available capability, allowing optimised decisions to be made across the extended enterprise. Humans will increasingly move to a more supervisory role and will use advanced collaboration to quickly solve complex abnormal issues that span the value chain out to the extended enterprise. The open collaboration and communication models instilled in the workforce through the widespread use of social networking technologies will drive thought leadership far beyond current æbest practiceÆ thinking. This will encourage the mining industry to extract the business value from rapidly converging fields of study such as environmental sciences, neuroscience, psychology, engineering, information technology and business finance. The future of mining will see a more uniform distribution of data savvy workers between the ages of 20 - 40, forcing a change in current operations. This group will drive the adoption of ubiquitous computing, augmented reality, presence and digital labelling. The enterprise will shift from a relatively static disparate set of functions to a digitally aware, integrated and interactive environment with information available, in context and just in time, to those who need it. The networked virtual enterprise will therefore be a reality.

Jan 1, 2008

By J Carrillo, A King

Gravity recoverable gold (GRG) is largely distinguished from other gold by its non-mineralised, metallic form, its high degree of liberation from the ore and its appreciable particle size. The gold mining industry has so widely accepted the use of batch centrifugal concentrators (BCC) and intensive cyanidation (IC) systems for the recovery of GRG that these may well be considered requirements of any plant processing ore containing appreciable GRG. The recovery of gold by gravity is quick, easy and cheap by comparison to alternatives. However, there are cases where attributes of the ore make recovery of gold by gravity and IC unusually challenging. This paper describes three examples where such challenges have been encountered and met, including those where the ore contains cyanide soluble base metals and where fine GRG is to be recovered from flotation concentrate.CITATION:King, A and Carrillo, J, 2018. Addressing challenging applications of intensive cyanidation in gravity gold recovery, in Proceedings 14th AusIMM Mill Operators' Conference 2018, pp 283–290 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 29, 2018

By Loughnan FC

There are some thirteen laboratories in Australia in which coal petrological work is carried out on a consistent and routine basis. Applied coal petrological research is conducted by several institutions in different disciplines which can be grouped into four main categories:

Jan 1, 1989

By R Cunningham

The E26 Lift 1 North Project took 37 months from the approval on 1st January 2019 to the commencement of production on 1st March 2022. This was five months ahead of the feasibility plan. When compared to the previous E48 Block Cave construction 12 years prior, which was of a similar size and design with ten extraction drives, crusher and conveyors, the E26 Lift 1 North project has been delivered at 29 per cent less capital cost. Key metrics achieved by the project include 12.7 km of development, 240 km of production drilling for drawbells and undercut blasting, 107 drawbells fired ready for production as well as only three Lost Time Injuries compared to 16 during E48 construction. The Lift 1 North Project Team has established a significant point of difference with the delivery being completed by the ‘Owners Team Model’ not Lump Sum or Turn-key. E26 Lift 1 North is now supplying the Northparkes processing plant for the next eight years. This paper discusses major milestones achieved throughout the process, modifications to processes from previous block cave construction at Northparkes as well as novel approaches to work to achieve the successful delivery of the project.

Mar 29, 2023

Over the last 15 years working in the mining, construction and extractive industries, one of the areas that has always concerned and at the same time drawn the author to it is the application of drilling and blasting in the underground development mining and civil construction tunnelling fields. In that time, the author has come across many drives and tunnels that are larger than design or badly damaged in the perimeter or both. When the question is asked as to why this is the case, the reply is generally æthatÆs the way it is and always has beenÆ. Sometimes it is blamed on bad ground, bad drilling, bad explosives, bad initiation or just plain bad. Most operators build a dilution factor into development and tunneling costs as an acceptance of overbreak and similarly pattern bolt everything to overcome excessive perimeter damage. This paper will attempt to unravel some of the mysteries behind perimeter drilling and blasting in underground drives and tunnels and discuss methods to reduce overbreak and therefore reduce costly dilution and to minimise perimeter damage which in turn will allow more cost-effective ground support. It should not be assumed that better drilling and blasting alone would automatically allow an operation to reduce ground support. The operator must still æreadÆ the ground and its characteristics in order to ensure sufficient ground support is placed to allow the operation to progress safely. This paper will not go into the intricacies of bolting, meshing, shotcreting, concreting and other ground support, but it will use indicative costs for the primary areas of drilling, explosives, excavation and labor to show the magnitude of cost-efficiencies which can be obtained through improved drilling and blasting applications. Drill and blast remains the most flexible and cost-effective method of underground excavation as long as it is applied safely and effectively.

Jan 1, 1999

By S H. Li, H Z. Gu, A Huang

High aluminium steel is a promising advanced steel known for its exception properties and holds significant economic and strategic importance. However, the CaO-Al2O3-SiO2 based slag with high alumina content reacts vigorously with alumina refractories during the smelting process at high temperature, seriously affecting the safe and efficient production of furnaces and resulting in the formation of Al2O3-MgO non-metallic inclusions within the molten steel. This is a bottleneck problem for high-quality steel refining, and the key reaction path during the corrosion remains unclear. The dissolution reaction mechanism of alumina refractories in high alumina CaO-Al2O3-SiO2 slags under a weak static magnetic field was investigated in this work, using high temperature laser confocal microscopy and in situ radiation spectroscopy techniques. The results indicate that the interaction between the high alumina slags and the alumina refractories is governed by free radical reactions. The dissolution of alumina forms AlO and AlO2 radicals. The reaction rate increases with the C/S ratio of the slag due to its low polymerisation. The reaction between non-bridging oxygen and AlO2 free radicals accelerates the generation of AlO and O2ꞏ- radicals. The reaction layer composed of calcium aluminate is formed through the recombination of AlO, Caꞏ+ and O2ꞏ- radicals. The weak static magnetic field induces the Zeeman splitting of free radical pairs and intersystem crossing occurs, promoting the formation of triplet free radical pairs through the hyper-fine coupling effect. The reaction can be significantly inhibited as the triplet free radical pair does not meet Pauli’s incompatibility principle. This discovery perfects the structure theory of molten slags with radicals and provides supplement to the design of the highly slag-resistant refractories, and provides the theoretical basis for the development of external field protection technologies for high-quality steel refining.

Jun 19, 2024

As the mining industry looks to new technologies for a safe work environment and increased production rates, so should emergency response teams when dealing with organisational incidents. Implementation of technology has transformed the nature of incidents within the international mining community with lower frequency, high impact events replacing high frequency, low impact incidents of the past. In turn the approach to mines rescue response and preparation has naturally diversified. New rescue technologies when applied effectively can only further advance preparation and the response of mine rescues teams. This paper discusses some of the changes associated with mines rescue as the industry embraces technology. It highlights some recent rescue responses and their approach and gives examples of some of the new technologies being used for improved mines rescue.

Jan 1, 2004

By D Kilkenny, D Nardini, P Kline

This paper is a case study highlighting learnings and success in two areas challenging underground miners: change management and collaboration. It examines the implementation process of a new automated loading system in the bulk stoping area of Telfer Mine in Western Australia, controlling multiple load haul dump machines. Here, the new technology has brought together different functions and different companies to deliver a well performing automation system in a changing and challenging mining environment. The introduction of a new and different technology on site has driven collaboration between all stakeholders to break down the traditional barriers to achieve the sustained performance required. Historically, different teams have operated within silos and not always aligned to deliver a ‘best for project’ solution. Technical teams focus on the mine design, maintenance teams focus on reliability and operations execute the plan. Mining contractors focus on productivity and cost. Manufacturers focus on supply of goods and service. Optimising each silo individually is not guaranteed to provide an optimal mining solution. Involving elements from each team as seen at Telfer, has resulted in an optimal mining solution for the automated loading system. A change of focus from the technical teams to include automation parameters in the mine design; operability and maintainability built into the system design allowing for collective ownership and responsibility resulting in a more resilient solution. The implementation of the new technology was not only a technical change but more importantly, successful management of change. Elements of successful change management such as communication, vision, leadership and planning, are essential to harness a trusting site culture which is responsive to new technology. Learnings and challenges from this change process will also be discussed with the intent to improve the success rate and timelines of technology implementations in the future.

Mar 15, 2021

By J L. Mauk

The Martha epithermal Au-Ag deposit contains multiple generations of quartz veins with a range of textures. We examined: +        vein textures, +        crosscutting vein relationships, and +        the paragenetic sequence within the pit walls as well as a wide range of hand specimens. Samples include host rock, breccia, and veins, but these groups are not distinct; instead, they form a continuum.   Veins at Martha mine show a wide range of textures on a local scale; these textures also change significantly over both the lateral and vertical extent of the pit. Common textures include crustiform bands, comb quartz, colloform bands, platy quartz, massive quartz, drusy quartz, sedimentary textures and brecciation.   Vein grades relate to textures. Many textures, including crustiform, platy, cherty, and sedimentary textures display predominantly low grades, but some textures are linked with high grades, such as ginguro, massive and comb quartz where they are associated with visible base metal sulphides and/or electrum. Host rocks and most breccias are low grade, as most samples contain <2 ppm Au.

Jan 1, 2006

By D Kavanagh, C Michaud

"A continuous improvement initiative was identified at Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mine’s (KCGM) Fimiston open pit with the goal of reducing bench turnover time and increasing shovel digability by improving fragmentation around previously mined-out stopes. In the past, a higher number of blasts than normal would be required to get through a single excavation area where stopes were present. This is due to the limited reach capability of the drilling fleet from safe ground into restricted areas requiring the drilling of the shot to be done in a staged manner. In addition, the holes that were able to be drilled in the area did not remain open long enough to be loaded with explosives as a result of the poor ground conditions surrounding the stopes.Over the last 18 months, KCGM has trialled drill additives to improve blasthole stability, as well as introducing a remote drill rig allowing holes to be drilled in areas previously inaccessible by manned drill rigs. This has resulted in improved penetration rates in bad ground conditions, improved drill hole stability, better shovel digability, and an overall reduction in bench turnover of at least ten days on the benchmarked 126 days average per bench. KCGM is now in the final stages of the improvement project with the installation of a drill monitoring system on the fleet to allow live data transfer back to the office for analysis, as well as providing improved accuracy on drill holes in restricted areas.Citation:Michaud, C and Kavanagh, D, 2016. Reducing Bench Turnover Time and Improving Shovel Digability, in Proceedings Ninth AusIMM Open Pit Operators' Conference 2016, pp 19–27 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Nov 15, 2016

By L Bergin, D J. Williams, S Islam, T A. Vangsness

The flooding of open strip coal mines in the Bowen Basin and Hunter Valley Coalfields of Eastern Australia has the potential to soften the spoil and floor materials to produce “mud”. This mud can act as a slip plane or weak zone when spoil is dumped into it, resulting in geotechnical instabilities. Once mud has formed, typical handling techniques include its costly removal by mechanical means, or its isolation and capping.There are little data available on the moisture state and shear strength of the capped mud. To investigate the effectiveness of isolation and capping, research has been conducted using a large slurry consolidometer (150 mm in diameter by up to 410 mm in height) to simulate capping in situ. Once consolidated, the mud was subjected to shear strength testing in a direct shear box measuring 60 mm by 60 mm by about 20 mm high. The shear strength of the consolidated mud was compared to that of competent, fresh spoil, a mixture of spoil and mud, and to completely degraded spoil (mud alone).These results have been used as inputs in stability calculations using the commercial computer program Slide 7.0, which demonstrates the strong influence of consolidation of the mud on overall low wall slope stability. The results provide insight into the design and construction of capping to isolate in-pit mud.CITATION:Vangsness, T A, Williams, D J, Islam, S, Smith, A and Bergin, L, 2018. Consolidation and shear strength testing and stability analysis of coal mine spoil degraded to mud, in Proceedings Mine Waste and Tailings Stewardship Conference 2018, pp 97–109 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 23, 2018

By C McGuire

As mobile equipment electrification in underground mining continues to gain popularity, control ofheat and humidity in the workplace is becoming a key driver in sizing of ventilation and mine aircooling systems. For design and sizing of ventilation and cooling systems to be accurate, and for themine mobile equipment fleet to be sized appropriately to meet production goals, vehicle productivitymetrics, heat modelling, and energy balances for electrified fleets need to consider operation througha realistic duty cycle that is reflective of various tasks performed during a shift.The authors conducted a real-world comparison of two 8 cubic yard (14 metric tonne) class Load-Haul-Dump (LHD) machines – one diesel and one battery-electric vehicle (BEV) – performingidentical muck-haul-dump operations on consecutive days at an underground nickel/copper hardrock mine in Ontario, Canada.The battery-electric LHD averaged 8.9 per cent faster cycle time than the diesel vehicle (gross,without accounting for charging time), and was able to transport 25 per cent more material per cycledue to a larger bucket capacity. When including the charging time, average net cycle times wereequivalent for the two vehicles over the 200 cycles. The BEV carried more payload over the eighthour period due to the increased capacity per cycle.The testing identified an approximately five-fold reduction in heat output from the BEV in comparisonto the diesel LHD on a basis of heat output per tonne of rated bucket capacity. Heat output from thefast charger was found to be approximately 4 per cent of the charging rate, with negligibletemperature change observed in the main drift. External noise levels in the mine were found to be14 dB lower for the BEV during transit and 11 dB lower during bucket loading. Fuel/energy costs forBEV electricity input were approximately four times lower per operating hour than diesel fuel costbased on typical 2021 electrical and diesel unit rates for a grid-connected mine in Ontario, Canada.

Oct 12, 2022

Xstrata CopperÆs Mount Isa Copper Operations is located in mineral rich north-west Queensland and is one of the largest sources of copper in the world. This world-class underground operation is planned to produce over 6.6 million tonnes of copper ore in 2007 from the X41 and Enterprise Mines. With an underground mining history of over 50 years and underground reserves of over 83 million tonnes at 2.6 per cent copper, mine planning for the future becomes an exciting challenge for the technical team due to the older nature of certain areas. The 1100 Orebody of the X41 mine was one of the first places that copper mining occurred, with its discovery in 1953 - 1954 and mining commencing in the 1960s. Sublevel open stoping mining methods have been employed since that time as the means of extraction, using a primary-secondary sequence to maximise stope turnaround time. Large Transverse Pillars within the 1100 orebody were not mined out in order to provide access for ventilation, power, orepasses and other services. The Panel Pillar, 4180XC and 4010XC pillars are three such Transverse Pillars in the 1100 orebody that will be mined as a final retreat. This paper discusses the technical challenges and issues associated with the extraction of Q390 stope, one of the stopes located in the Panel Pillar, and the design solutions to overcome these issues. Managing the exposure of backfilled stopes of variable fill strength, ensuring the stability of the crown, stope walls and drawpoints, managing vertical openings, re-establishing service networks, and stope filling are the critical issues given consideration for the final design of Q390 stope and other such stopes within a Transverse Pillar. Communication and coordination between the different departments in the mine are essential for the necessary work to be completed in a timely manner to bring pillar stopes into production.

Jan 1, 2007