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Many block caving operations experience difficulties during undercutting, resulting in draw horizon damage, production loss and extensive drift repairs for the life of the block cave. This paper deals specifically with block cave undercut aims strategies, methodologies and management to avoid the problems indicated above.

Jan 1, 2000

By Philip B. Bucky

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Jan 1, 1942

Block caving is the lowest cost underground mining method but it has relatively high risks and a high up-front capital and development cost. It has application to large, often lower-grade orebodies where high production rates can provide good returns on the investment. However, it has a range of technical risks that are peculiar to block caving and the usual financial, political and environmental risks that may be exacerbated by the long lead-in times associated with the development of a block cave operation. With initial development costs that may be $100 M to $1000 M when the building of a treatment plant is also required, it is obviously important to minimise and manage the risks. In a greenfield project, commitment to a substantial proportion of the capital expenditure may be required to gain access to the deposit, and the decision to proceed at this stage would be based very largely on interpretations of drill hole data. In established mines the data may be supplemented by geological mapping and past experience, etc. The quality of this data is critical and yet it is frequently degraded through poor techniques and avoidable omissions. The final decision to proceed would be assessed on projected commodity prices, mining capital and operating costs, dilution and run of mine ore grades. The latter will vary over the life of the project and these can be estimated with drawdown or draw control modelling techniques. In this modelling, there are further risks in the assumed modelling parameters or that the modelling technique may not be applicable or appropriate. The paper addresses the most critical technical and operational risk areas and provides some practical precautions that can be taken to reduce these and improve the reliability of the geological and geotechnical models.

Jan 1, 2000

By Philip B. Bucky

[CONTENTS t. How Does One Determine WhetherPAGE an ore Body Will Block-cave?R. W. Hughes13 Sherman R. Burdick 13 PAGER. T. Gallagher 14 Mark A. Smith 2 C. F. B. Price, Jr.14 Harry A. Leidich2Benjamin F. Tillson 14 McHenry Mosier2C. F. Jackson14,17 R. W. Hughes2R. Taborelli15 Sherman R. Burdick3Frank A. Ayer16 R. T. Gallagher 3Philip B. Bucky16 Benjamin F. Tillson 3Rollin Farminr6 Lucien Eaton 3J. L. G. Weysser15, 0,17 C. F. Jackson 3George S. Rice17 Philip B. Bucky32. How Does One Determine the Block4. What Determines the Procedure in Dimensions and the DevelopmentRemoving Caved Ore? Work Necessary to Make an OreHarry A. Leidich17 Body Cave?McHenry Mosier17,21 Mark A. Smith 5,7,() R. W. Hughes17 Harry A. Leidich6Sherman R. Burdick 18 McHenry Mosier6,7,12 R. T. Gallagher 18 R. W. Hughes6Mark A. Smith I8 Sherman R. Burdick 7Philip B. Bucky20, 21, 23 R. T. Gallagher 7C. F. B. Price, Jr20 Benjamin F. Tillson 7,11R. H. Bennett21 L. E. Young7C. F. Jackson 21, 23 Robert D. Hoffman8, 1 2Gerald Sherman 3 . 21 Gerald Sherman8Tell Ertl21 Philip B. Bucky10, 11, 12G. K. Foster 23 R. S. McClellan 12C. H. Shoemaker23 Tell Ertl 12 3. How Do the Forces Act and What Are5. What Are the Criteria for Determining the Stresses Developed in a Blockthe Efficiency of a Block-caving That Cause It to Block-cave?Operation? Mark A. Smith 12, ISHarry A. Leidich23 Harry A. Leidich13McHenry Mosier24 McHenry Mosier13R. W. Hughes24 Sherman R. Burdick 24 R. T. Gallagher 24]

Jan 1, 1942

By C. E. Schwab

A lead-zinc orebody, in fairly strong quartzite and with a dip of 35° to 60°, is block-caved by use of scrams in a stair-step pattern up the ore footwall. Scram linings to handle coarse muck and permit the use of folding scrapers are developed by the use of end-grain wooden blocks to reduce maintenance and keep operating cost to a minimum.

Jan 10, 1953

By A. H. Underwood, M. –Ls. Trépanier

INTRODUCTION The King and Beaver mines of Asbestos Corporation Limited (ACL) were joined in 1957 to form the King-Beaver mine. In 1964, ACL purchased the Johnson's Asbestos Company. The combined underground workings are a part of the King- Beaver mine. Asbestos ore is mined at the rate of 4080 metric tons per day (mtpd) to provide 15% of the company's daily requirement in the Thetford Mines area. Figure 1 shows the location of Thetford Mines. Two shafts service the underground. No. 3 shaft, 457 m deep, is used for personnel and material transportation, downcast ventilation, and ore hoisting. No. 4 shaft, 820 m to the south, is 389 m deep. It is used for material transportation and upcast ventilation. Figure 2 shows the relative locations of the shafts and the underground workings. The ore is mined by block caving. HISTORY The orebody outcropped at surface and was first mined as an open pit. Underground mining commenced when open pit mining became impractical. Shrinkage stoping, used initially, was unsatisfactory in the highly fractured ore. Sublevel stoping improved ore recovery and safety, but did not overcome the adverse effects of the un- stable rock. Observations of the rock failures indicated that block caving would be satisfactory. This was confirmed by careful investigation and testing. A method of block caving similar to that used at the Miami Copper Company was adopted. The first block commenced production in June 1933. BLOCK CAVING General A large block of ore is undercut above pre- pared drawpoints. The ore above the undercut caves by its own weight. Caving progresses up- ward as the caved ore is drawn. A large proportion of the rock breaks up in the caving action so that it will pass through the drawpoints. Oversize blocks are broken by drilling and blasting or mudcapping. Figure 3 shows the progressive stages of block caving. In the central part of the ore zone, the vertical dimension of a block is determined by the 132 metres between production levels. When isolated ore pockets are developed, the vertical dimensions of a block depend on the extension of the ore zone above the undercut. The minimum horizontal dimension of an under- cut determines the cavability of the overlying block. When necessary, caving is assisted by drilling long horizontal holes into the block above the undercut and blasting them. This procedure speeds up or restarts caving. It will not ensure complete caving of blocks having undercuts less than 30 m wide. Orebodies suitable for block caving are highly fractured and wide enough to cave freely without excessive dilution. Undercutting must

Jan 1, 1981

By Kenric C. Owen

INTRODUCTION Situated 23 miles east of Pretoria the Premier Mine started diamond production in 1903. Two years later it produced the largest diamond yet discovered, the 3 106 carat Cullinan stone. For the period to 1932 when the mine was closed down due to economic circumstances, open cast mining was practised using inclined rope haulage traction and by this time had produced 48.5 million carats of predominantly industrial quality diamonds from 148 million tons of ore. In 1945 it was decided to re-open the mine using underground mining methods. A system using long hole benching was devised (Hodgson and Sewel 1960). This system was later modified but still forms the basis for approximately fifty percent of production. Following the successful introduction of block caving on associated diamond mines in the Kimberley area (Gallagher and Loftus 1960) this mining method was introduced to the Premier Mine in the late 60's and now accounts for nearly 50% of production. This paper will discuss block caving at Premier Mine in the light of our experience and discussion will be directed to the main geological and structural features of the orebody and host rocks and the related constraints imposed on the mining methods. Reference is made to the long hole benching mining method for comparative purposes. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF OPERATIONS The ore from the block caving and bench mining areas gravitates via ore passes to a twin haulage, 500m below surface. Electric 13 tonne locomotives, each hauling a train of 10 Granby type cars, deliver the ore to two 42" x 48" (1.06m x 1.22m) jaw crushers. The ore is reduced in size to minus 0.15m before being hoisted to the treatment plant on surface. Hoisting is done with 12.5 tonne bottom discharge skips in a five compartment rectangular shaft using two 3 240 H.P. semi automatic Ward Leonard winders. A small single drum service winder operates in the other compartment. Men and materials travel in a separate shaft in a 5,4m x 2,8m cage operated by a Koepi winder. These two shafts are also the main intake airways to the mine. The two main extraction fans capable of 250 m3/s at 3,2 kPa are situated on surface and are connected to the underground workings by an incline and a network of air passes and return airways. GEOLOGY Although there are numerous occurrences of kimberlite bodies in the district, the Premier Mine kimberlite pipe is the only economic orebody. It is roughly oval in shape with surface dimensions of 900m on the long axis and 450monthe short axis. The surface area is 320 000 m2. The kimberlite has intruded a massive body of felsite and norite which is intersected by a number of faults. The contact between the kimberlite and host rock is clear cut and dips inward at an average angle of 80°. Cutting across the pipe and the country rock is a 75 metre thick gabbro sill, the top of which intersects the pipe below the 347m level and dips at 15' to the north west. The kimberlite has been metamorphosed a distance of some 20m both above and below the sill contacts. Age measurements on biotite from the gabbro date the sill as 1 115 million years, thereby providing a minimum age of the pipe. (Pre Cambrian). All other pipes in South Africa are of Cretaceous age (60 million years). A simplified geological plan and section of the Premier Mine orebody is shown in Figure 1. It is thought that the kimberlite intruded in at least three distinct phases. The kimberlites of these different phases can be distinguished most easily by their characteristic colour. BROWN KIMBERLITE. This is the oldest kimberlite and forms a crescent shape in plan on the south eastern side of the pipe. In depth it increases in relative area. Although the brown kimberlite carries the highest diamond grade in terms of carats per ton all the various kimberlites in the Premier pipe are economic to mine.

Jan 1, 1981

BLOCK CAVING HAS BEEN DEVELOPED to a high degree of efficiency in the last two decades and more particularly since World War II. At the Jeffrey mine of Canadian Johns-Manville Co., in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, several innovations have increased production and decreased costs. Asbestos ore is produced at the rate of 10,000 tpd from an underground operation supplemented by a large open pit that has been mined since 1881. The orebody consists of asbestos veins in a fractured and serpentinized peridotite. Hardness and structural strength of rock vary from soft shear zones at one extreme to a small amount of hard granitic inclusions at the other. In general the ore is weak and deteriorates on exposure to air, so that it is difficult to maintain underground openings for any period of time. Permanent workings are lined with concrete and temporary ones are driven mini- mum size and supported with steel sets as required.

Jan 5, 1954

By David D. Rabb

Under the auspices of the Atomic Energy Commission, the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory of the University of California analyzed an experiment to provide information as to whether the chimney of broken rock produced by a deeply buried nuclear explosive could be "drawn" by conventional techniques. Since many low-grade disseminated ore-bodies occur in a granite media, the experiment took place in a granodiorite-quartz monzonite intrusive porphyry in the Nevada Test Site as a follow-up to the Department of Defense's Hardhat detonation in February 1962. For emplacement of the nuclear device, a 12 ¼ - in. pilot hole was reamed to a diameter of 44 in. and a depth of 950 ft in one pass using a Hughes multiple-cluster rotary bit. It was then cased to 36 in. ID. The center of the explosive device was located 938.85 ft below the collar. The yield of the device was predicted to be 5 kilotons, or an equivalent of 5000 tons of TNT; the yield was later confirmed by chemical means to be 5.4 kilotons.

Jan 3, 1964

By Ray L. Tobie, Douglas E. Julin

GENERAL DESCRIPTION Block caving is a distinct caving method applied mostly to large, massive, ore bodies because of its in¬herent low cost and high production capabilities. Areas of sufficient size are removed by undercutting so that the mass above will cave naturally. Drawing of the caved ore at the bottom of the ore column causes the caving action to continue upward until all of the ore above the undercut level is broken into sizes suitable for handling. When properly applied, block caving results in a lower mining cost per ton than any other under¬ground method. There are three distinct forms: (1) dividing the horizontal area into rectangular or preferably square or nearly square blocks, drawing evenly over the entire area to maintain an approximately horizontal plane of con¬tact between broken ore and caved capping; (2) divid¬ing the horizontal area into panels across the ore body, retreating by undercutting manageable areas from one end of the panel to the other and maintaining an in¬clined plane of contact between the broken ore and caved capping (thus the name panel caving); and (3) no division of horizontal area of the ore body into defi¬nite blocks or panels (this is termed mass caving). Undercutting may be from wall to wall, retreating from one end of the ore body to the other, maintaining an inclined plane of contact between the broken ore and caved capping. The total active caved area is deter¬mined by the size of block that will not produce undue stress on workings below the undercutting level and by total production requirements. This type of operation is also referred to as panel caving at some properties. SUITABLE ORE BODIES Block caving in its various forms is applicable to deposits of various shapes and ores of various strengths. Its success is governed by rigid requirements and limi¬tations. In unsuitable deposits or where improperly em¬ployed, the loss of ore may exceed that of any other mining method. Good planning, systematic work pro¬cedures, careful supervision, and good judgment con¬tribute to its success. Ore Characteristics Included as a necessary characteristic in an ore body suited to a successful block-caving operation is a proper fracture pattern. Ore hardness should be another gov¬erning factor, and the toughness or softness of the ore should be considered. There must be sufficient horizon¬tal area available for expansion of the undercut, if neces¬sary, to start the caving process. Large, massive, ore bodies usually meet these conditions. Veinlike deposits must be wide and dip rather steeply to conform to the block-caving limitations. The capping must be of such a nature as to cave when the underlying ore is being removed since the weight of the overburden aids in crushing the ore. The most favorable capping character¬istic is that it breaks into coarse pieces and resists attrition as the block is drawn. Soft capping, by breaking into fine pieces and sifting into the ore or channeling through the ore to the drawpoints, can seriously dilute the ore and hinder the extraction of clean ore from the blocks. Types of Ore In block caving, a fairly uniform distribution of val¬ues in the ore is necessary. Grade values may range from low grade to high grade, but most often the sys¬tem is applied to low-grade ores. Wide veins, thick beds, or massive deposits of homogeneous ore overlain by ground which will cave constitute suitable ore bodies. The ore must be such that it can be supported while blocks are being developed and undercut but breaks up readily when caved. Some applications include porphyry copper, disseminated molybdenite, hematite in the Lake Superior iron district, limonite deposits in northern Spain, the diamond mines of South Africa, asbestos and nickel in Canada, and massive magnetite in Pennsylvania. Size and Shape Outline of the ore body should be fairly regular, and the sides of the ore body should dip steeply. It may not be economical to mine small portions of ore extending into the walls of the deposit, and low-grade inclusions in the ore cannot be left unmined. Some dilution of the ore, as mining progresses, by low-grade or barren cap¬ping is inevitable and, unavoidably, some clean ore is left between drawpoints. Determining Cavability The use of rock mechanics is sometimes advantageous in helping to determine the cavability of an ore deposit. The US Bureau of Mines has information and testing ability which can assist in determining the cavability of ore types. Several competent consulting orga¬nizations knowledgeable in rock mechanics can also as¬sist in evaluating the cavability of an ore body. Some recent work has been done to better define the cavability index of various ore bodies; an example of how this was determined is discussed by McMahon and Kendrick (1969). The intensity of the fracture pattern is a critical parameter to be analyzed. The question to be answered is, "How intense must the fracture pattern be?" Table 1 is a tabulation of the size of rock fragments that appear at the drawpoint of various block-cave mines around the world. These are indicative of the fracture-pattern spac¬ing and, as can be seen, they vary substantially from the almost sandy material at the Mather mine to fairly sizable blocks at the Grace mine. Several sets of fractures are essential to promote good caving. Ideally, two vertical sets at nearly right angles to each other and a third set nearly horizontal are required to insure a good caving ore body. Since initial caving of an ore mass is almost always by the action of gravity acting on these planes of weakness, it is doubtful

Jan 1, 1982

By Peter I. Brooker

Elementary estimation methods in which blocks are assigned values according to a geometrical area of influence concept are investigated for a tabular deposit. This quantitative assessment of the estimation technique is made using Matheron's geostatistics which allows the variance of the error between actual block values and estimated values to be found once the semi-variogram is known. For the deposit in question it is shown that the elementary technique makes poor use of the available information. There is a 20% relative error associated with it, whereas by using the optimal technique of kriging this can be reduced to 9%. An infill drilling program, which might have been suggested on area of influence results, would reduce the estimation variance only marginally over that of the current campaign; the relative error being lowered to 6%. Thus the geostatistical analysis shows this would be an unnecessary expense. The accuracy of an earlier drilling stage is also studied and it is shown that with the information available at the earlier stage block values could have been known with a relative error of 13%. Drilling could have stopped then if this were reckoned a tolerable error level. These results are all obtained for blocks whose size is dictated by the mining engineer and is set at the current grid size. In the area of influence approach smaller blocks are considered as the grid becomes finer and a study of the accuracy of area of influence estimates and kriged estimates for differing block sizes is presented. Between drilling stages more information from which the semi- variogram is calculated becomes available. The sensitivity of the estimation to changes in the semi-variogram parameters between earlier and current drilling programs is investigated.

Jan 1, 1977

By J E. Everett

Maximising ore tonnage at a selected target grade requires that appropriate ore identification criteria be established. Iron ore mining block models may consist of many millions of estimated blocks, each block corresponding to the selective mining unit (SMU), with grade interpolated from drill hole data. Each block can be considered as a potential ore candidate. Analysis of such a huge database can require large computational resources, especially for sensitivity analysis requiring multiple computations. However, an alternative streamlined approach is possible, where the data are compressed to an appropriately smaller and representative subset. The consequent data reduction not only makes it feasible to consider the simultaneous analysis of multiple pits but also considerably speeds up computation, enabling sensitivity analysis of the potential ore tonnage as a function of the required grade. Ore identification criteria can be successfully established using appropriately chosen reduced data comprising less than one per cent of the blocks. The ore identified is virtually indistinguishable in tonnage and grade from the ore that would be selected using the entire block model.Two methods of data reduction are tested: sampling (using a proportion of unaltered blocks) and binning (consolidating groups of blocks to a single average grade). The source blocks are first sorted (such as by location, analyte grade, principal component score, random order or value) before sampling or binning. In this study, the sorting options considered were by location and Fe grade. The effectiveness of each method was evaluated using the block model subsets to select the maximum tonnage of ore at a specified target grade. Block model data from an anonymous Pilbara iron ore project with about one million blocks averaging 1.132 kt were used. The blocks are from multiple resource models, to be blended to a single product. Sampling is shown to be superior to binning because sampling preserves the full variability while binning, although matching the mean block grades reduces their variability.It was found that the appropriately sampled data sets (sorted by location) gave results virtually identical to the results for the full data set, even when the samples comprised less than one per cent of the original blocks. The reduction in computer time to identify maximum tonnage at a specified grade was approximately proportional to the sample percentage. The increase in computation speed greatly facilitated sensitivity analysis. A sampled data set of one-eighth the total block model was used to investigate the effects of changing each of the component grades around the original grade specification. The results of this sensitivity analysis are discussed, and illustrate the potential benefit of carrying out sensitivity analysis in determining feasible and marketable product grades.CITATION:Everett, J E, 2015. Block model data reduction and sensitivity analysis, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2015, pp 263–270 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 13, 2015

The accuracy with which block values are known can have a fundamental effect on the success of an operation.From a geostatistical study the variance of the error in extending sample values to block values can be determined and the engineer must ensure that this is sufficiently small by adjusting the size of blocks or moreintensive sampling. A study is given for a deposit showing a high degree of anisotropy and it is shown that the shape of the block is not important in determining the estimates.

Jan 1, 1976

By R. M. Jara

This work evaluates and characterizes the impact of the support size and mining dilution of a block model in the operation and selection of equipment at an open pit mine. An exploratory analysis and geostatistical modelling of the grades assayed on a set of drill hole samples is performed, which allows constructing a grade model on a dense grid by means of a conditional simulation. The grades are then averaged to greater selective mining unit supports in order to proceed with the study and methodology. First, the metal-tonnage curves are used to analyse the loss of selectivity on the in situ resources caused by a change of support. Concerning the ore reserves and their mining sequence, defined in the pit optimization and analysis process, the same curves prove that the loss of selectivity is more accentuated. Second, the importance of the block boundary dilution produced during mining operations is assessed. Its value depends on the amount of ore in contact with waste, on the loading error of the equipment and on the ore loss/waste dilution criterion assumed by the planner. The dilution percentage and the differences between waste and ore grades become higher when the block size decreases. For these reasons, considering the dilution in the production plans makes mining a small support more constraining. An adequate delimitation of the orebody can improve the mining selectivity, leading to greater income. Finally, a study of the increase in mining cost that provides a zero difference in NPV between the different block size options is carried out, in order to determine the maximum increase in mining costs for which it remains profitable to mine at a smaller block size. Keywords: Mining selectivity, support effect, block boundary dilution, selective mining unit size, block model.

Jan 1, 2006

By G. Rong, W. Du

Stability of some potential unstable blocks in the left bank slope of Baihetan hydropower station is evaluated in this paper using the three-dimensional (3D) limit equilibrium method. The Baihetan hydropower station is in the downstream of Jinshajiang River, China. The geological condition in the river valley is complex, and many large discontinuities are detected in the slope of the two banks. As a result, much attention should be paid to the stability of the slope in the feasibility study stage. Because the left bank slope is an oblique consequent one, we mainly focus on the slope stability analysis in the left bank. Comprehensive geological exploration is conducted in the studied area and the detected discontinuities are well researched. By building a 3D geological model of the left bank slope, three potential unstable blocks which are close to the dam site are detected. An irregular wedge analysis method is then used to calculate safety factors of the three blocks under three conditions, which are natural condition, rainfall condition, and seismic condition, respectively. It is found that the safety factors of the block 1# and the block 2# are quite low when compared to the suggested values. Extra care must be exercised when excavating the slope near the block 1# and the block 2#. A preliminary reinforcement is also suggested.

Jan 1, 2015

By George Rupp

THE Sunrise iron mine of The Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation is in Platte County, Wyoming, about 110 miles north of Cheyenne. It is served by the company-owned Colorado and Wyoming Railway, which connects with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy and the Colorado and Southern railways at Guernsey, Wyoming, a distance of 6 miles from the mine. The original Sunrise claims were staked mainly by United States Army officers and soldiers stationed at old Fort Laramie, because of small showings of copper in the Carboniferous limestones that form a horizontal capping overlying the Huronian iron ore. A small copper smelter was operated for about three years at Fairbanks, now an aban-doned town on the North Platte River. As many of the copper shafts and test pits near the present Sunrise mine were deepened, they pene-trated the capping and encountered iron. ore or gray sericitic schist, and were abandoned. Evidence of an early interest in iron ore was found when the Chicago claim was stripped for mining. A narrow, winding crevice was dis-covered, which led downward 20 ft. through the capping to the underlying soft red hematite, in which a room 10 by 14 by 7 ft. had been excavated. Stone hammers and wedges and a few rusted pieces of iron were found on the floor, and the evidence is conclusive that the excavation was used up to rather recent times by Sioux Indian medicine men, to provide war paint.

Jan 1, 1939

By George H. Rupp

THE Sunrise iron mine of The Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation is in Platte County, Wyoming, about 110 miles north of Cheyenne. It is served by the company-owned Colorado and Wyoming Railway, which connects with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy and the Colorado and Southern railways at Guernsey, Wyoming, a distance of 6 miles from the mine. The original Sunrise claims were staked mainly by United States Army officers and soldiers stationed at old Fort Laramie, because of small showings of copper in the Carboniferous limestones that form a horizontal capping overlying the Huronian iron ore. A small copper smelter was operated for about three years at Fairbanks, now an abandoned town on the North Platte River. As many of the copper shafts and test pits near the present Sunrise mine were deepened, they penetrated the capping and encountered iron ore or gray sericitic schist, and were abandoned. Evidence of an early interest in iron ore was found when the Chicago claim was stripped for mining. A narrow, winding crevice was discovered, which led downward 20 ft. through the capping to the underlying soft red hematite, in which a room 10 by 14 by 7 ft. had been excavated. Stone hammers and wedges and a few rusted pieces of iron were found on the floor, and the evidence is conclusive that the excavation was used up to rather recent times by Sioux Indian medicine men, to provide war paint. GEOLOGY AND ORE The Sunrise district is in the Hartville uplift, an anticlinal area in which pre-Cambrian rocks similar to those of the Black Hills and the Laramie Mountains are brought to the surface. The lowest part of the pre-Cambrian series exposed is a great thickness of pink, crystalline, Huronian dolomites with thin unstratified beds of schist and quartzite. The upper part of the series consists mostly of gray or green schists but includes a few lenticular beds of jasper and a banded iron formation con-

Jan 1, 1939

By Alfonso W. Ovalle, Héctor R. Albornoz

INTRODUCTION The El Teniente Mine of Codelco-Chi le has extracted 588 mil lion tons of ore in its 77 year history for a total copper output of 8.800.000 tons. The mine production has been obtained mainly by traditional block-caving where grizzlemen using a hand held lever send ore through long-raises to load trains. At present the mine is about to introduce mechanized block-caving using LHD equipment to extract the primary rock. This paper describes this method which will be tested starting next month by caving an 11.000 square meter block. THE PRIMARY ROCK PROBLEM The secondary enrichment sulfides of the El Teniente ore body have characteristics which makes a standard unmechanized block-caving practice very successful. In the 60's parts of blocks encountered primary ow in the Teniente 1 and Sub-13 levels which proved to be extremely hard to extract. These foretold the obstacles that arised in the central part of the Teniente 4 level. Preparation of a completely primary 8.100 square meter block started in 1970. Its undercutting was completed by the end of 1972 and by 1973 the problem of mining the primary rock was clearly visualized. The numbers below describe the difficulties in mining this block: -Long-hole drilling rate is 90 m (270 ft) per shift in secondary rock and 37 m (110 ft) in primary. - Undercutting which is completed in 9 shifts in secondary took 180 shifts in the primary block. - Average grizzlymen productivity in secondary is 250 tons per shift while in primary it is only 25-30 tons, both at 343 mm (13 1/2 in. ) grizzly opening. - Powder consumption for secondary blasting increased from 8 grams per ton in secondary to 84 in primary. - The protection pillar between the under- cutting and the production levels was 60% broken in primary while 20% is usual for secondary. - Extraction advanced 5 cm per day in primary while a 50 cm per day rate is the aver- age in secondary. This is the main reason that after 8 years this primary block has a 20% extraction. Secondary blocks take 1.5 to 3 years to complete their extraction. - 80% of the boulders in primary rock are larger than 343 m (13 1/2 in.) with 10-20 % of them larger than 3 meters. -Direct cost of production (preparation, undercutting, extraction and haulage), using the traditional block-caving design for secondary rock, increased 3.5 to 4 times when used in primary rock. The following indicators of Table 1 show the rock characteristics differences.

Jan 1, 1981

By R. T. Murrill

BLOCK-SIGNAL and dispatching systems have been in use on surface railways for years, but only recently have they been applied to underground mining conditions. Formerly, all ore was moved underground by hand tramming; the surface openings were numerous and fairly close to the ore being mined. As the tramming distances increased, animals were brought into service. Then came the locomotive, and since its introduction, haulage lines have gradually been reduced to fewer levels and to fewer surface openings until more than 20,000 tons are being handled daily on one level in some of the larger mines. Under the, se conditions many trains must use the same-tracks, and signal systems have become necessary. In some cases it has been found more advantageous to use train dispatchers than to install signal devices. The dispatcher may be simply a flagman at a busy point or he may have mechanical signals to operate at more distant points. At the inspiration mine, Inspira-tion, Ariz., the station is equipped with a switch-con-trol board, whereby the dispatcher throws electrically all track switches in a certain block, which gives him complete control over all trains passing through that block. In a few cases, dispatcher stations are established in connection with a signal system.

Jan 2, 1922

By S. Fuentes, J. Cáceres

"During the past fifteen years, mines utilizing the block caving method have improved performance and systematically reduced total mining costs.This paper describes improvements in mine design, mine planning, and mine management, including methods enabling the Chilean and international mining industry to ensure cost savings and productivity growth while using the block caving method. These improvements have encouraged the re-evaluation of underground operations at operating and closed open pits, and challenge surface mining applications as the only low-cost mining method. This paper describes a strategy to estimate the optimum open pit to underground transition time during the life of a mine. IntroductionDuring the last fifteen years, block caving mines have experienced huge changes in designs, planning and administration. These changes have permitted operators to drastically reduce costs, improve equipment productivity, and improve overall business performance. As a consequence of this situation, the block/panel caving mining system is challenging actual open pit operations to maximize the net present value (NPV)."

Jan 1, 2004