Professional Documents
Culture Documents
R Butcher
AIMS
Basic knowledge Understanding of issues No black art Critically question technical reports Reasonable test Project content
WHY ?
Renewed interest Caves compete with deep pits Black art Lack of skills Skills loss since the late 1980s Skills loss in the USA
Contents
History
Mining engineering aspects Caving & stresses Pit transition issues SLC Block caving Risks
CAVING HISTORY
Block caving
Block caving
Started 1800s Pewabic mine (Michigan-USA) Iron ore mines 1900s block caving USA Copper mines 1920-30s Canada & Zimbabwe 1950s South African mines (Diamond) 1990s Hard rock low grade deposits
(Peele 1941)
Top slicing, Northern English iron stone mines 1913, Utah gold mines 1920-30s ,US iron ore mines 1950s LKAB/Sweden 1958, Shabanie/Zimbabwe 1960-80 , worldwide 1980-90s, method decline (excessive dilution ) 1990s, Australia (dilution control by draw control) 2000s, method questioned again
TOP-SLICING
Australia
Mainly SLCS North Parkes (BC) Front caves/Core & Shell SLOS/ Core & shell conversion to SLC Au , Cu, Ni, Poly-metallic 1- 4 Mt/yr Hard & Soft ore bodies Mainly African design rationale
Australian differences
Seismic activity Higher horizontal stresses (stress wall sooner ) Private owned Decline access Short life ops Limited mining history FIFO Environmental/ heritage Smaller mining companies (different risk perception) African design rationale challenged