MINE 485 Cave Mining Systems

(2015 Edition)

1
1.1 Course Introduction
1.2 Introduction to Block Caving
1.3 The four Rs: Resource, Reserve, Recovery & Reconciliation

© Dr. Davide Elmo

Not to be copied, revised, distributed without explicit
written permission from the copyright owner
© Slide 1
1.1 Course Introduction

© Slide 2
Course Introduction

 The course will examine the followings:

 Why caving is increasingly important in the mining industry
 The value proposition and the key value drivers
 The caving process and how it relates to design and operations
 Design fundamentals
 The course will only touch on a number of other subject matters including:
 Finance and economics
 Geology , resources and reserves
 Ground control
 Ventilation
 Equipment and services
 Manpower
 It is assumed that these subjects are dealt with in other parts of the UBC mining
curriculum.

© Slide 3
Lecture Template

 3 Hours Lecture, which will likely be structured as follows:

Discussion /
Lecture Lecture
Presentation

5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm

© Slide 4
Assignments - Term projects

Term Project (Group based)

Largely based on the use of either PCBC or Footprint Finder. It will likely include a
DFN based analysis of natural fragmentation using the code FracMan (this part to 50%
be confirmed). Each group will have to present their findings to the rest of the class.

Assignments (Group based)

3 to 4 Assignments, 2 of which will include presenting the results to the rest of the 35%
class.
Attendance
Signatures will be collected to confirm attendance, and grade is pro-rated based on
the number of lectures attended.
Missing 1 class: 0% penalty
Missing 2 classes: -2% penalty 15%
Missing 3 classes: -4% penalty
Missing 4 classes: -6% penalty
Missing 5 classes: -10% penalty
Missing 6 classes: -15% penalty

© Slide 5
Software Training: PCBC, Footprint Finder & FracMan

 PCBC is used by in block caving to improve profits through better mine plans, schedules
and production management.
 Gemcom has kindly offered to run a training course on PCBC/Footprint Finder. This
training is considered an important part of the course and as PCBC/Footprint Finder are
used to complete the term project.
 The PCBC training format includes a 8 hours long session on a Saturday (Either
January 31st or February 7th).

 DFN modelling is used in block caving to characterise the rock mass natural
fragmentation.
 Golder Associates may provide 10 licenses of their DFN code FracMan (to be confirmed
soon). Training format for FracMan will include a 8 hours long session on a Saturday
(Either February 14th or February 7th if not conflicting with PCBC training above).

© Slide 6
Fieldtrip

 It is planned to visit New Afton mine in Kamloops.

 The fieldtrip will be 1.5 days long, with overnight in Kamloops (likely mid March). The
exact date of the fieldtrip will be communicated once the visit has been approved by
New Afton.
 Students must confirm their presence on the fieldtrip by January 14th, since we
must provide details to the mine as soon as possible. No students will be allowed
to participate to the fieldtrip after that date.
 Note: The fieldtrip is not compulsory (i.e. no assignment associated to it), and students
will have to pay $100 to partly cover accommodation and transportation costs. The
mining department will cover the balance.
 The $100 fee must be paid by February 11th and is not refundable once accommodation
has been booked.
 Since the mine cannot accommodate visits by large groups, all MEng students
that already visited New Afton mine in August 2014 cannot take part in this
fieldtrip.

© Slide 7
Reading Material - References

 Aspects of mechanics related to caving can be found in:

 Block Caving Geomechanics. A product of the International Block Caving Study I
(1997-2001). Project Manager: G.P. Chitombo. Editor-in-Chief/Author: Emeritus
Professor E.T.Brown.

 Several papers/reports that will be made available on Connect.

 Specific reading material suggested by the invited lectures.

 It is expected that students will also conduct their own literature review about the
subjects presented in class.

© Slide 8
Tasks to be completed by January 14th, 2015

 Read the paper “State of the Art” by Dennis Laubscher (available on UBC Connect,
folder “Additional reading Material”) and get familiar with caving terminology.
 Read the remaining parts of Section 1 not completed in class.

© Slide 9
 1.2 Introduction to Block Caving

 Acknowledgments: Several of the images, charts and diagrams included in this presentation are
courtesy of Rio Tinto.

© Slide 10
Hazards and Risks

 Block Cave mining requires to take a variety of decisions (related to engineering and/or
economics).
 Decisions are subject to a number of uncertainties, the manifestation of which can result
in the project to fail meeting its objectives (in full or in part).
 Uncertainties can be considered to be of two general types:
 What we know we don’t know, or parameter uncertainty
 What we don’t know we don’t know, or conceptual uncertainty

 Hazard: a potential occurrence or condition that could lead to injury, delay, economic
loss or damage to the environment.
 Risk: the product of the probability of occurrence of a hazard and the magnitude of the
consequences of the occurrence.

 Identify the Hazard ↔ Mitigate the Risk

© Slide 11
Risk Assessment

 “Risk assessment is a structured process which identifies both the likelihood and extent
of adverse consequences arising from a given activity” (UK Engineering Council)

 Risk analysis: a structured process that identifies both the likelihood and the
consequences of the hazards arising from a given activity or facility.
 Risk evaluation: the appraisal of the significance of a given quantitative (or, when
acceptable, qualitative) measure of risk.
 Risk assessment comparison of the results of a risk analysis with risk acceptance
criteria or other decision parameters.
 Risk management: the process by which decisions are made to accept known risks or
the implementation of actions to reduce unacceptable risks to acceptable levels.

© Slide 12
Importance of Safety

 Always do a Job Risk Assessment (JSA), no matter how simple a task may appear.
 Look at the picture below: the “project” consists of lifting a car out of the water with a
mobile crane. What are the uncertainties? What are the hazards? .

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© Slide 19
World Mined Copper Output 1800-2020

© Slide 20
Copper Demand: Industry Profile (2007)

35,000 Last Decade Coming Decade

30,000 Escondida
5.6 % CAGR* Freeport
Codelco Norte
25,000
13,200 kt = El Teniente  3 !!
Copper Demand (kt)

Collahuasi
20,000
3.3 % CAGR* Bingham
Olympic Dam
15,000 5,000 kt

10,000

13,200 kt
5,000

0
1997 2002 2007 2012 2017

*Compound Annual Growth Rate

© Slide 21
Trends in Mining Before 2013

Percentage of Ore to Concentrator by Mining Method

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%
Percent

Open Cut
50%
Underground
40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Year

© Slide 22
Trends in Mining After 2013

Percentage of Ore to Concentrator by Mining Method

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%
Percent

Open Cut
50%
Underground
40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Year

© Slide 23
Where Are the Metals?

3500

Caving Study
International
Active Copper UG
3000 Kidd Creek
Proposed
2500

Resolution
2000
DEPTH (m)

Mount Isa

1500 Henderson
Oyu Tolgoi
Bingham Canyon
Palabora
Ridgeway
1000 Practical Limit of Open Pits? Salvador Andina
Freeport (DOZ)
Olympic Dam
500
El Teniente
0
1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 2040
YEAR

© Slide 24
Limitations of Open Pits Mining?

© Slide 25
Open Pit Mining and Mining Approach

 Mines may keep sites indefinitely:

 Mines are liable for landscape forever (polluter pays legislation)
 Governments can move the goal posts anytime (the Bolivian factor)
 Mining companies are perceived to have deep pocket
 Pits getting deeper:
 Are there practical limits to pit depth?
 Increasing consequences of deep pits associated with wall failure and with the long
term storage of acid generating waste rocks may limit pit depth
 Pressure to mine smarter, with reduced usage of water, power and reduced amount
of waste generated!
 Mining approach:
 In developed countries: from “Can we afford the environmental impacts?” to “Is
mine development the preferred use of the land?”
 In developing countries: from “Economic benefit is more important than
environmental impact” to “How can we sustain land use after mining?”

© Slide 26
Underground Mining Methods

© Slide 27
Why Caving?

 Advantages:
 Use of gravity to break the rock (instead of explosives), thus low operating costs
compared with other underground methods
 High production rates can be achieved allowing economies of scale
 Allows high degree of mechanisation
 Safe
 Disadvantages:
 High initial capital costs
 Conceptually simple – let gravity do the work - but technically very challenging
method
 Requires large design effort, high quality construction, and rigorously managed
operations

© Slide 28
Why Caving?

 Block caving is not a new mining method:

 It is becoming more popular because current open pits (particular copper ore) are
exceeding their geotechnical and economic limits
 Three major changes have occurred recently:
 Size of operation: from 25,000 tpd to in excess of 100,000 tpd
 Lifts heights: from 200m to in excess of 500m (necessary to achieve the above
production rates)
 Rock strength and in-situ stress: from relatively shallow weak secondary ores to
deeper and more competent rock masses

 Mining is 10% physics 90% people: → Knowledge and Education

© Slide 29
Historical Development of Block and Panel Caving

 Late 19th century: Precursor to

modern block caving developed in the
iron ore mines, northern Michigan, USA
 Early 20th century: Block caving
method developed in the USA for iron
ore and then copper mining in the
western states
 1920s: Block caving started in Canada
and Chile
 Late 1950s: Block caving introduced
into southern African diamond mines
and then asbestos mines

© Slide 30
Comparison of Productivities and Costs

Method Tonnes / Manshift Avg. Tonnes / Day Avg. Mining Cost / Tonne
Cut and Fill 12 - 48 500 – 1,500 $30 - 100
Shrinkage 20 - 28 200 - 800 $40 - 100
Room and Pillar 15 - 150 1,500 – 10,000 $15 - 40
Open Stopping 20 - 115 1,500 – 25,000 $15 - 45
Sub-level Caving 65 - 180 1,500 – 50,000 $15 - 35
Block Caving 300 - 500 10,000 – 100,000 $2.5 -12

© Slide 31
Block Caving Concept

© Slide 32
What Are We Trying to Achieve?

Caved Ground

Undercut

Extraction

LHD Loading

© Slide 33
Current Caving Experience

 Rock quality not a limitation but need sufficient orebody dimensions.

 Cave heights: up to 500 m.
 Depth: up to 1200m.

© Slide 34
Rock Mass Conditions
Caves are now being
operated in stronger rocks

© Slide 35
Evolution of Cave Layouts

Block Cave & Grizzly

© Slide 36
Evolution of Cave Layouts

Block Cave & LHD

© Slide 37
Definitions

UNDERCUT X/CUTS (E-W)

UNDERCUT RINGS

UNDERCUT TUNNELS (N-S)

ACTIVE DRAWPOINTS STAGGERED

DRAWPOINTS

MINOR APEX

PRODUCTION TUNNELS (N-S)

OUTER RIM TUNNEL

© Slide 38
Definitions

Lift Height

Height of Draw Cave Front

© Slide 39
 Major Block and Panel Cave Mines
Planned operations
Operating and closed mines

Kyrovsky Oyu Tolgoi

New Afton
Jeffrey
Tongkuangyu Bell
Questa
Didipio Henderson Resolution
Santo Thomas
II San Manuel
Freeport DOZ
Grasberg
Shabani
Debswana Argyle
King Telfer Chuquicamata
Finsch Northparkes
Mount Salvador
Koffiefontein Palabora Cadia East
Keith Andina
Kimberley Cullinan
Mt Lyell El Teniente

© Slide 40
1.3 The four Rs: Resource, Reserve, Recovery & Reconciliation

© Slide 41
Design, Construction & Operation

 Resource to Reserve:
 Design: this is the phase where value is added
 Reserve to Recovery:
 Construction: this is the phase where value can be destroyed
 Operation: this is the phase where we learn how good our design is
 Reconcile:
 Monitor
 Learn

© Slide 42
4 Rs & Course Outline

 Economics and Value Engineering RESOURCE

 Data Collection and Rock Mass Characterization

 Caveability, Cave Propagation and Subsidence

 Fragmentation and Flow RESERVE

 Undercutting and Extraction Level

 Production Scheduling
 Construction and Infrastructure

 Draw Control and Cave Management RECOVER

 Hazards and Risk Management

 Project Presentations RECONCILE

© Slide 43
Future of Block Caving: The Ore Factory

Required
Fragmentator

In Situ

Fragment Crushing
Size and Grinding

Energy
(Distance Traveled)

Reliable
Ore Flow

Predictable Ore Transport

Fragmentation and Sizing
(+ grade)

TheRockFactory
© Slide 44
Value Creation

 Mining is about value creation. There are 2 components to value creation:

 Mine design is about turning a resource into a reserve
 Operations is about taking the reserve and recovering it in a safe and efficient
manner
 Substantial upfront capital is required to develop a caving operation.
 This amplifies the influence of design and construction processes on the value
proposition.

Costs
Costs

Value Value

Revenue Time Revenue Time

© Slide 45
Knowledge vs. Uncertainty

Initiation point close to surface

Substantial information
No geotechnical constraints

Ore drilled and typically sampled as part of mining process –

detailed knowledge for short term planning

Initiation point remote from surface

Limited information
Substantial geotechnical constraints

Limited knowledge of ore-sampling after the fact

© Slide 46
Imperfect Knowledge & Risk

We achieve these effects by

“researching”, i.e. finding out more
about the project.
We need a low risk profile before
We have eliminated the committing to construction.
“tail”, thus reduced the
risk of making a loss.
We have reduced
uncertainty.

$0
Project Value
© Slide 47
Increasing Value and Reducing Risk

$$$ We achieve this effect by

combining “researching”
with “designing”, i.e. by
changing the project

We have
increased value

$0
Project Value
© Slide 48
Increasing Production → Increasing Cave Size

Questa Perseverance Parkes Premier San Manuel Palabora

DOZ Henderson Oyu Tolgoi Resolution

© Slide 49
Cave Engineering

 Two major engineering objectives:

 Prediction of cave behaviour
 Optimisation of grade schedule
 The first is the fundamental geotechnical challenge.
 The second is the mining planning challenge, albeit constrained by geotechnical events.
 Cave Mining Sequence:
 Develop infrastructure and access
 Drilling and blasting
 Hauling ore – mucking
 Crushing and conveying
 Hoisting

© Slide 50
Questions

 Prediction
 When will caving occur?
 What will the fragmentation be?
Pit Open
OPEN
 How will the cave mass flow? depth, pit
PIT
HP
 What will the impact be on surface? Induced
stresses
Pit
due to open
 Scheduling bottom
pit geometry Total
depth,
Stresses could
 What elevation should be the accelerate or arrest
HT
Rock
production level be located? mass
the caving
propagation?
strength
 What shape should the production Block In situ
stress
height, Failure
footprint be? HC Cave back mechanisms on
field

 Where should production begin?

height, h the cave back
are similar to
σV
non-transition
 What should the draw strategy be? Undercut σH
level, UCL Footprint
width, B

© Slide 51
Five Key Components of a Cave Mine

 Orebody access:
 Shafts
 Tunnels
 Undercutting:
 The level where caving is initiated
 Extraction:
 Where ore is removed from the
broken rock
 Ore flow:
 Sizing and transfer of ore to surface
 Infrastructure:
 Support systems, ventilation, power,
water, supplies, men

© Slide 52
Caving Process

 Block cave mining is based on the

principle that, once a sufficiently large
area of a block has been undercut by
Progressive Caving
drilling and blasting, the overlying
block of ore will start to cave under
the influence of gravity.
 The process will continue until caving
propagates through the entire block to
surface or to the open pit above

1. Develop undercut level 3. Drill and blast undercut rings

2. Develop production tunnels 4. Open troughs
© Slide 53
Critical dimensions to Initiate Caving

Caving of a block or panel

is initiated by mining an
undercut until its hydraulic
radius reaches or exceeds
a critical value.

© Slide 54
Interaction between levels

© Slide 55
Terminology

Pre-mining
Conditions

Zone of Stress Fracturing In Situ Fragmentation

(seismogenic zone)

Expansion
Void
Primary Fragmentation

Zone of
Loosening
Secondary Fragmentation
Caved
Zone

© Slide 56
Caving the block

Primary
Fragmentation

Secondary
Fragmentation
© Slide 57
Design Interrelationships

Fragmentation
Flow Rock Mass
Characteristics
Propagation & Interactions +
Stress regime
Optimisation
Primary Cave
Fragmentation Propagation

Secondary Cave Subsidence

Fragmentation

Cave Mass Drawzone Drawpoint

Flow Interaction Spacing

Resource Recovery Dilution Entry

Resource Optimisation

© Slide 58
Objectives of Pre-Feasibility Study
 Need to demonstrate:
 Reasonable expectation of value in orebody
 Orebody is large enough to withstand ACCESS
production losses
 Footprint is large enough to allow caving
ORE BLOCK
 Knowledge:
 Orebody geometry and grade
 Reasonable expectation that footprint can be
developed using normal construction
processes CONTINUOUS
 Sufficient information to determine cave CAVING
initiation point
 Sufficient information to undertake reasonable
assessment of performance UNDERCUT
 Sufficient information to articulate
 schedule & production risk DRAW BELLS
 Tasks
 Surface drilling
 Resource, structural & geotechnical modelling PRODUCTION DRIFTS HAULAGE
 Robust plan SYSTEM
 Assessment of risks
 Construct access u.g. for
characterisation/confirmation

© Slide 59
Objectives of Feasibility Study

 Need to demonstrate:
 Viability of construction plan & ACCESS
schedule
 Knowledge: ORE BLOCK

 Orebody geometry and grade

 Construction process & rates
CONTINUOUS
 Production plan CAVING
 Focus
 Data collection for orebody access UNDERCUT
 Further engineering to refine DRAW BELLS
estimate
PRODUCTION DRIFTS HAULAGE
SYSTEM

© Slide 60
Implementation

 Knowledge:
 General layout ACCESS
 Construction process and rates
ORE BLOCK
 Production plan
 Focus
 Information for final design
CONTINUOUS
 Construction processes & CAVING
improvements
UNDERCUT

DRAW BELLS

PRODUCTION DRIFTS HAULAGE

SYSTEM

© Slide 61