Macrobloques Chuquicamata Subterránea PDF

Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx
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Journal of Rock Mechanics and

Geotechnical Engineering
journal homepage: www.rockgeotech.org
Full Length Article
A transition from a large open pit into a novel “macroblock variant” block
caving geometry at Chuquicamata mine, Codelco Chile
German Flores a, *, Alex Catalan b
a
Newcrest Mining Ltd., Melbourne, 3004, Australia
b
Codelco Chile, Santiago, 8320000, Chile
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: With a history of more than 100 years, Chuquicamata has become one of the largest open pits in the
Received 29 July 2018 world. Its current depth of 1100 m, length of 4500 m and width of 3000 m, resulting in haulage distances
Received in revised form of over 11,000 m from pit bottom to the processing plant or waste dumps, with waste/ore ratio greater
3 August 2018
than 4 and much lower grades, are effectively determining its profitable limit by the end of this decade.
Accepted 26 August 2018
Available online xxx
Currently, there are over 4300 Mt of geological resources containing 0.7% of copper and 340 ppm
(1 ppm ¼ 1 g/t) of molybdenum below the final pit shell. The corresponding orebody geometry is 3000 m
northsouth, 300e800 m eastwest and the drilling campaign suggested the existence of more than 900 m
Keywords:
Macroblock variant
of mineable ore from the final pit bottom. This is in spite of the fact that the Chuquicamata orebody is still
Block caving open at depth. The business case to continue with the mining of the Chuquicamata orebody is to change
Cave propagation from the current large open pit to a novel macroblock variant block caving geometry. This requires a
Early and late dilutions production rate of 140,000 t/d (50 Mt per annum), with a continuous material handling system to
Intensive preconditioning achieve the 7-year ramp-up to full production. The resolution of a number of known technical, opera-
Rib pillar tional and logistical challenges outside current industry practises which Chuquicamata will face over its
West fault projected 40-year mine life is therefore essential. These challenges include simultaneous operations of
Ore buffer
open pit and underground macroblocks and from the initial lift to the second lift, rapid ramp-up and
optimum sequencing of the planned macroblocks, early dilution from the west fault and late dilution
from potential slope failures, and the potential for major operational hazards. An equally important issue
to be addressed is cultural given that the mining history in the northern region of Chile, which includes
Chuquicamata, is predominantly open pit. This paper presents a synopsis of the main challenges that
the Chuquicamata underground project will face in order to meet the objectives of its corresponding
business case. Those discussed and how they were resolved are: simultaneous operations, rapid ramp-up
and optimum sequencing of the planned macroblocks, and early and late dilutions. The project is an
example of the fact that there are no recipes or cook books in cave mining.
Ó 2018 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting by
Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
1. Introduction After more than 100 years of open pit mining, Chuquicamata has
become one of the largest open pits in the world. Its current depth
Over the last decade, several large and deep open pit mines have of 1100 m, length of 4500 m and width of 3000 m result in haulage
been planning the implementation of a transition from open pit to distances of over 11,000 m from pit bottom to the processing
underground mining, including Chuquicamata mine in Chile. Un- plant or waste dumps, with waste/ore ratio greater than 4 and
fortunately, there are no guidelines that may be used as a reference much lower grades. Collectively, these determined its profitable
to address the challenges associated with the type of transition limit by the end of this decade.
being planned for Chuquicamata mine. There are currently over 4300 Mt of geological resources con-
taining 0.7% of copper and 340 ppm (1 ppm ¼ 1 g/t) of molybde-
num remaining below the final pit shell. Unfortunately, a literature
* Corresponding author. search shows that there are no guidelines specifically applicable to
E-mail address: german.flores@newcrest.com.au (G. Flores). the Chuquicamata transition business case. This requires the reso-
Peer review under responsibility of Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chi- lution of the number of known technical, operational and logistical
nese Academy of Sciences.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2018.08.010
1674-7755 Ó 2018 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-
NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Please cite this article as: Flores G, Catalan A, A transition from a large open pit into a novel “macroblock variant” block caving geometry at
Chuquicamata mine, Codelco Chile, Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2018.08.010
2 G. Flores, A. Catalan / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx
challenges outside current industry practises which Chuquicamata

will face over its projected 40-year mine life. Fig. 1 shows the
Chuquicamata open pit and Fig. 2 shows the location of the main
accesses and main ventilation system of the Chuquicamata
underground project in relation to the current open pit.
At the writing of this paper, the ore reserves were 1760 Mt
containing 0.7% of copper and 512 ppm of molybdenum with a
planned production rate of 140,000 t/d (50 Mt per annum) for the
next 40 years. The orebody geometry is 3000 m northsouth, 350e
800 m eastwest and the drilling campaign suggested the existence
of more than 900 m of mineable ore from the final pit bottom
even though this deposit is still open at depth. Fig. 3 plots a vertical
section of the orebody showing the final open pit shell, west fault
and the corresponding ore reserves. This figure highlights the
highest ore grade adjacent to the west fault and the three pro-
duction levels referred as Lifts 1, 2 and 3. The design block heights
are 216 m for Lift 1, 432 m for Lift 2 and 216 m for Lift 3. The position
of Lift 3 is purely based on the current block model which could be
reviewed as more data are acquired at depth.
A key geological feature of the Chuquicamata orebody is the
west fault as shown in Fig. 3. This is a regional fault which separates
the waste on the western side from the ore on the eastern side of
the orebody. The waste is completely barren with up to 200 m of Fig. 2. Main accesses and ventilation locations for Chuquicamata underground project.
highly sheared material adjacent to the west fault. The geotechnical
issues associated with this fault were discussed by Torres et al.
(2003) and have mainly been associated with displacements of extraction layout is the El Teniente layout with 32 m between
up to 6e10 m per annum above the west fault. The highest deposit extraction drives and 16 m between drawpoints. A 30-m wide pillar
ore grade is located immediately to the east of the west fault. is left between macroblocks only on the extraction level. This pillar
The business case to continue with the mining of the Chuqui- is purely to separate the activities between adjacent macroblocks
camata orebody is to transition from the current large open pit to a during development and production (Paredes et al., 2016). Fig. 6
novel macroblock variant block caving geometry. A macroblock shows the macroblocks in Lift1.
caving geometry in hard rock when compared to a conventional The strategy is to initiate production from macroblocks N1 and
block cave in soft rock (Brown, 2007a; Fuentes and Adam, 2008; S1 located in the centre of Lift 1. The subsequent sequence is
Flores, 2014; Fuentes and Villegas, 2014; Paredes et al., 2016) is illustrated in Fig. 7. There is an absolute requirement to prepare and
around seven times larger in area, e.g., 35,000 m2 versus 5400 m2, bring into production two macroblocks per annum, as shown in
respectively. Fig. 4 highlights the difference between a conven- Fig. 8, thereby achieving the production profile, as shown in Fig. 9.
tional block cave and the Chuquicamata macroblock. The macroblock variant is considered more suitable to the
In the planned Chuquicamata transition, the dimensions of geometry of the Chuquicamata orebody because it will allow for a
each macroblock are 280 m long and 128 m wide including four rapid ramp-up to a steady-state production rate of 140,000 t/d
extraction drives and 144 drawpoints, as shown in Fig. 5. The (Paredes et al., 2016), as shown in Fig. 9.
The main challenges for the Chuquicamata transition project are
simultaneous operations of the open pit and underground macro-
block and from the initial lift to the second lift, rapid ramp-up and
optimum sequencing of the planned macroblock, and dilution from
the west fault and from potential slope failures. These issues are
discussed in the next section.
2. Chuquicamata underground challenges
2.1. Simultaneous operations of open pit and underground

macroblock caving
The Chuquicamata transition business case is to maintain the

current production rate of 140,000 t/d, as shown in Fig. 9, requiring
simultaneous open pit and underground macroblock operations.
This is to be achieved within an 18-month period (July 2019 to
December 2020) when the open pit operation is scheduled to be
completed. The corresponding challenge is being able to continue
with the open pit operation and to initiate the undercutting of the
first macroblocks safely whilst maintaining the required produc-
tion rate.
The most effective strategy for achieving this simultaneous
operation is to mine the northern section of the current open pit
bottom and to initiate the first lift of the macroblock in the central
Fig. 1. Chuquicamata open pit. part of the orebody, as shown in Fig. 10. For this strategy to be
G. Flores, A. Catalan / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx 3
Fig. 3. Vertical section showing the ore reserves, west fault, final pit shell and the extraction lifts.
successful, the first two macroblocks must propagate vertically In the case of the Chuquicamata underground project, intensive
upwards to avoid the propagating cave from impacting the surface preconditioning is used for the purposes of managing caveability,
operations which would compromise both safety and productivity. cave growth geometry and fragmentation. The hydrofracturing
This requires the implementation of intensive preconditioning of technique is targeted towards caveability and cave growth geom-
the first macroblocks. etry. This required the development of the dedicated drives at
Catalan et al. (2012a,b,c) and Catalan (2015) defined pre- 250 m above the Lift 1 undercut level to enable the effective
conditioning as the implementation of processes to modify the drilling of down holes for hydrofracturing to isolate the hydro-
rock mass to enable better control or management of the cave fracturing activities from the undercutting activities, as shown
mining process. The term “modify” is used in this context to mean in Fig. 11.
the process of artificially induced changes to the rock mass through In cases where preconditioning is not implemented, industry
either hydraulic fracturing or large-scale confined blasting of the experience has shown that the first 100 me150 m above the
rock mass volume to be caved. These processes involve treating or undercut level tends to produce poor caveability and very large
modifying the characteristics of the rock mass using fluid injection rocks which significantly influence the footprint productivity. To
or fully confined blasting. Intensive preconditioning occurs when a offset this, the plan is to create hydrofractures at 1 m spacing in
combination of hydraulic fracturing and confined blasting is used. the first 150 m from the bottom up in combination with confined
Fig. 4. Difference between (a) the conventional block cave and (b) the Chuquicamata macroblock.
Fig. 5. Macroblock dimensions.
Fig. 6. Lift 1 layout showing 20 macroblocks and crusher locations.
Fig. 7. Production sequence commences from the centre with a north and south cave fronts.
Fig. 8. Macroblock production sequence for the first six years.
blasting from the Lift 1 undercut and extraction levels, as shown parameters for the confined blasting are shown in Figs. 13 and 14
in Fig. 12. For the remainder of the volume, the hydrofractures and Table 2. To ensure a better interaction between the confined
are created at 1.5 m spacing to further influence the cave growth blasting holes, a layout of 18 m by 16 m is required. To achieve this,
geometry. holes are drilled up from the undercut level at a spacing of 32 m and
The key parameters of the hydrofracturing at Chuquicamata from the middle of the drawbell on the extraction level at a spacing
underground project are summarised in Table 1. The key of 16 m, as shown in Fig. 14.
Fig. 9. Production profile showing the seven years ramp-up and the steady state production rate of 140,000 t/d (50 Mt per annum).
Fig. 10. Simultaneous operations during 2019 and 2020. Mining the northern section of the current open pit bottom and initiating the first two macroblocks in the central
part of Lift 1.
Fig. 11. Intensive preconditioning including hydrofracturing and confined blasting techniques.
Fig. 12. Key parameters for hydrofracturing technique.
Table 1 shown in Fig. 9. Maintaining this production level requires the

Key parameters for hydraulic fracturing. initiation of Lift 2 whilst the Lift 1 macroblocks are still producing.
Key Parameters Value The strategy to manage this challenge is to exhaust the central
Stresses (Lift 1) s1 z 21 MPa, s3 z 14 MPa portion of Lift 1 whilst concentrating the production from the
Breakdown pressure 35e45 MPa peripheral macroblocks located in the northern and southern parts
Propagating pressure 25e30 MPa of the Lift1 footprint, as shown in Fig. 15. During this period, Lift 2
Time to propagate the fracture 30e40 min will be initiated from the central part of the footprint, as illustrated
Fracture length along major axis 60 m NS (radius)
in Fig. 16.
Fracture length along minor axis 40 m EW (radius)
Fracture spacing 1.0e1.5 m The successful transition from Lift 1 to Lift 2 requires a good
Fractures per day 15e20 understanding of the major structures between the two lifts, as
Down hole drill pattern 120 m 80 m shown in Fig. 17. That could adversely affect the geometry of Lift 2
Drill hole diameter 75e96 mm
cave propagation thereby impacting the producing Lift 1 macro-
Drill hole length 180e250 m
blocks. Considering the fact that Lift 2 will be 432 m below Lift 1, at
least 632 m from the bottom of the final pit shell and approximately
2.2. Transition from Lift 1 to Lift 2 macroblocks 1750 m from surface, the transition from Lift 1 to Lift 2 will be in a
higher stress environment. The impact of the combination of major
The macroblocks from Lift 1 are scheduled to achieve the structures and high stresses will need to be taken into account and
production target of 140,000 t/d for a period of at least 6 years, as appropriately managed. This will necessitate implementation of
Fig. 13. Isometric view showing the key parameters for the confined blasting technique (1 in ¼ 2.54 cm).
Fig. 14. Plan view showing the key parameters for the confined blasting technique.
Table 2 propagation and finer fragmentation. The logistics of being able to

Key parameters for confined blasting. accomplish this rapid ramp-up are outside current practise and
Key parameters Value/Remark represent one of the major challenges facing the Chuquicamata
Hole diameter 165 mm
underground project.
Hole length 130 m from the undercut level, In this case, the available production area will require at least six
150 m from the extraction level macroblocks in steady state production, i.e. 210,000 m2. The rapid
Drill depth from the undercut level 19,500 m cave propagation and finer fragmentation will be achieved through
Drill depth from the extraction level 27,900 m
the implementation of hydrofracturing and confined blasting
Total length drilled 47,400 m
Hole layout 16 m 17.5 m (intensive preconditioning), respectively. The optimum sequencing
Charge length 110 m from the undercut level, of the planned macroblocks is to have at least six in production, two
130 m from the extraction level in cave initiation, two in preconditioning and two in construction or
Explosive per hole 3.2 t
civil works and two being developed, as shown in Fig. 18.
Emulsion density 1.18e1.25 g/cm3
Emulsion velocity of detonation 5500 m/s
Stemming length 20 m
Stemming cure 72 h (minimum) 2.4. Dilution
Uniaxial compressive strength of stemming 50 MPa (minimum)
Initiation type Electronic detonators The two sources of dilution for the Chuquicamata transition,
Initiation time All initiated simultaneously which may significantly affect the business case and potentially the
life of mine, are described as follows:
(1) Early dilution from the barren material behind the west fault,
intensive preconditioning to ensure that Lift 2 propagates vertically
and
upwards.
(2) Late dilution from any failure of the west slope of the open
pit.
2.3. Rapid ramp-up and optimum sequencing of the planned
macroblocks In order to prevent early dilution and based on parametric nu-
merical modelling, a 60 m wide temporary rib pillar comprised of
From a global cave mining industry perspective, the production high-grade ore has been designed (Flores, 2005), as shown in
increment during the ramp-up period ranged from 3000 t/d to Fig. 19. Its sole purpose is to avoid ingress of early dilution from the
7000 t/d (Barraza and Crorkan, 2000; Pretorius and Ngidi, 2008; west fault. This pillar is scheduled to be partially recovered before
Casten et al., 2012; Espinoza and Landeros, 2014; Jamett and mining out each macroblock.
Alegria, 2014; Wilson et al., 2016). The production rate for the In addition to the rib pillar, intensive preconditioning will be
Chuquicamata underground project will require rapid ramp-up of applied to the corresponding rock mass to ensure the vertical
seven years which is significantly higher than the current rates, i.e. upwards cave propagation of Lift 1 macroblocks.
up to 20,000 t/d. The prerequisites for such an aggressive ramp-up With respect to the management of late dilution from any fail-
would be a combination of available production area, rapid cave ure of the west slope of the open pit, the plan is to leave a buffer of
Fig. 15. Lift 1 production concentrated in the peripheral macroblocks and Lift 2 initiated from the centre of the orebody where the Lift 1 macroblocks have been already exhausted.
Fig. 16. Cave initiation from the centre of Lift 2 where the Lift 1 macroblocks are exhausted.
ore from the open pit directly above the expected cave break- increased by mass blasting the access ramps to the bottom of the
through zone of the first macroblocks, as shown in Figs. 20 and 21. open pit at the end of the open pit operation.
This buffer would be created using blasted ore from the last Both early and late dilutions can be further managed by
pushback of the open pit. The size of the initial buffer could be implementing a uniform draw strategy across each macroblock.
3. Chuquicamata transition monitoring systems
The unique Chuquicamata transition from open pit to

macroblock cave mining requires implementation of combined
and complementary instrumentation systems which will help
to quantify the performance of different stages of the transition
Fig. 17. Lift 1 plan view showing the regional west fault, macroblocks and major and
minor faults. (UCL: Undercut Level). Fig. 18. Optimum macroblocks sequence for Lifts 1, 2 and 3.
Fig. 19. Section showing the 60 m rib pillar, undercut and extraction levels.
processes. The main aspects of the transition to be monitored by

these systems are:
(1) Rib-pillar stability;

(2) Crown pillar stability. This is the pillar between the cave back
and the pit bottom;
(3) Cave propagation;
(4) Flow;
(5) Seismicity. Fig. 21. Plan view showing the ore buffer on top of the macroblocks N1 and S1.
The monitoring system will consist of some of the latest avail-

able technology and includes the following instruments: underground mining (Steffen et al., 2016). Understanding
the location of the cave back and the cave propagation at any
(1) Intelligent networked smart markers. These are adopted to time during this transition phase is critical to safety and
monitor the caveback location and cave propagation which caving performance. The risks of uncontrolled caving include
are critical parameters during a transition from open pit to air blast, resource sterilisation and excessive waste ingress.
Fig. 20. Ore buffer on top of the macroblocks N1 and S1.
Fig. 22. Instrumentation system to monitor the rib pillar stability.
To obtain a good coverage of each macroblock, the intelligent consists of two main devices which are magnetic beacons
networked smart markers are installed in boreholes at a installed in boreholes and detectors installed at a maximum
spacing of 2 m. distance of 150 m from the beacons to obtain an accuracy of
(2) Tilt sensing markers. The main objective is to monitor the 5%. This system provides nearly real-time data which allows
stability of the rib pillar designed to evade early dilution from mine operators to analyse the behaviour of caves and actively
the west fault (Elexon Mining, 2018). The markers will be manage cave propagation and draw strategy.
installed in boreholes at a spacing of 2 m. (4) Microseismic network. The aim of this system is to monitor
(3) Cave trackers. These will be used to monitor cave propaga- the induced seismicity due to cave mining during the tran-
tion and rock flow (Whiteman et al., 2016). This system sition phase (Glazer, 2007, 2008; Hudyma, 2008; Potvin and
Fig. 23. Instrumentation system to monitor the caving process.
Hudyma, 2008). It consists of an array of geophones and significant financial support for this work that could have influ-
accelerometers installed in vertical and horizontal boreholes enced its outcome.
and covering the macroblocks and open pit.
Acknowledgements
The above instrumentation plan will be implemented mainly
from the cave engineering level to provide the required coverage
The authors would like to express their deepest appreciation to
of the transition and the performance of the Chuquicamata Emeritus Professor Edwin T. Brown for his contribution in stimu-
underground project, as shown in Figs. 22 and 23. lating suggestions and encouragement to write this paper and
his outstanding career contributions to the Rock Mechanics and
4. Conclusions Geotechnical Engineering fields. The permission of Codelco Chu-
quicamata underground project and Codelco Chile to present this
The number of large open pits planning to change into cave paper is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also thank Professor
mining methods continues to increase. Grasberg mine (Brannon Gideon Chitombo for his suggestions and comments made to
et al., 2004), Bingham Canyon mine (Brobst et al., 2008) and Col- improve the paper.
lahuasi mine (Solar, 2012) are such examples. However, the busi-
ness case for any transition requires the technical challenges References
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troleum; 2012. Paper 6820. Dr Alex Catalan has more than 25 years of experience in
Steffen S, Poulsen J, Van As A, Talu S, Watt G, Ooi JS. Wireless System for monitoring mining geomechanics including large open pits and un-
cave-back propagation. In: Carr C, Chitombo G, editors. Proceedings of MassMin derground mass mining projects and operations. His
2016. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Sydney: AusIMM; 2016. p. 251e6. technical areas of expertise include geotechnical design in
Torres R, Araya E, Cordova S, Dominguez O. Geotechnical characterisation for the large open pits and, block and panel caving, rock me-
scoping engineering stage of the transition from open pit to underground chanics and mining projects, geotechnical studies during
mining at Chuquicamata mine. Technical Report, Codelco Norte Division, the scope, prefeasibility, feasibility and detail engineering
Codelco Chile; 2003 (in Spanish). phases. In 2015, the Queensland University awarded him a
Wilson AD, Purba AM, Sjadat A. Progressing cave performance into the later stages PhD degree in mining rock mechanics engineering, for his
of the Deep Ore Zone mine. In: Carr C, Chitombo G, editors. Proceedings of thesis on the “Implementation and assessment of inten-
MassMin 2016. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Sydney: AusIMM; 2016. sive preconditioning for cave mining applications”. In the
p. 285e94. last 10 years, he has been involved in studies and imple-
Whiteman D, Talu S, Wilson M, Watt G, Van As A, Kuiper P. Cave tracker flow mentation of intensive preconditioning at Cadia East Lift 1
monitoring system installation at Argyle diamond mine. In: Carr C, Chitombo G, and currently at the Chuquicamata underground mining
editors. Proceedings of MassMin 2016. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, project. His current position is the director of cave engineering at the Chuquicamata
Sydney: AusIMM; 2016. p. 479e88. underground mining project, Codelco Chile.

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Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx

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challenges outside current industry practises which Chuquicamata

2. Chuquicamata underground challenges

2.1. Simultaneous operations of open pit and underground

The Chuquicamata transition business case is to maintain the

Fig. 5. Macroblock dimensions.

Fig. 6. Lift 1 layout showing 20 macroblocks and crusher locations.

Fig. 8. Macroblock production sequence for the ﬁrst six years.

Fig. 12. Key parameters for hydrofracturing technique.

Table 1 shown in Fig. 9. Maintaining this production level requires the

Table 2 propagation and ﬁner fragmentation. The logistics of being able to

3. Chuquicamata transition monitoring systems

The unique Chuquicamata transition from open pit to

processes. The main aspects of the transition to be monitored by

(1) Rib-pillar stability;

The monitoring system will consist of some of the latest avail-

Fig. 20. Ore buffer on top of the macroblocks N1 and S1.

Fig. 22. Instrumentation system to monitor the rib pillar stability.

Fig. 23. Instrumentation system to monitor the caving process.

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