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    AusIMM 2011

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    Carlos Valdés

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    Copyrighted Materials 11TH AUSIMM UNDERGROUND OPERATORS' CONFERENCE 2011 21-23 MARCH 2011 CANBERRA, ACT The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metalluray Publication Series No 3/2011 Ausimm THE MINERALS INSTITUTE Published by: The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metalluray Ground Floor, 204 Lygon Street, Carlton Victoria 3053, Australia (© The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy 2011 All papers published in this volume were refereed prior to publication The Institute is not responsible as a body for the facts and opinions advanced in any of its publications. ISBN 978 1921522413 Desktop published by: Olivia Tet Fong and Kylie MeShane The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Compiled on CD ROM by: Visual Image Processing Pty Ltd PO Box 3180 Doncaster East VIC 3109 Copyrighted Materials SN ees at tn eh CONTENTS Keynote Address A Carpenter's Journey through Forty Years of Underground Mining, Leaders and Leading Application and Evolution of Mining Methods ‘The use of the Main Ramp as a Mine Exhaust at the Kencana Mine, Indonesia Strip and Line versus Blind Sink Shaft Sinking ~The Ernest Henry Decision Development of the Presink System for Raise Boring at Xstrata Copper’s Mount Isa Copper Operations Emest Henry Underground Mine — Access and Support Infrastructure Design Unique Coal Mine Drift Construction Method ‘The Development of ‘Radial-in-Reef Stoping at the Tasmania Gold Mine, Beaconsfield, Tasmania Mining Reconciliation in Long Hole Open Stopes at George Fisher Mine Resue Mining with eDev™ Electronie Detonators at Stawell Gold Mines Construction of the Seven Thousand Tone per Day — Big Gossan Production Shaft ‘Trident Underground Gold Mine ~The First Three Years Developing the Ridgeway Deeps Project with an Operations Attitude Use ofa Crane Mounted Auger for Presink Construction at Fosterville Gold Mine ‘Mine Shafts ~ Planning, Optimising and Constructing Fast, Safe and Fully Mechanised Installation of High-Tensile Chain-Link Mesh for Underground Support Implementing and Improving the Mine Plan at the Mt Wright Project Development of the Ernest Henry Underground Mine ~ The Challenges and the Solutions, Starting-Up the Ernest Henry Underground Mine - Thermal and Occupational Hygiene Challenges Perimeter Control Utilising Electronic Detonators at Mount Wright Mine Nixon DJ Brake and CJones CI Carr and AEA Northeote G Chitumbura, T Brebner and S Wright P Christen and CJ Carr Donnelly, G Ramage and WRangi R Goddard and PB Hills JI Grobler C Hamilton and B Degay Jr N Herault, E Smith and TAgustian JHoward and T James Cones and G Dunstan P.Jones and L Krois DJ Kilkenny and J M Dennis VLouchnikov, § Brown and R Bucher D Mackay T Purvis and CI Carr Ovan Balen and C Stewart J Wall and L Bottomley B 19 29 55 B a1 a 103 107 5 127 135 143 151 159, ‘Mining at the Redross and Mariners Nickel Mines Geomechanics for General Practice ‘Simulation Aided Engineering — Integration of Monitoring, Modelling and Planning Quality Control Aspects of Shotcrete in Mining ~ The Round Determinate Panel Test Case Study — Underhand Cut and Fill Stoping using Cemented Tailings Paste Fill a the Lanfranchi Nickel Mine Ground Support Design and Application for Developing in Pastefill at BHP Billiton — Cannington Mine Bored Reinforced Piles for Raise Bore Support — Four Case Studies and Guidelines Developed from Lessons Learnt Fine-Tuning Raise Bore Stability Assessments and Risk What Have we Learnt About Managing Rock Burst Risks? Mine and Infrastructure Planning/Implementation Alternative Underground Ore Transport Systems for the Jaguar Base Metal Deposit Improved Technology ~ Selection of a Suitable Underground Concrete Transport Vehicle A Comparison of Skip Loading Systems from an Operational, Maintenance, Safety and Capital Cost Estimate Perspective Sustainabil y Sustainable Minerals Education ~ We Care, But do You? Underground Mining and Water Management How Leadership Can Create an Enduring Safety Culture Technology and its Application Benefits of Advanced Technology in Underground Mining Accurate Underground Wireless Ranging and Tracking ‘The Status of Implementation of Proximity Detection Systems in Underground Mines Case Study Comparison of Teleremote and Autonomous Assist Underground Loader Technology at the Kanowna Belle Mine Author Index DWill and M Poepjes D Beck and CLilley PM Dight and R McKenzie I Foster, SJessop and PAndrews SLi, TK Todd and A Campbell P Marlow, S Webber, P Mikula and MF Lee WA Peck, B Coombes and MF Lee ¥ Potvin WP Dareey, E K Chanda and MD Kuruppu S Mitchell, T Finn and DJ Kilkenny AEA Northcote DLaurence and B Hebblewhite CJ Moran, $ Vink and G Greig JRoss ‘M Edhammer and § Topalovie ‘M Hedley and I Gipps D Kent, € Fischer and W Schiffbauer GB Smith, RJ Butcher, A Uzbekova, E Mort and AClement 167 181 187 191 201 207 215 227 235 245 251 261 267 275 283 293 299 305 313 Copyrighted Materials nen he at tn et A Carpenter's Journey through Forty Years of Underground Mining, Leaders and Leading JNixon' ABSTRACT have to say that my story isnot too much different to many others who grew up and worked in the great mining fields like Broken Hil, Mt Isa, Rosebery, Kalgoorlie or Kambalda and any one of ‘them could have stood up here and spun you a good yarn. ‘What does my paper offer you in this wolume? By sharing my experiences I want to encourage vou toconsider your own experience with leadership, taking on cliange, learning from and contributing to the development of others. Thave been very fortunate to be part of many new innovations into underground mining over the past 40 or so years; most of it with Conzine Rio Tinto Australia (CRA)/Rio Tinto operations. ‘© From hand-held drills and a homemade single boom Jumbo mounted on an old Airtrak, to the sophisticated twin boom jumbos with high speed drifters all controlled by an on-board computer, ‘© froma Scraper winch and a Wagner 2D loader to fully automated electric LHDs that navigate tothe tipple, empty the bucket and return to where they come from; ‘+ from hand-held cut-and-fill and timber stoping in Broken Hill to the bulk mining methods of block cave where at Northparkes we mined more ore in a month than we mined inthe total five years of operations at Currawang; ‘+ from hand-held scaling and bolting with no skin protection to installing ground support with Jumbos and sophisticated Cable Bolters and the introduction of in cycle shotcrete; ‘© from hand-held ladder rising and shaft sinking to Box Hole rigs, Raise Bore Machines and Blind Hole shaft sinking; and ‘+ from Gelignite based AN6o stick explosives, ANFO, fuse fring and half second detonators to Powergel, Ennulsions nd electronic computer programmed detonators that can somehow be Imitited by ‘Blast Ped? travelling through the rack, INTRODUCTION was born and bred in Broken Hill and went to the local igh school. When I was in fourth form a teacher asked me what I ‘was going to do next year, I thought what a stupid question, and said to him ‘willbe continuing at school to get my Higher School Certificate then head offto Uni He said T should have thought of that over the past four years and done some work instead of playing footy and acting, ‘the fool. He said ‘You really should be thinking about a trade’. And so itwas, Tbegan in the mining industry in Broken Hill in 1967 as an apprentice Carpenter at the Zine Corporation Pty Ltd Mine. T went to the mine for employment as that was what most Inds my age aspired to with the knowledge that if got a start up ‘the mine’ I would be set for life ‘As an apprentice I was a reasonably steady toller and churned out some good stuff, not counting the hal a forest af timber I cut short and hid under the bench or the rack. That said, wood working is a great trade and is still my passion in life and my escape from targets, schedules, rock bolts and agrizaling miners. Now the ZC carpenter's shop was where I met my first leaders and they had a big impact on how Tshaped my career. ‘Thore were upwards of 20 people inthe erew including five oF lx apprentices and a storeman with a wooden leg. ‘The shop was run by the foreman ‘Cyril, an honest chap who id not suffer fools lightly, let alone smart arse apprentices, learnt a very valuable Iesson in my second year when it ‘came around to appraisal time. Cyril's version of inclusion ‘was to fil out the appropriate form without any consultation, call you into the office and say ‘sign here. “After a quick look I said ‘no’. ‘Sorry Cyril, I can't sign that form asit is not correct. Hie then proceeded to tell me it was time to pull my head in ‘oF I would end up a no hoper like ‘Westie’ and ‘Crow’. "You hhave to sign it, everyone does. refused again and was led off to the chief engineer, a Scotsman with a broad accent and a fearsome reputation. I don't have to tell you I was crapping myself and wishing I had just signed when I was asked to 1. Manager —Undergoundereopmet, Rio oper Pes, 470Daybek Fray, Soth ern, ah AS USA. ER ee benno 11TH UNDERGROUND OPERATORS’ CONFERENCE / CANBERRA, ACT, 21-23 MARCH 2011 3 NIKON Iwas surprised when he gave me a fair hearing and sent me back to work but sure enough the next day T was ealled back up to Cyril’s'spy hut. He had made a fow changes to the form, duly signed and thought I had a victory Some vietory; two years later Twas shown the door. Twent to workin town and in the bush for six or seven diferent builders ‘in about 8 months. The last guy I worked for was great but his, cheques were bouncing every pay day. So being just married and having purchased a house, we needed a regular income, so T put my name down ‘up the mine. Five years later, after [ had started underground, I was involved in the rescue of a couple of Inds that turned into a double fatality. 1 thought, geez this underground caper is abit full on, so T applied for a vacancy back in the carpenters shop. After not hearing anything for a month T ran into the foreman of the paint shop, old Freddie Lehman. ‘Fred, old mate’, how did I gowith my application for the job inthe carp shop?” ‘Not good Nicko. I spoke to Cyril and he said that you, Westie and Crow ‘were never to be re-employed’. So here Tam 4o years on talking to you about underground ining; not building houses! UP THE MINE Getting a start at the mine turned out to be no sure thing. I ‘was interviewed by Miek O'Leary who Tguess must have been, the underground manager (Mick later went on to become Director of Hamersley Iron, Argyle Diamond Mine and. Dampier Salt). The interview was pretty basic, then Mick noticed on my application form that I had done my trade at ‘the mine. ‘We have a problem here son’, ‘we don’t employee wpprentices who are working in their trade’, we did not put all that money into you to see you wasting your training’ 1 quickly told him I was not working in my trade as I was working with a builder as a plasterer, Just as quick he sai: “OK you look like a fit young bloke, you start Monday at the ‘NBEIC (New Broken Hill Consolidated). ‘At the time (4979), there were about 4000 people employed ‘on the Broken Hill Line of Load’, more than 1500 at the Zine ‘end and probably nearly as many again down at the NBHC, ‘0 it was pretty daunting to show up at the mine to start my job a5 a miner (peak employment on Broken Hill mines was §n 1058 with 6441 people employed, it now it has about 500 people employed). 1 don’t recall much of an induction. There were about a ‘dozen of us and T think we met at the training centre and were told what clothes to buy down at Army Disposals and the next day we were given a hard hat, miner's belt and a pair of lace up leather boots. All too quickly, we wore in the eage and heading down to the 8 level to the Tearner's stope’. Itwas a square set timber stope ‘and I felt more like Iwas in a eubby house than a mine. Wo pulled up rock and ‘Cowboy’ Hurley and his mate Ronnie Cuy explained what was going to happen in the learner's school, and if you want to get ahead, you would do ‘well to take notice of them and not piss them off ‘The safety message was more about being told all the things ‘we could not do and to keap away from the chute. After a couple of weeks lumping timber around and boring holes all over the place, we were then given the option to put in for what type of work we would prefer. I did not know much, about open stoping but I did work out pretty quickly that ‘timber stoping was hard work, 90 I chose the first option and, ‘was sent to the 19 level Zine Corp where I worked for the next nine years, 19 LEVEL ZC T started off kicking the level which was all the dirty work, digging drains and helping out the timber runners. I soon Teamnt that the shift boss was God as he organised your job and set your pay rate each day. [At the time there were over 60 shift bosses up at the Zine nd, with four or five on each level for each shift, and of course ‘there were good ones and bad ones, ‘There was every leadership type you could think of; some quiet ones, some loud ones and the odd intimidator. Unlike the supervisors of today, who actually lead and coach their teams, the job of the shift bosses of the time was there to ensure compliance, get ‘the plod’ and visit exch party twice ashi GETTING INTO FIFTY-ONE PARTY AND. TRACKLESS MINING ‘The mining crews were known as a Party, and 51 Party was ‘one ofthe top earners on te 19 level. In the party were ‘Ginger’ Rontauney, ‘Jap’ Pirak, ‘Box Head! Lehman and ‘Caddy’ Bevan. As I knew Ginger from the aighty North Broken Hill fty elub, Twas lucky enough to get a scout shift when Jap went on holidays and ended up with @ permanent job when he resigned, was very fortunate to get a start in 51 Party, because ‘unknown to any of us, our stope had been selected to tril the first load haul dump (LHD) machine in eut and fill stoping at the Zine Corp, [At the time we were a hand-held cut-and-fill stope with a ‘7Shpseraper to fill the dit, it was hard manual labour working on top ofthe rill with hand sealing, drilling and bolting ‘The machine was a Wagner 2D and it was stripped down ‘nto small pieces and winched up a 6' x 6’ haulage way and. re assembled by the fitters. We then taught ourselves how to ‘operate it after alot of tril and error and put it to work. 1 think this was about 1975 and over the next few years we got a Tamrock twin boom pneumatic jumbo and eventually a ‘Tamrock hydraulic Jumbo and the Wagner 2D was replaced, lbya tethered cable, electric Horwood Bagshaw § ye LHD and, wwe became a fully taekless out and fill stope. ‘We became known as the Hollywood stope, as many visitors came to take pictures and movie footage of the new fangled ‘way of mining By this time the Party had expanded to three on each shift with Box Head’ Lehman, ‘Codd’ Bevan and Tersy Tex’ Dwyer ‘on one shift and Bruce Thomas, Rick ‘Bert’ MeBain and myself con the other shift Ttveas not all smooth sailing witha lot ofstrifewith the unions regarding the one man-one machine rule, as they believed we should only operate one machine ata time, There were quite a few bitter and tyisted fellow workers who would dab us in “down the corner’ if they caught us using the machinery atthe same time. We did have a small golden goose period where we made some good money as the contract had not been adjusted to suit ‘the higher productivity levels, but our underground manager at the time Vinee Gauel, was pretty sharp and soon had the time and motion study guys onto us. 4 11TH UNDERGROUND OPERATORS’ CONFERENCE / CANBERRA ACT, 21-25 MARCH 2011 [ACARPENTER'S JOURNEY THROUGH FORTY YEARS OF UNDERGROUND MINING, LEADERS AND LEADING. We used the machines as they were meant to be used and {it took some bitter union meetings to get it all sorted out. Try, standing up in front of a couple of thousand ‘brothers’ and. admit that by working efficiently we had to break Union miles, it’s quite daunting? LEADERS Tho general manager at the Zine when I started was Jack, Liebelt, then George Connor or ‘Big Ugh’ as he was known, took over. He was well respected but never actually spoke to the men unless he came down to the Marble Arch at shift change about twice a year. He must have retired in the early. 19705, as Bob LeMessurier took over from him. We had various underground managers; Brian Drew, Vince Gauci, Grant Brock, Simon Solomans, Rino Zanette and John Gooding to name afew Our foremen were John Bee, Bill Taylor and ‘Rhubarb’ Hebard and the shift bosses T can recall were Max Schuster, Charlie Byres, George McGann, Joe Blackwell, Ian Brooke, Jack Mills and Ronny O'Loughlin. No doubt the two shift bosses who had the greatest impact, ‘on me were George MeGann and Joo Blackwell. George was ‘our boss for a number of years and was inthe old firm but fair category. He would always encourage me to havea go and was always around for advice. Joe was the level boss who looked after the truckers but we always liked it when he eame into four stope because he could sniff out where the good mineral specimens were, Looking back now I realise the reason I looked up to these ‘guys was because they treated everyone the same way, they ‘were level-headed and measured in a erisis and when they said something, you took notiee. It was the shift boss's job to ensure we worked safely and ‘the message was all given on the job. Tt came as areal surprise ‘when after working underground for about five yoars, that Rino Zannette called us into the ZC Theatrette for a safety meeting! TIMETO MOVE Around the early 2980s I had beon working as a miner for about seven or eight years doing shaft work on weekends and hhad become the ‘pencil man’ in our Party. One day George told me he had nominated me for a shift ‘boss's job. Each yeara number of miners were nominated and ‘put into the mix. to replace the older guys as they retired (very few actually left). There was no interview process unless you ‘made the short-list and if one of the foremen put the ‘black. alley’ in on you it was all over. I failed to got the nod because I was told I did not have ‘enough experience in timber stoping. Fair enough I thought and battled on, and although I did aspire to becoming a shift Doss I ealised there were plenty of other guys around who had seniority over me. [twas then when Simon Solomans spoke to me and said they ‘were looking for blokes with my level of experience to go up to Bougainville and work on a tunnel jobas leading hand miners. [thought I might as well have a go and spoke to Tony Brown, the superintendent on the tunnel job. [ had played footy with ‘Tony so that made it alot easier, and he said ‘you're hired, get up here as soon as possible ‘There were the issues with getting a secondment and keeping continuity of employment with the pension fand so it ‘was all called off By this time T was getting bitter and twisted ‘as no opportunities were coming my way as faras a shiftboss's Job, so Tit the bullet and decided to resign to enable me t0 take the position, ‘When I told the guys in my Party what I had done they said Twas erazy and how could T even consider leaving ‘the mine’ with all the seeurity it offered. I was thon starting to think ‘sohat have I done?’, but I was not going to pass up the chance to better myself and my eareer. So in early 1982, with my wife and three kids under seven years old, we took off from Broken Hill airport for our frst time on an aeroplane, a Fokker Friendship F27, for our big, adventure, BOUGAINVILLE ‘The Bougainville Copper mine is high in the Crown Prince ‘mountain range and was one of the largest open pit mines in ‘the world. The mine receives an inch of rain almost every day. ‘and with such a huge catchment area enormous amounts of ‘water aceumulate atthe bottom ofthe pit. Despite extensive catch benches that divert a lot of water from the higher walls ofthe pt, large diesel driven pumps are constantly removing water from the pit. One of the legends of CRA, Sir Frank Espie, came up with the idea of a6 km tunnel from the Jaba river valley that would terminate 200 m below the pit and be connected by a shaft ‘that would allow the water from the base of pit to travel by’ gravity out to the Jaba river and on tothe sea. ‘The tunnel was 3.5 m « 3 m with a slight up grade; it was constructed by miners from Broken Hill and all over place employed as working supervisors and trainers with a crew of, PNG nationals. Iwas employed as a face foreman and had a crew of six nationals. Itwas a boy's own adventure learning @ new language, gaining new skills asa tunneller and fishing in ‘an island paradise on the weekend. It was here that I worked for the most inspirational leader I have ever worked for, our superintendent, Tony Brown. Tony ‘epitomised the lead by example boss who would think nothing ‘of pushing you off ofthe bogger or taking over on the jumbo if, you weren't cutting the mustard, He was a firm diseiplinarian and some of his methods of dishing out what we call today ‘performance management’ ‘were legendary. I played footy with Browny towards the end. of his career and itis no exaggeration to say us young blokes stood a lot taller with him in the side. Of course some of Tony's methods did not go down well up at carpet castle but he was a doer who was fiercely loyal to those who had won his trust and simply got rid of those who didn't worked in Bougainville from 1982 to 1984 and reluctantly Jhad to ring Vinoe Gauci to see if [could get my job back as the family was ready to return home. T suspect Vinee felt a litle Dit guilty that I had to resign to go to the tropies so he gave ime the nod and it was back home to the silver City after the adventure ofa lifetime, BACK HOME ‘When ex-Broken Hill miners do get out into the real world, ‘we are notorious for the statement ‘back home we would do this’ or back home we would do that’ and we became known as ‘back home boys. You see, if you are born in Broken Hill, there are only two types of people: A groupers'(born locally) or ‘hose from ‘away and it goes without saying that we considered ‘ourselves up there with the best miners inthe county. 11TH UNDERGROUND OPERATORS’ CONFERENCE / CANBERRA, ACT, 21-23 MARCH 2011 5 NIKON was firmly in the ‘we are good’ camp until I got out into the ‘world and found that there were some great ideas out there, ‘and that we had not thought of everything, so after a couple ‘of years of off shore education T returned to my old job at the ‘Zine Corporation. What a mistake! was placed back in 51 Party as a ‘scout’ as someone was ‘on annual leave and it was as if time had stood still. Twas fll, ‘of bright ideas and told the guys I had beon using the jumbo to put in rock bolts in Bougainville, it was twiee as quick and, ‘much safer “Tewill never catch on here’ was the reply. “We will be using ‘the tried and true way with the stoper,* you really did learn, ‘some strange things up there Nicko’, ‘don't think vou ean, ‘come back here and teach us anything you Lard Fread’ Within two weeks I was in to see ‘Rhubarb’ Hebbard, the foreman dawn on the 20 level and asked him for a job. He put me into 20 Pasty with Graham Murgatroyed, Sid Colley and “Vogic’ Caldwell in a development erew ‘We were the only Party down there and we were opening up the 20 level for future stoping. We had all our own gear including a new jumbo and a new Horwood Bagshaw 8 yd Loader and even our own fitter, Trevor ‘Pasty Foot’ Griffiths. ‘The lads were open to trying some of the strange methods I hhad learnt in PNG including making up some steel sets to get ‘through some crook ground. It was a breath of fresh air forme ‘working with these guys and I continued on the learning path, about trackless development. ‘One day we were out in the ‘long drive’ taking another round when Jolin Gooding came to visit. During our chat we asked, ‘him ‘where was this drive going? ‘What do you mean?" he replied, Well we come in here day after day, take cut after cut, ‘but what is it for and where is it going?" Fle said ‘has nobody ‘told you? ‘Get your coats and come to the surface, we will get ‘the plans out and show you So there we were inthe office ooking atthe keel ofthe lower lead lode arebody and the layout of the proposed stopes, and. the development work that would be required. After ten years, ‘on the mine this was the fist time someone had taken the ‘time to give us some context behind our work and we went bbaek to it with a new-found enthusiasm for the task. TIME TO MOVE, AGAIN! ‘was doing shaft work one weekend in 1985 when I saw a ‘memo on the shift bosses notice board calling for applicants for a superintendents role at Woodlawn Mines. Woodlawn, ‘was an open pit operation that was constructing a now decline ‘access from inside the pit as part of a feasibility study to determine ifthe mine should go underground or be closed. Although the orebodies were not large, at around 12 million tonnes it was a very high-grade deposit but with a history of low recovery from the mill, the mine had never made money ‘nits life to date. ‘The mine was set up as a flagship of CRA by a guy named Mike Blackwell, with coordinators and team leaders instead of shift bosses and foremen and it was planning to head into the brave new world of a mult-skilled workforce. ‘Sadly Mike passed away before he fully realised his vision ‘but Vince Gauci was appointed to the role as general manager ‘to continue on the same path, His vision was to get Woodlawn, up as a profitable underground mine where operators would be trained to work in all aspects of underground mining, ‘The idea was for the company to have the operational ‘lexibility of a multi-sklled workforce and for the workers to receive job satisfaction by gaining new skills and a career path to supervisory roles if they so desired. ‘With this background, I jumped on the company air plane ‘with three other shift bosses and my mate Randall Boot Head’ Ochme, who was applying for an accountaney role, and we flew down to Goulburn for an interview ‘To cut to the chase I somehow got the job and now we had to make a real move and leave Broken Hill for good. So after an initial three months in Goulburn we moved up to Canberra and set up camp for the next ton years. As tho underground project superintendent I reported to Ian Price who was the feasibility manager and he was backed up ‘by mining engineers John ‘JB Burgess and Gavin Woodward, The dectine was completed successfully and the first stope silled out to provide a bulk sample of ore ‘The underground mine got the go ahead and we convinoed heap of experienced miners from Broken Hill and Tasmania to come aver as supervisors and trainers to teach a complete sgreenhorn work force how to be underground miners. ‘We had people like Kevin Hendy, Trevor Emmerton, Mick Brown, Jobin Shorrock, Bemie Smith, Wally Ford, Ray Furness, Gary Phillips and Bob Ormsby. All of these guys were top class supervisors, most of whom had eut their teeth on hand-held ‘ining and wore in at the eutting edge of mechanised mining. Ground conditions at Woodlawn were pretty taying with, steeply dipping orebodies surroundad by tale and it was quite ‘an effort to train new miners in such conditions, but the lads rose to the challenge and within a few years we had our first level 1 miner that we had trained from serateh, ‘With Vince Gauci as general manager and Cob Johnstone as underground manager, before Gary Davison took over from him, we had a good solid team of leaders backed up by some bright young mining engineers in Jamie Dennis, Mark Le Messurier, Grant Michi, Simon ‘Action’ Jackson and Phil Bremner. would have to say, that whether he knew it or not, Vinee ‘was my mentor and I learnt many techniques in managing, people from him, even the small things like finding out what the guys names were before we visited their heading and ensuring there was no communication vacuum between other departments. He is a man of his word, and had a firm belief in the powor of the team; you had a better chance of a job with Vince if, you played any type of team sport rather than being the local, tennis or squash champion. ast as this was all coming together, CRA decided to offload the mine to a small company named Denehurst who were & ‘bunch of chemists and technocrats who grew beta carotene and believed that they had developed a process to recover the amotal left in the tailings dams. Although they only wanted the ‘ails dumps they ended up with an underground mine as well, Denehurst convinced most ofthe current management team, to jump ship from CRA and the rest of us were terminated and all but a few rehired. We wre required to sign a seereey agreement and we continued on, By this time Mike Menzies had taken over from Vince and it was soon realised that the new company could not survive on the Woodlawn mine and retreating the dumps alone so some cof the other prospects in the distret were dusted off ‘was given a project role to develope two satellite mines, one at Cowley Hills only, 3 km from the mill, and Currawang ae lan from the mill, 6 11TH UNDERGROUND OPERATORS’ CONFERENCE / CANBERRA ACT, 21-25 MARCH 2011 [ACARPENTER'S JOURNEY THROUGH FORTY YEARS OF UNDERGROUND MINING, LEADERS AND LEADING. CURRAWANG AND COWELY HILLS MINES In 1989 T was put in charge of developing and mining the Currawwang deposit with an owner operator work force and. ining the smaller Cowely Hills deposit with a eontractor. Cowoly Hills had vory difficult ground conditions and only lasted about 18 months but stil paid its way with the help of a parcel of high-grade Chaleocite (over 20 per cent Cu) that was direct shipped to the smelter. Currawang has a significant historical place in mining in Australia, for it was here in 1866 that the Currawang Copper Mining Company Ltd was formed to mine the rich Copper lode. It is reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on 15 July. 1868 that the Mine Captain § E Richards has ‘more than accomplished all the works proposed by him’ and that ‘The Engine shaft had boon sunk to a depth of 154 foot and they ‘were mining 1000 tons of ore a month’, In the mid-1970s an exploration company named Jododex, using the tried and true method of drilling holes where there was an old mine, discovered a high grade complex voleanogenic massive sulfide orebody. The grace was excellent at 14 per cent Zn, 18 per cent Pb and around 17 per cent Cu ‘and 100 ppm Ag. The only problem was that there was only half a million tonnes. ‘This was a great little mine as I was able to hand pick 16 highly-motivated miners and fitters and we just got stuck into it, Each shift consisted of a shift supervisor who was also the jumbo operator, two operators and a fitter, and between them, they did whatever was required to operate the mine. ‘Tho shift supervisors wore all trained at Woodlawn and had shown the necessary initiative to get to level 1. They were Netl Bell, Phil’BA’ Breeze, Keith ‘Bear Price, Ray Fingers’ Tapper, George ‘The Fox’ Kirk and Crnig Duck’ Day. Even thongh it was a salaried workforce I don't ever recall, having to rev the guys up to have a go, they were forever, ‘ying to better their last record and dreaming up inventions ‘o improve the process. OF course there was a fair bit of peer group pressure as there isnowhere to hide on a four man crew. ‘This was also a personally gratifying time for me as Iwatched ‘hese young men grow and improve their skills and hone their leadership style. I guess at the time I did a fair bit of leading, by example and getting in and helping out. I would sometimes rruna truck while one of the guys had a erib break or keep the surface stockpile pushed up on our yard bogger. T soon learnt that playing on the bogger or the grader was good fun but it was more important to Keep up to speed with the planning and report writing and ensuring that the guys only had to worry about the shift in front of them and looking. ‘out for each other, (Over a five year period we put in over 6 km of development and mined 530 000 tonnes of high grade ore that topped up the grade over at Woodlawn, KANOWNA BELLE In te 1994 I went back over to Woodlawn and took over again as the underground superintendent while Curravang, ‘was winding down. Woodlawn was becoming increasingly heat loads in the intake + Ifa level that is blasted uses auxiliary fans that are sealed into a wall at the fresh air shaft, then if the auxiliary fan fails to start ator firing, or the duct blows off the fan, there vill be no airflow on the level to dilute the blasting fumes, ‘and persons will need to enter the level (under breathing apparatus) toreattach the ductor repair thefan, Alternately fa similar method to ‘de-gassing’ a heading in coal mines ‘can be used whereby a compressed air fan is temporarily installed in the ramp and lengths of duct gradually added until the lovel is do-gassed safely. However, since these fans are installed into the fresh air raise using self closing (and self opening) dampers, ifa surface fan is pushing air into the fresh air raise, then the lovel will be de-gassed ‘oven ifthe underground fan is off or the duet is damaged, Transitional problems in reversing the mine ventilation In addition to the issues identified above, there are some {soues in changing the ramp to the exhaust for an operating ‘+ Thosurfaco fan will nood to be reversed. In most eases, this ‘ll nt be difficult, but in some cases it will be expensive ‘or cheaper to simply replace the mine fan. © Most ventilation doors will need to be removed and re-hung so they open and close the reverse direction. CASE STUDY AT KENCANA MINE - OUTCASTING THE MAIN PORTAL AND OPERATING THE MAIN RAMP AS AN EXHAUST Until easly 2010, the primary ventilation system used at Kencana (Figure 2) had the surface ramp as the main intake. AAs the ramp became deeper, the surface exhaust shaft was ‘progressively extended. All working levels were ventilated, using fans hung in the main ramp with all air returning to the main ramp, operating as the dirty imtake. Up to seven levels of the mine were ventilated in series in this way with each level typically having two ventilated headings. The ramp then discharged into the exhaust shaft at the mine bottom. ‘The ventilation system was effectively a giant U-tube with all activities ventilated in series. The only other surface connection was the egress raise (with ladder). Whilst this was reasonable size (3.1), only a nominal airflow was allowed down it as any increase in airflow down the egress meant less airflow down the ramp, which meant poorer conditions in the ramp and on any levels fed from the ramp. At this time, ‘the mine was constrained by the exhaust eapacity in the only exhaust shaft at Ki Conditions in the workplaces on the bottom levels were frequently poor, with wet bulb temperatures of aa to 34° WB not uncommon in some areas, Re-entry timesin the mine were frequently one to two hours (with the longer time generally applying to re-entry ater production blasting). In February 2010, a new split ventilation shaft (intake and exhaust compartments separated by vertical eonerete brattieo, (Brake, 2010) was commissioned at Ka orebody whieh was connected to Ki orsbody via an undarground ramp. However, until the final Ke surface exhaust fan is commissioned on the new split shaft the overall operation has a substantial surplus intake capacity consisting of: the main ramp, the Ki egress, the surface raise-bore system installed to develop across to Ke and the new Ke dual-compartment shaft compared to exhaust (Ki shaft). Total intake capacity is in exeoss of 340 m/s and total eshaust capacity i only 270 m°/s. After appropriate modelling and analysis, it was decided to change the ventilation system as follows: ‘+ Auuiliary fans in the dooper areas of Ki (with poorer ‘conditions) woul be removed from hanging in the ramp and sealed into the Kx egress with self-closing dampers. ‘The workplaces fed by these fans would therefore receive much higher quality isolated intake air directly from surface, + Both compartments of Ka shaft were allowed to downcast ‘and ausiliary fans would be installed in the shaft to pull ‘even more intake air down this shaft + The surface raise-bore system would also continue to downeast intake air under a push-pull system (Brake, 2010). 6 11TH UNDERGROUND OPERATORS’ CONFERENCE / CANBERRA ACT, 21-25 MARCH 2011 THE USE OF THE MAIN RAMP AS A MINE EXHAUST AT THE KENCANA MINE, INDONESIA ey Cee eo eS Cro} cena) Dou) us Ce as ou eee upcasting to surface ——» oy FI iA E jp Ce eal ramp remains dirty intake (downcasting to bottom) 1G 2- Schematic of Kencana mine ventltion stem orebodies and stoping reroved fr cai) ‘© This air would then proceed back up the K Link ramp to Kt (Figure 2). Due to the shortage of exhaust capacity at Ki, the main ramp was reversed, out-casting the portal ‘The system was implemented in May 2010. Tis important to note that Kencana did not reverse the main. Ki exhaust shaft. Rather it used surplus intake capacity (due to the new Ke ventilation shaft being completed) to reverse the main ramp, effectively creating two main exhausts from the mine: the existing exhaust shaft and the existing main ramp. Note also that the lowest portion of the main ramp was not reversed, which allowed the exhaust shaft to continue to operate as an exhaust. However, workplaces in this lower region were no longer fed dirty intake air from the ramp (series ventilated), but from isolated fresh air direct from the Ki surface egress (parallel ventilated). Implementation issues ‘The main issues in implementing the new system at Kencana ‘© Ensuring sufficient exhaust flow out ofthe portal. The Kt surface exhaust fan actually consists of two fans in parallel ‘With both Ki surface fans operating (total mine exhaust of 270 m/s) and al the mine intakes operating as required (G40 m/s), the portal was outeasting around 70 m/s Conditions in the workplaces on the levels improved significantly, but conditions onthe ramp (ith less airflow than before) were worse, affecting gas levels and also resulting in some over heating of the trucks. One of the 1 fans was shut down, reducing the Ki exhaust to around 40 m/s, but increasing the outilow through the portal to around 200 m/s. Once the ramp airflows were increased back to higher levels, these problems were climinsted + Finding sufficient toom for the required number of ailiary fans in the Ki Egress. On some levels, thas been dificult nding the room to reteofit the required number of ausilary fans into the Ka ogress. + Leakage. A key issuo was that the existing large ventilation doors connecting the main ramp to the egress were now ‘hanging’ the wrong way. Leakage and hence recirculation ‘nereased to unsatisfactory levels. The doors were sealed up with shotcrete reducing overall leskage into this system from around 20 per cent to around five per cent with a commensurate reduction in reeirvulation. * Gotting fresh air for the upper level was problematic, but resolved by dueting the air some distance. + Re-entry times, Whilst the clearance times for blasting gases arenolonger than before, the actual time to complete the re-entry checks is slightly longer as the re-entry crews (checking gas levels) do not enter the mine portal until the gas levels leaving the portal are within safe levels. This time is being used effectively for toolbox talks and eross~ shift handovers, Higher pressures across doors and higher air speeds in egress making access more diffieult. Indonesian law limits air speeds in egress routes to 12 m/s. The high sirflows drawn down the egress to feed workplaces has increased differential pressures across the entries into the egress Golved by installation of aitlock pedestrian doors as required) and also limited the number of ausiliary fans that can draw air directly from the egress. SUMMARY, RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS With the majority of the main ramp reversed and most ‘workplaces now fed air directly from surface intakes, wet bull ‘temperatures in the worst areas of the mine decreased from 33 -34° WB to 29° WB, a reduction of 4 - 5° WB. This was a ‘dramatic improvement in temperatures, Gas and fume levels {in the workplaces have also substantially reduced, ‘There have been no incidents of heat illness since the ventilation system was changed, compared to four eases in the previous 12 months with the earlier ventilation system. Re-entry times have remained about the same, despite needing to wait until the portal is clear of fumes belore reentry checks can start underground, Effective work time ‘on the job’ and overall productivity is increasing, due to conditions being more satisfactory for manual work, 1TH UNDERGROUND OPERATORS CONFERENCE / CANBERRA ACT, 21-23 MARCH 2011 v DJ BRAKE AND C JONES. Reversing the ramp system at Kencana has allowed the mine to move toa higher total mine airflow, to almost eliminate the use of seriss circuits, and allowed the use of fresh air direct from surface to feed most workplaces underground, ‘When the ramp is reversed, there must be sufficient airflow ‘on the ramp to avoid the situation in which conditions on the lovels improve, but conditions on the ramp become ‘unacceptable ‘Transitional problems in converting the main ramp to exhaust (such as leakage through doors) will oceur but ean be reasonably overcome. Many of these problems would not be issues if the mine was designed for the ramp to be the exhaust from the start. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. ‘The authors would like to thank PT Nusa Halmahera Minerals, (a member of the Neworest Mining Group) for permission to publish this paper. REFERENCES “Arya, S, 2010, Pssonel comsnieation, 30 ly Brake, DJ, 2009. The growing use of hazardous primary ventilation ‘ystems in hardrock mines, in Proceedings Ninth International ‘Mine Ventilation Congress (ed: D Panigrai) pp 42-60 (Oxford & IBH Publishing: New Deli). Brake, D J, 20:0, The design of posh-poll primary and secondary ‘ventilation systems onde verticallyeplit intake exhaust ventilation shaf, in Proceedings 19th US-North American Mine Ventilation Symposium (eds: $ Hardcastle and D McKinnon) ppa81-101 (MIRARCO: Sudbury). Gherghel, C and De Souzs, E, 2008. Ventilation requirements for ‘uranium mines, in Proceedings 22th US-North American Mine Ventilation Symposium (ed: K Wallace), pp 65-69 (University of ‘Reno: Nevada). ‘all, A, 2010, Personal communication, 10 July ‘Hardeastle, 5, 2010. Personal communication, 28 July. 1” 11TH UNDERGROUND OPERATORS’ CONFERENCE / CANBERRA ACT, 21-25 MARCH 2011 Copyrighted Materials nen he at tn et Strip and Line versus Blind Sink Shaft Sinking - The Ernest Henry Decision CJ Carr’ and AE A Northcote? ABSTRACT ‘The Emest Honry Mine (EHM) is owned and operated by Xstrata Copper and is located in ‘North-West Queensland, Australia, The mine is currently undergoing a transition from an 11 Mtpa, ‘open pit mine to 2 large sublevel cave underground mine produeing 6 Mtpa. Due to a number of factors, inchuding geometry ofthe pit and crusher depth, the decision has been taken to develop a hoisting shaft rather than inclined conveyors. During the feasibility study the strip and line shaft sinking methodology was preferred over Blind sinking due to scheduling opportunities and interactions with level development. Other methods of sinking considered included large-diameter raise boring, which was rejected due to concerns relating to cantreline aecuraey. The strip and line decision was reviewed during the tender process ‘where better than anticipated blind sink advance rates and costs were presented. This in turn enabled the higher cost of the blind sinking method to be justified by a combination of reduced risks including schedule and ground water management. ‘This paper diseusses the pros and cons of both strip and line and blind sinking methodologies in the Ernest Henry contest including sinking rates and total schedule impacts ofthe two methods, the key risks associated with each method, cost implications of blind sinking and safety implications of ‘the work methods in general. The paper then coneludes with the reasoning behind the decision to ‘change to blind sinking for the EHM shaft. INTRODUCTION ‘The Ernest Henry deposit is located 28 km northeast of, Cloneurry in North-West Queonsland (soo Figure 1). The deposit isan Iron Ore Copper Gold (IOCG) type and is located in the Eastern Fold Belt of the Mount Isa Inlier. The mine is operated by Ernest Henry Mining Pty Ltd (EHM), which is 200 per cent owned by Xstrata Copper Australia, The deposit ‘was discovered in 1991, prestripping commencing in 1996 and first ore was treated in 1997 by the on-site plant which produces a copper-gold concentrate that is trucked to Mount Isa for smelting. ‘The ore zone is around 250 m by 250 m in plan at the base of the pit, dips at 45° to the south and is overlain by approximately 50 m of recent clays, sands and shales, The rocks surrounding the orebody consist largely of Proterozoic volcanics of generally competent ground which has enabled ‘an open pit of 1.5 km diameter and 530 m depth to be mined with relatively steep walls Open pit mining will cease in Qg 2012 with underground production commencing initially by decline trucking in late 2011. The hoisting shaft is planned to be commissioned in early 2013 and will tke over from the decline haulage at that, point. The mine will then ramp up to § Mtpa in 2049 with a full production rate of 6 Mtpa being achieved in 2016. ‘Tho shaft will be 7 m in diameter with rope guides and a mid-shaft access for head rope changing. The concrete Tining is designed at a minimum of 200 mm of N32 concrete (G2 MPa at 28 days), shaft sinking practicalities will result in the lining effectively being at least twice this thickness. Total shaft depth is 940 m with loading by slewing conveyor 900 m1 below surface into 31 t skips. Emergency egress functionality will onable the skips to hoist men even in the event ofa total power failure through a diesel generator and pony drive As past of the initial seoping studies a blind sunk shaft was planned from surface to bogin atthe start of mine development, (MacSporran et al, 2004) along with a decline from the main pit ramp just below the competent rock horizon. During. the prefeasibility study an exploration decline (the Stage 1 decline) from deeper in the pit was recommended and began {in parallel with the feasibility study. This enabled the faster ‘and cheaper strip and line methodology to be adopted for the shaft sink. The combination of earlier underground access and quicker shaft sinking ensbled the commissioning of the shaft to be brought forward by a year. During the height of the global financial crisis, the mine ‘was re-evaluated in a value engineering phase and the shaft ‘was re-located closer to the open pit where a small cut-back could expose the competent Proterozoic rock to begin shaft sinking in. The new shaft collar is now 45 m below natural ground surface and removed the difficulty of sinking through “unconsolidated andwet sands and clays and the complications of piling and foundations in this type of ground. This did require the drilling of a new gootechnical diamond drill hole ‘once the project was approved. 1. HusMCP, Poet itr — dean stata Copper est Hey Ming Py i PO Ber 527, Concur 4 8. Emacarsacoppetcom a 2, Ses Pot Manage da fig Mo PO Bat 388 South shane 4410, Ema enero cat 11TH UNDERGROUND OPERATORS’ CONFERENCE / CANBERRA, ACT, 21 -23 MARCH 2011 19 (CJCARR AND AE ANORTHCOTE CANNINGTON FIG 1-Location map ofEmest Henry depot. During the early phases of mine development a number of factors combined to cause the selection of strip and line sinking to be re-considared. These included: + the schedule ris of the decline development to the base of ‘the shaft running late, encountering of unoxpected ground water in some development headings which was projected as a risk of the pilot hole or raise bore striking a significant amount of | ‘water causing a flooding risk before the main pumps were installed, + tonders for both strip and line and blind sinking ‘demonstrated that the achievable sehedule was faster than anticipated during the scoping study phase and the east

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