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A Transition From A Large Open Pit Into A Novel "Macroblock Variant" Block Caving Geometry
A Transition From A Large Open Pit Into A Novel "Macroblock Variant" Block Caving Geometry
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 12 December 2018
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/).
550 G. Flores, A. Catalan / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 11 (2019) 549e561
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.
552 G. Flores, A. Catalan / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 11 (2019) 549e561
Fig. 7. Production sequence commences from the centre with a north and south cave fronts.
G. Flores, A. Catalan / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 11 (2019) 549e561 553
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).
554 G. Flores, A. Catalan / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 11 (2019) 549e561
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. 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.
556 G. Flores, A. Catalan / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 11 (2019) 549e561
(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.
G. Flores, A. Catalan / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 11 (2019) 549e561 557
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.
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.
558 G. Flores, A. Catalan / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 11 (2019) 549e561
Fig. 19. Section showing the 60 m rib pillar, undercut and extraction levels.
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
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-
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