Bachelors Course_MN 2001

Mine Development
R.M. Bishwal

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Level/Type of Engineering Studies

• As the level of engineering detail increases through each study stage, as measured by accuracy,
the overall degree of uncertainties decreases.

• Depending upon the type and nature of data collected in early stages on mine planning, various
engineering studies are performed to accurately define various mining parameters such as:

– Nature & Extend of the orebody

– Grade & Tonnage of the ore

– Capital requirements and cost components

– Cost-Benefit analysis

– Method & type of mining

– Ore handling requirements

– Mineral processing

– Etc.

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Level/Type of Engineering Studies

In general, the following major studies are undertaken for evaluation of a mining
project:

• Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) / Scoping Study

• Pre-feasibility Study

• Feasibility Study

There are also some other different terminologies generally following in different countries such as:

• Order of magnitude study or Conceptual study

• Detailed feasibility study or Definitive feasibility study

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Engineering Studies

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 Level/Type of Engineering Studies
• These three types of studies simply reflect different confidence levels of evaluating a mining
project.

• The confidence levels relate to geological knowledge about the deposit as well as the economic
estimates such as capital and operating costs that are required to exploit the deposit.

• After the initial discovery, a mineral deposit is usually delineated by exploration drilling to provide an
understanding of its geometry, resources, tonnes, grades and recoveries.

• The first study called a scoping study is to define the scope of the project, including preliminary
engineering alternatives for developing the mine and processing the ore, broad estimates of capital and
operating costs, and other economic parameters.

• A PEA tries to answer the question, ―how best can this deposit be exploited to maximize its economic
returns?‖ Unlike more advanced studies, a PEA can use inferred resources for its operational and
financial modelling so long as one has a reasonable expectation the outcome will be a profitable mine.

• A PEA is normally followed by a PFS and, if financing with debt, a FFS. A PEA rarely forms the basis for
a production decision because of the higher degree of unknown risks and costs and timelines.

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 Level/Type of Engineering Studies
• A PFS is a more advanced study that uses only reserves and measured and indicated resources and
involves more detailed engineering in order to optimize the alternatives for developing the mine and
processing the ore.

• It also uses tighter estimates of capital and operating costs and other economic parameters by
comparing them to recent examples.

• A PFS is usually followed by a FFS, but if financing with equity, can sometimes be used as the basis for
a production decision if the economics are particularly robust or the costing is at a DFS level.

• A DFS is the most advanced study that typically only uses reserves and involves definitive engineering
and detailed costing based on actual bids where possible instead of estimates.

• An DFS is considered essential in order to finance larger, more complex, capital intensive, lower return
mining projects, or if financing with banks, in which case it is often called a bankable feasibility study
(BFS).

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Preliminary Economic Assessment
(PEA) / Scoping Study

• It is an early level study and the preliminary evaluation of the mining project.

• The principal parameters for a conceptual study are mostly assumed and/or factored. Accordingly,
the level of accuracy of capital costs is as low as ±50%.

• Although the level of drilling and sampling with the required QA/QC, must be sufficient to define
as a minimum an inferred resource.

• Flow sheet development, cost estimation and production scheduling are often based on limited
data, test work, and engineering design.

• Metallurgical test work is based on ore types and examines mineralogical, comminution and
separation characteristics in order to establish the likely flowsheet and product recoveries.

• A PEA is useful as a tool to determine if subsequent exploration activities and engineering studies
are warranted. However, it is not valid for economic decision making nor is it sufficient for reserve
reporting.

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Preliminary Economic Assessment
(PEA) / Scoping Study

The results of a PEA typically identify:

• Probable mining and processing schemes

• Technical parameters requiring additional examination or test work

• General features and parameters of the proposed project

• Magnitude of capital and operating cost estimates

• Level of effort for project development

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 Pre-feasibility Study
• The pre-feasibility study (PFS) is an intermediate step in the engineering process to evaluate the
technical and economic viability of a mining project.

• The pre-feasibility study is a critical step for project development as it represents the minimum
prerequisite for conversion of a geologic resource into a reportable reserve.

• Total engineering at the pre-feasibility level is still limited, often representing less than 10% of the total
engineering effort, but should increase the level of accuracy in the cost estimate to ± 25%.

• The engineering objectives of a prefeasibility study are to study a range of development options to
assess:
– Mining method and production rates
– Processing method, processing rates and recovery estimate
– Tailing and waste containment
– Hydrology studies
– Environmental and permitting requirements
– Detailed financial analysis and project economics with sensitivities
– Capital cost estimates & Operating cost estimates

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 Pre-feasibility Study
• At the pre-feasibility study stage adequate geology, drilling, sampling and QA/QC (to verify the accuracy
and precision of the assay test work) and mine engineering work has been conducted to define a
resource that may be convertible to a mineral reserve pending positive economic outcome of the pre-
feasibility study.

• Significant metallurgical test work has been performed on representative ore blends of all significant rock
and mineralisation types based on selected composites, representative of key years in the life of mine
schedule.

• In addition, the feed grade-recovery relationship for major ore types and thus blends is established.
Mining and processing parameters must be sufficient for flow sheet development, production and
development scheduling and major equipment selection.

• Typically flowsheet modelling is conducted, particularly for the comminution circuit.

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Pre-feasibility Study
• With regard to Infrastructure and planned operations, potential issues with important environmental
and social considerations must be assessed to determine the potential show stoppers such as the
existence of critical habitat and the level of involuntary resettlement required for the Project.

• Capital and operating cost estimates utilize significant vendor quotes on major equipment, but other
construction costs are often factored.

• The economic analysis of a pre-feasibility study is of sufficient accuracy to assess various

development options and overall project viability; however, cost estimates and engineering
parameters are not typically considered of sufficient accuracy for project execution decisions or
financing commitments.

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Feasibility Study
• A feasibility study, (FS), represents the next and thus far most detailed step in the engineering
process for evaluating a mining project for a ―go/no-go‖ decision and financing purposes.

• Principal parameters for a feasibility study are based on sound and complete engineering and test
work. Cost estimate accuracy is higher than the pre-feasibility study and is typically ±15%.

• Feasibility study objectives are the same as those previously listed for the pre-feasibility study, but the
level of detail and accuracy for each objective are more stringent.

• In the past, the term ―bankable‖ was used in describing a feasibility study. This term simply implied
that the level of detail of the study is sufficient for potential project financing.

• Feasibility study is undertaken to establish whether a mineral deposit under consideration is

technically feasible and economically viable to mine out or not.

• Thus, a feasibility study of a mineral deposit refers to a process of undergoing, the technical details
together with economic analysis, to exploit it.

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Feasibility Study
• A feasibility study goes parallel with geological and technical investigations, with the following aims to
achieve:

– To ascertain what exists? In terms of geology, mineralogy, geography and infrastructures.

– To determine what can be done technically? In terms of mining, processing and handling the
materials produced.

– To investigate whether the proposed product can be sold? In terms of quantity and rate (i.e.
price/unit).

– To estimate the project costs: In terms of cost of construction (capital) and operating.

– To calculate the revenues after meeting expanses to fulfill the financial goals (i.e. profit margin)
set by the sponsoring organization/company.

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 Feasibility Study
• Economic Analysis: Economic analysis is performed as the final step in each engineering study to
provide a measure of the project’s economic viability. Economic analysis is performed using conventional
cash flow analysis for the mining industry incorporating the following:
– Constant or current dollars
– Leveraged or unleveraged financing
– Project basis (stand alone or combined)
– Pre- or after-tax basis
– Discounting period of project’s annual cash flows (i.e. mid- or end-of-year)
• Economic measures determined in the analysis typically include:
– Net present values at selected discount rates
– Discounted cash flow return of investment
– Internal rate of return
– Payback period
• Sensitivity analyses to the base case are performed to key project variables which typically include:
– Commodity price(s)
– Commodity recovery(ies)
– Capital costs
– Operating costs
– Currency exchange rates

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Level/Type of Engineering Studies

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TYPE OF MINERAL DEPOSITS
Six types of mineral deposits are recognized as follows:

Massive- A deposit of considerable lateral and vertical extent in which mineralization is relatively
uniformly distributed e.g. dome salt.

Bedded or Tabular- A mineral deposit that parallels the stratification, most often in sedimentary
rock, usually laterally extensive, and of limited thickness e.g. coal.

Narrow vein- A zone or belt of mineralization typically long, narrow, often dipping steeply, and
usually lying within boundaries separating it from neighboring rock. e.g. gold & metallic minerals.

Wide vein- As defined under narrow vein except that the vein thickness is greater than 3m.

Lenticular or Pocket- An isolated ore body, or an enrichment of limited vertical and horizontal
extension in a massive, bedded or vein deposit, e.g. zinc, lead, iron ores.

Placer- A surface or near surface deposit, usually tabular and may be of considerable area
extent, containing mineral particles, e.g. gold, platinum.

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MINING METHODS
Basically, mining methods can be grouped into two broad categories, i.e.Surface mining and
Underground Mining method.

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 Openpit mining
• Surface mine – is a mine in which the ore lies near the surface and can be extracted by removing the
covering layers of rock and soil.

• Mechanical extraction methods are responsible for more than 90% of the surface mine production,
Two of these methods-open pit and open cast mining-rank as the most important surface methods.

• Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially useful minerals or rock are found near the
surface; that is, where the overburden (surface material covering the valuable deposit) is excavated to
expose the ore material.

• Where minerals occur deep below the surface—where the overburden is thick or the mineral occurs as
veins in hard rock— underground mining methods are used to extract the valued material.

• Open-pit mines are typically enlarged until the mineral reserve is exhausted.

• Generally open pit mining can be defined as the process of mining any near surface deposit by means
of a surface pit excavated using one or more horizontal benches.

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 Opencast mining
• Surface mining in which overburden is removed in vertical strips and the mining progress along the
strike or dip of the deposit is known as opencast or strip mining. Strip means a layer. So removal of
coal or overburden in layers is termed as strip mining.

• The suitability of this method comes from the nature of the deposits that are often shallow depth with
long strike length. It enables large scale mining low unit cost, high productivity where coal or
overburden casting is done using dragline or bucket wheel excavators (BWE).

• As the excavation progress along the dip or strike, due to shallow depth of occurrence the coal seam
is completely extracted in one go and simultaneously reclaimed or backfilled with overburden from
subsequently layers.

• Often removal of soil and overburden is accomplished using a combination of casting machines to
maximize the width of the mining area. Conventional excavation and haulage techniques (truck and
shovels, scrapers, or dozers) are also used by themselves or in conjunction with one or more casting
machines.

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Surface mining
Openpit mining
This method employs a conventional mining cycle of
operations to extract mineral. Rock breakage is normally
accomplished by drilling and blasting, followed by the
material handling operations of loading and haulage.
Open pit mines are often used in mining metallic or
nonmetallic deposits.

Opencast mining
Similar to openpit mining, the
same cycle of operations are
followed. Opencast mines
generally followed in coal and
other bedded deposits.

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Terminologies

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Terminologies

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 Terminologies
• Bench top: is the horizontal or near horizontal part of the bench limiting the height of the bench at the
top.

• Bench floor: is the horizontal or near horizontal part of the bench limiting the bench height at the
bottom.

• Bench crest: is the edge formed at the intersection of bench top and bench face.

• Bench toe: is the edge formed at the intersection of bench face and bench floor.

• Bench height: is the vertical distance between bench floor and bench top.

• Bench slope angle (working slope): is the angle formed between slanting edge of the bench face
with the horizontal.

• Pit slope angle (ultimate slope): is the average slope angle for the pit formed by an imaginary line
drawn connecting bench toes and the horizontal.

• Bench width: is the horizontal distance between bench toe of the upper bench and bench crest of the
next lower bench.

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Opencast mining

Using Bucket
Wheel Excavator
(BWE)

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Opencast mining

Using Continuous
Surface Miner (CSM)

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 Openpit Mines
• Advantages of open pit mining

– High productivity, Lowest cost

– Good recovery (approaches 100%);

– Moderate to low dilution

– Favorable health and safety factors;

– No underground hazards

– Ideal for large equipment, which permits high productivity, etc.

• Disadvantages of open pit mining

– Limited by depth to about 300m because of the technological limits of equipment,

deposit beyond pit limits must be mined underground or left in place.

– High capital investment associated with large equipment

– Requires large deposit and large equipment to achieve lowest cost

– Weather detrimental (unfavorable); can impede (slow down) or prohibit operations.

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 QUARRY MINING
• An open excavation or pit from which stone is obtained by digging, cutting, or blasting is termed as
quarry, or a quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted.

• The rocks excavated from quarry are used for different purposes, including construction,
ornamentation, road building, and as an industrial raw material. Rock that has been quarried is
commonly called stone.

• Quarrying methods depend chiefly on the desired size and shape of the stone and its physical
characteristics. For industrial use (e.g., limestone for preparing cement), as the aggregate in
concrete, or for roadbeds, the rock is shattered. Quarries are usually shallower than other types of
open-pit mines.

• Surface quarries resembles open pits, but the benches are lower (60m) and generally vertically.
The highwalls of a quarry are often of imposing height and steepness, some attaining overall vertical
dimension approaching 300m.

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 QUARRY MINING
• Note: Crushed limestone may be mined in a quarry, but it produced by the mining method known as
open pit mining, and dimension stone is extracted from a quarry using the mining method known as
quarrying.

• The characteristics that make a deposit commercially viable for dimension stone include colour,
appearance, competence, uniformity, and freedom from defects.

Marble quarry (Italy) Stone quarry (India)

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 AUGER MINING
• Auger mining is a mining method that recovers minerals from under the highwall when the ultimate
stripping ratio has been achieved in open cast mining operations. or

• Auger mining refers to a method for recovering coal from thin seams, 0.6 to 2.4m thick, beyond a
highwall produced by conventional open cast or strip mining (area mining or contour mining), or from
seams accessed by deep trenches.

• Boring openings into the seam beneath the overburden produces coal. It is used primarily where
conventional surface or underground methods are not economically or technically feasible. Often this is
the only means available for recovering mineral that would otherwise be lost.

• Conditions that favour the application of Auger Mining

– Deposit shape should be tabular, bedded
– Deposit dip should be low, nearly horizontal
– Deposit size may be small to large
– Ore grade can be low
– Ore uniformity: Uniform in thickness, free of partings
– Depth: shallow to moderate

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Highwall mining
Highwall mining is the practice of sending a small, remotely controlled continuous miner into the
highwall to mine parallel entries of about 3m in width and the height of the coal seam. In highwall
mining small pillars are left between the entries, the width depending on the support needed.
Recovery is about 60% in most operations.

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 Highwall mining

Front view of highwall

mining

Section view of a highwall mining

operation.

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Auger Mining
• Advantages of Auger Mining

• Low mining cost; lowest of any coal mining method

• Intermediate production rate (100 to 2500tons or 90 to 2200tonnes/shift)

• Little development required when used in conjunction with an open cast mine.

• Low labour requirement

• Low capital investment for an augering machine;

• Recovers coal that would otherwise be lost

• Disadvantages of Auger Mining

• Application is limited to certain conditions associated with open cast mining;

• Low coal recovery (40% to 65% in most cases)

• Methane explosions as hazard, can’t be mitigated

• Production capability dependent on a single extraction unit.

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PLACER /ALLUVIAL MINING
• Placers are deposits of detrital material with the valuable mineral liberated and recoverable as discrete
grains. Placer mining-also called alluvial mining is an aqueous extraction method intended for the
recovery of heavy minerals from placer or alluvial deposits, using water to excavate, transport, and/or
concentrate the mineral.

• Placer minerals such as gold, tin, platinum, diamond, titaniferous, ferrous iron sands and tungsten
minerals, are of relatively high value, but the value of the placer gravel itself may be very low, often less
than a dollar per cubic yard.

• For deposits of such low grade to be worked they must be near water, on or near the surface of the
ground, and should be only loosely consolidated so that drilling and blasting are not necessary.

• Placer mining affects large surface areas for the volume of material mined, is highly visible and has
serious environmental problems with surface disturbance and stream pollution.

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PLACER /ALLUVIAL MINING

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Coal Mining Methods

Coal Mining

Surface Underground
mining mining

Opencast Highwall Bord & Pillar Longwall

mining mining mining mining

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 Bord & Pillar
• In this method, the coal seam are mined in such as way that the roof are supported by pillars. To
extract the coal seam, initially small roadways or called galleries or Bord are developed in rectangular
fashion. When the galleries are formed, automatically a solid 3D block of coal pillars are left in
between.
• Bord and pillar mining method comprises two phases i.e. DEVELOPMENT and DEPILLARING.
• In development, pillars are formed by driving a network of galleries, of which one set is generally
parallel to the dip and the other set is parallel to the strike cutting the former at right angles.
• During depillaring stage, the coal pillars are excavated depending upon the ground condition. It can be
left as it is leaving a void or allowing caving of overburden rock (super incumbent rock) or very often
backfilled with sand or waste rock materials.
• It is commonly used for flat or gently dipping bedded ores or coal seams.
• The main component of a B&P system are:
• Pillar size,
• Galleries/roadway dimension
• Panel size

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 Bord & Pillar
Layout

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 Longwall mining
• Longwall mining is a highly productive underground coal mining technique. Longwall mining
machines consist of multiple coal shearers mounted on a series of self-advancing hydraulic
ceiling supports.
• In longwall mining method a relatively long mining face (typically in the range 100 to 300m but
may be longer) is created by driving a roadway at right angles between two roadways that form
the sides of the longwall block, with one rib of this new roadway forming the longwall face.
• Once the longwall face equipment has been installed, coal can be extracted along the full length
of the face in slices of a given width .
• The modern longwall face is supported by hydraulically powered supports and these supports are
progressively moved across to support the newly extracted face as slices are taken, allowing the
section where the coal had previously been excavated and supported to collapse (becoming a
goaf).
• This process is repeated continuously, web by web, thus completely removing a rectangular block
of coal, the length of the block depending on a number of factors.

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Longwall mining

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Terminologies
• Incubation period: It is the period between the onset of first oxidation and the time point when
one can detect by the senses. In a broader sense, it denotes the period between the beginning of
coal extraction in a district or panel and the appearance of first signs of heating.

• Spontaneous combustion: It is the phenomenon of self heating of coal or other combustible

material after exposure to air. There are generally three stages of spontaneous combustion of
coal in coal mines: i) the incubation period , ii) the indication period & ii) open fire.

• The incubation period varies widely depending on

– characteristics of the coal
– seam thickness
– nature of the immediate roof
– method of working and method of roof control
– air leakage and the heat accumulation in the environment

• For low-rank coals, the incubation period generally varies between 3 and 6 months. With high-
rank coals it varies between 9 and 18 months.

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 Underground Metal Mining Method

Underground
Metal mining

Supported Unsupported Caving

Cut& & Fill Square set Room & Pillar Shrinkage Sublevel Sublevel
Block caving
mining Stoping mining stoping stoping caving

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Underground Mining Method

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Mining Method Selection
• Currently, industry practice for a conceptual level mining method selection is done using a method
called Modified-Nicholas Method. Selection involves summation and ranking of numerical values
associated with orebody characteristics that reflect the suitability of a particular method.

• To select a mining method, the following input parameters are required:

• Ore geometry and grade distribution

– Orebody shape

– Ore Thickness

– Orebody dip

– Mining depth

• Geo-mechanical characteristics

– Rock Mass Rating (Ore, HW, FW)

– Rock strength to stress ratio

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Mining Method Selection

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Mining Method Selection

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Mining Method Selection
• Stope: An excavation in a mine working. Stoping is the process of extracting the desired ore or
other mineral from an underground mine, leaving behind an open space known as a stope.

• An ore pass refers to an inclined passage used for the transfer of material in underground mine
workings. Ore passes are designed to utilize the gravitation potential between levels in order to
minimize haulage distances and facilitate a more convenient material handling system.

• Ramp: It is a tunnel driven downward from the surface in spiral manner to reach the orebody.
Internal ramps going from one level to another are also quite common.

• Adit: If the topography is mountainous, it may be possible to reach the ore body by driving
horizontal or near-horizontal openings from the side of the mountain; in metal mining these
openings are called adits.

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Mining method

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UG Mining

Sub-level stoping
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UG Mining

Sublevel & Block

caving methods

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UG Mining

Room & Pillar method

(Drift & Pillar)

Shrinkage stopping

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