An In tro d u ctio n to

Blo ck an d Pan e l Cavin g

Allan Moss,
General manager Rio Tinto Copper Projects
 Agenda

Context – why the interest in caving

How block caving works and key technical considerations

Risks

Value drivers

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 Greater Depths of Mining

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 Trends in Mining ~ to 20 13

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 Trends in Mining ~ after 20 13

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 Why Caving?
• Use of gravity to break the rock(instead of explosives), thus low
operating cost compared with other underground methods
• High production rates can be achieved allowing economies of
scale
• Allows high degree of mechanization
• Safe
However
• High initial capital costs
• Conceptually simple – let gravity do the work - but technically
very challenging
• Requires large design effort; high quality construction; and
rigorously managed operations
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 Cave Mining ~ When is it Applicable?

• Orebodies with a substantial

vertical dimension; massive
or pipe like
• Rock strength not a
limitation but need sufficient
orebody dimensions
• Primarily used in copper
mining but also
molybdenum and diamonds,

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 Evolution of daily production rates

New generation Caves; under construction

160000

140000
Palabora

Henderson

Homestake - S Dakota
Magma

Western Deeps
1000m

Kidd Creek
Open pits Super
120000
TONNES PER DAY

2000m

caves
3000m

100000
4000m

80000

60000 San Manuel

Climax Henderson “Conventional”
40000
Andina underground
Kiruna Olympic Dam
Palabora
Malmberget
20000 Miami Premier
Freeport IOZ/DOZ
Ridgeway
Kidd Creek
Mount Isa Salvador
0
1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 2040
YEAR (after Brown 2004a)

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 Modernisation of an Old Method

LHD
Grizzley
Block
Block
CaveCave

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 With Increasing Production com es need
for Size

Questa Perseverance Parkes Premier San Manuel Palabora

DOZ Henderson Oyu Tolgoi Resolution

Waste

Unexploited resource

Caved waste

Exploited resource Note: size is for illustrative purpose only and has been sourced from published information

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 Major block and panel cave m ines

Rio Tinto
Planned
Currently operating
Closed mines
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 Rio Tin to – a le ad e r in cave m in in g

• Involved in 5 block caves in operation or

development
• Applying experience from operating mines to
developing next generation block cave mines
• Advancing technology and innovation in block cave
mining
• Building an Underground Technology Centre to
ensure objectives are met, particularly with regard to
people

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 Agenda

Context – why the interest in caving

How block caving works and key technical considerations

Risks

Value drivers

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 Where Does Caving fit in the Spectrum of
Underground?

Method T / Manshift Avg. T / Day Relative Operating

Cost per tonne
Resuing 0.2 - 0.5 50 - 100+ 70+
Cut and Fill 12 - 48 500 – 1,500 20 to 70
Shrinkage 20 - 28 200 - 800 20 to 50
Room and Pillar 15 - 150 1,500 – 10,000 7 to 20
Open Stoping 20 - 115 1,500 – 25,000 7 to 25
Sub-level Caving 65 - 180 1,500 – 50,000 7 to 17 Underground mining
methods modified
Block Caving 300 - 2000 10,000 – 100,000 1 to 2.5 from Brown, 2003

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 Five Key Com ponents of a
Cave Mine
• Orebody access
Undercut Level
– Shafts
Orebody
– Tunnels
Extraction Level
• Undercutting
Vent Raise
– The level where caving is initiated Ore Pass

• Extraction
Exhaust Level
– Where ore is removed from the broken rock
• Ore flow
– Sizing and transfer of ore to surface
• Infrastructure
Haulage Level

– Support systems, ventilation, power, water, supplies, men

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 Block Cave Concept
Plant
Crushed Ore

Shaft
Ore body

Draw bells

Haulage
system
Production tunnels

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

25 35 45

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

2. Develop production tunnels 4. Open troughs

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 What are we trying to achieve?
Caved
Ground

Undercut

Extraction
LHD
Loading
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 Block Caving Concept
VALUE REALIZATION
CAPITAL INVESTMENT

100 %

Vyazmensky © 2007
CAVE DYNAMICS
SOURCES OF
UNCERTAINTY

TIME
CAVE MANAGEMENT
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 Section Through Cave

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 Key Technical Issues

cave propagation

cave flow

cave fragmentation
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 Critical dim ensions to initiate caving

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 Geom etry of drawbells

DRAWBELLS

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 Fragm entation: the key to a successful
operation

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 Im pacts of Fragm entation

IMPLICATIONS ON PRODUCTIVITY
RESOURCE RECOVERY
SECONDARY
BLASTING

VALUE
AT RISK
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 Caving the block

Primary
Index of Interruptions Frequency Fragmentation
(Salvador mine, draw point 04W20)

Secondary
fragmentation
HoD

Initial secondary
fragmentation

Blasting effect

Blasted undercut material

Flow Interruption Index Secondary

(events/tons x 1000) Fragmentation

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 Rock Structure and fragm entation

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 Fragm entation is com plex: risks!!!
Primary
zone of loosening fragmentation

expansion
Secondary
void
fragmentation

fragment
size
evolution
f(fragment size)

with draw Fine material

higher
mobility of
finer
fragments
within a
draw Coarse material
column
IDZ

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 Cave Flow
Zone of Loosening
(blocks that were displaced
vertically at least once)

waste

Waste
Entry
ore
waste

waste
ore
ore ore

HoD
IDZ ~ Ellipsoid of Motion
(extracted blocks)
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 Flow dictates Revenue Stream

WASTE ROCK

CAVED ORE WASTE

ENTRY
UNCAVED cylindrical IEZ
ORE

elliptical or frustum
shaped IEZ;
height equivalent
to~100-200 mean
EXTRACTED ORE fragment size

RILLING and MASS FLOW PREDOMINATLY MASS FLOW

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 What do we draw?- the recovery issue
High grade ore Dilution entry

ORE BODY

$
WASTE ROCK WASTE ROCK

Vyazmensky
Vyazmensky ©
© 2008
2008 TIME
REPEAT
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 What do we draw?- the recovery issue
High grade ore Dilution entry

ORE BODY

$
WASTE ROCK WASTE ROCK

Vyazmensky
Vyazmensky ©
© 2008
2008 TIME

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 Undercutting
UNCAVED ORE
Rings to
be blasted

CAVED ORE

Blasted
undercut rings

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 Purpose of the Extraction Level

ALLOW DEVELOPMENT OF DRAWBELLS ACCESS TO ORE ABOVE

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 Light at the End of the Tunnel

A video of some of the concepts outlined can be found

http://www.argylediamonds.com.au/video_block_cave.html

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 Agenda

Context – why the interest in caving

How block caving works and key technical considerations

Risks

Value drivers

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 Can’t define risk - Can’t define value
Block caving is not for marginal projects

 Complete knowledge of the future is an impossibility

 The question then becomes “how representative is
the information we have on hand?”
 This information is used to develop a robust enough
plan to cater for the inherent uncertainty.
 Uncertainty translates to risk (Flexibility costs money)

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 Differences in Knowledge
therefore differences in Uncertainty

Initiation point close to

surface Substantial information
No geotechnical constraints

Ore drilled and typically sampled

as part of mining process – detailed
knowledge for short term planning

Initiation point remote from surface

Limited information Substantial
geotechnical constraints

Limited knowledge of ore- sampling after the fact

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 Scale

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 Access and Extraction Com plexity
DOZ Mine – Freeport, Indonesia

GBT Area I & II

Escondida, Chile
IOZ

DOZ

Courtesy of PTFI
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 Control
OPEN PIT MINING CAVE MINING

uncertainty

reduced knowledge

well established method

good control limited control

more certainty

BETTER TECHNOLOGY IS A KEY TO

BETTER VALUE
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 Risk

Characterisation – the resource; understanding the size of the prize

Design – resource to reserve; time for imagination

Construction – the big spend and first taste of reality

Operation – recovery and payback

Paper (Design) Value vs. Actual Value

1,5 m

CONCRETE
DAMAGE

CONCRETE
DAMAGE

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 Lesson learned at Palabora

Palabora
successfully
transitioned from an
open pit to a 30,000
tpd underground
block cave but…….

Surface subsidence

infrastructure
Mine
dilution of the ore
reserve and
subsequent
reduction in life of
mine

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 Agenda

Context – why the interest in caving

How block caving works and key technical considerations

Risks

Value drivers

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 Ore grade and value

1. The resource grade; a

measure of the metal that is
Value is a function of in the ground

Run of Mine (ROM) 2. The reserve grade, a

measure of the effectiveness
grade which is an of the design
outcome of three inter-
3. The recovered grade, a
related factors measure of how the cave is
managed and cave dynamics

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 Indicative Costs
Capital The capital and operating costs shown are relative
and provide an indication of the spread. Both green
field and brown field projects are included as are
operations where access is via shaft or by decline.
They were developed simply by normalising to
lowest cost producers in terms of capital and
operating cost.

Operating

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 How Soon do you Get your Money Back?

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 Realising Value
New generation of Cave Mines

• represent a step change in the size of operations

• require investment levels of $2 to 10 billion and
• require significant time to achieve operating targets

There are value drivers common to any mining project:

1. Costs (capital and operating)
2. Revenue
3. Time

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 Investm ent in technology and innovation
to drive value
Cave dynamics
• Block caving is inflexible and value
locked in at the design phase
• Important to understand cave
behaviour and reliably forecast metal
production (tons and grade)

Mine of the Future™ Intelligent Mining

• Autonomous equipment
• Block cave operations well suited to
concept of intelligent mining; real time
information
• Operating efficiencies

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 Investm ent in technology and innovation
to drive value
Rapid development
• Tunnelling concepts that are more
productive and cost effective than
traditional methods
• Integrated shaft boring machinery
with the potential
to dramatically improve safety while
reducing construction time

Optimised design and management

• Building on ability to predict cave
behaviour
• Improved planning techniques and
software to improve grade
sequencing

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 The Vision – an Ore Factory

Required
Fragmentator

In Situ

Fragment Crushing
Size and Grinding

Energy
(Distance Traveled)

Reliable
Ore Flow

Predictable Ore Transport

Fragmentation and Sizing
(+ grade)

The Ore
The RockFactory
Factory

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Th an k Yo u

Allan Moss,
General manager Rio Tinto Copper Projects