Overview
Stage | Production |
Mine Type | Underground |
Commodities |
|
Mining Method |
- Sub-level stoping
- Bench stoping
- Unconsolidated rockfill
|
Production Start | ... |
Mine Life | 2027 |
OZ Minerals' operations in Carajas – Pedra Branca mine and Antas Norte processing plant, and the Santa Lúcia project – are more than 10 km away from the Indigenous Lands.
Carajas Operation consist of mining ore containing copper and gold from the Pedra Branca underground mine and processing it at the processing facilities located at the Antas mine which support the Carajás East Hub in Brazil. The Carajás East Hub generates revenue from the sale of concentrate containing copper and gold to customers in Europe and Asia.
Mining of the Antas North open pit was completed in June 2021.
100% feeds of Pedra Branca material to the Antas mill have only occurred since June 2022.
The Santa Lúcia project is 100% owned by Vale and the Brazil National Economic Development Bank (BNDES) holds a right to participate in up to 50% of the economic results of the project.
OZ Minerals’ option to purchase the project from Vale was exercised in January 2023. |
Source:
p. 187,218,221
OZ Minerals operates the Carajás East hub in Brazil.
On May 2, 2023, BHP announced the completion of the OZ Minerals acquisition and implementation of the scheme of arrangement for BHP Lonsdale Investments Pty Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of BHP Group Limited, to acquire 100% of the shares in OZ Minerals Limited (OZL) (the Scheme). BHP Group Limited is now the ultimate parent company of OZL.
Contractors
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Deposit Type
- IOCG
- Breccia pipe / Stockwork
Summary:
Pedra Branca iron oxide copper gold deposit is hosted within the Carajás Mineral Province which is located in the southern part of the Amazon Craton. Locally the craton is overlain by metavolcanic–sedimentary units of the Rio Novo Group and the 2.76 Ga Itacaiúnas Supergroup. The Itacaiúnas Supergroup hosts all the known Carajás iron oxide copper gold deposits and is thought to have been deposited in a marine rift environment. The Carajás Mineral Province represents one of the best endowed mineral districts in the world and contains the world’s largest known concentration of iron oxide copper gold deposits including the, Salobo, Igarapé Bahia, Alemão, Cristalino, Gameleira, Furnas, Alvo 118, Antas, Pedra Branca, Santa Lucia and Pantera deposits.
The Pedra Branca deposit consists of two distinct bodies, Pedra Branca East (PBE) and Pedra Branca West (PBW). Both exhibit typical IOCG features such as hydrothermal alteration types (sodic, calcic-sodic, calcic-ferric and potassic-ferric) and mineralisation style characterised by chalcopyrite + pyrrhotite ± pyrite in semi-massive levels, blebs, strings and disseminations.
Simplistically the geology of the PBE deposit is characterised by a series of strongly foliated to gneissic granitic composition footwall rocks to the north and a foliated diorite to granodioritic composition series of hanging wall rocks to the south. Between these two units a felsic mylonite shear zone is located which also hosts hydrothermal ........
Mining Methods
- Sub-level stoping
- Bench stoping
- Unconsolidated rockfill
Summary:
The proposed mining method is sublevel stopping in longitudinal layouts with backfill in bench stopping configurations where mining starts in the base of the panels and progresses laterally and upwards in a bottom-up sequence. Backfill will be of waste from development until the third panel (Level 925), after which point it will be necessary to bring waste from the exhausted Antas Mine.
The stope optimisation was run with minimum mining widths as of 3 metres (0.5 metres dilution to hanging wall and footwall) and minimum 8 metres wide pillars between adjacent stopes in parallel lenses.
A minimum mining width of two metres is assumed with a minimum 8 metre pillar width between adjacent stopes in parallel lenses. Mining recovery is assumed at 90 percent to account for the rib pillars and ore losses. Dilution for stopes is assumed as an envelope obtained from the expansion of the stope walls for 0.5 m out towards each host rock. Development dilution is an assumed at 15 percent additional tonnes at a zero grade.
In Carajás East, Pedra Branca delivered strong operational performance with the mine ramping up ahead of schedule and multiple stopes now consistently in production as the capability of our underground operators grows. Exploration efforts continued to focus on satellite opportunities while study work on Santa Lúcia, a potential additional satellite mine for the Carajás East hub, is nearing completion.
Mining of the Antas North op ........
Flow Sheet:
Summary:
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Reserves at June 30, 2023:
Mineral Resources Cut-off based on NSR value of US$52/t.
Ore Reserves Cut-off based on NSR for two regions of the mine: US$62/t above the upper mining level (925) and US$68/t below the 925 mining level.
Mineral Resources are reported inclusive of Mineral Reserves.
Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade |
Proven
|
0.6 Mt
|
Copper
|
1.66 %
|
Proven
|
0.6 Mt
|
Gold
|
0.49 g/t
|
Probable
|
2.8 Mt
|
Copper
|
2.06 %
|
Probable
|
2.8 Mt
|
Gold
|
0.53 g/t
|
Proven & Probable
|
3.4 Mt
|
Copper
|
1.99 %
|
Proven & Probable
|
3.4 Mt
|
Gold
|
0.52 g/t
|
Measured
|
1.5 Mt
|
Copper
|
1.55 %
|
Measured
|
1.5 Mt
|
Gold
|
0.45 g/t
|
Indicated
|
8.3 Mt
|
Copper
|
1.68 %
|
Indicated
|
8.3 Mt
|
Gold
|
0.43 g/t
|
Inferred
|
7.3 Mt
|
Copper
|
1.38 %
|
Inferred
|
7.3 Mt
|
Gold
|
0.36 g/t
|
Total Resource
|
17 Mt
|
Copper
|
1.54 %
|
Total Resource
|
17 Mt
|
Gold
|
0.41 g/t
|
Corporate Filings & Presentations:
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