The Garson deposit includes the actively mined McConnell deposit, surface ramp (13 and 360), and Garson mine #1 Shear, #4 Shear deposits. Inactive deposits include the Garson ramp (600) zones.
Slot–slash and Uppers retreat mining methods are employed for ore extraction.
Alluvial sands are used for backfilling. A high density hydraulic backfill is used which introduces much less water into the Main mine than typical hydraulic backfill.
Slot–Slash
Slot–slash mining is a bulk mining method that entails blasting vertical slices of ore to a free face, which initially will be a blasted inverse raise, or a bored raise. The amount of ore that can be blasted at any given time is limited to the existing void space and the available free face. Blastholes are loaded with staggered decks to break anywhere from 6 m to the entire length of the hole. The blocks are slashed out to the stope boundaries and up to a crown. The final crown is taken in one blast.
This method concentrates loading and blasting operations, and, once a slot has been established, stopes of 25,000–40,000 t of ore can be completely broken in 3–5 separate blasts, while smaller stopes can be blasted in one blast.
Blastholes are drilled using in-the-hole (ITH) drills. Prior to blasting, long blastholes are surveyed in order to determine their location and all holes are probed with a conductivity probe to confirm ore limits. If required, new holes are drilled to ........