Mining will be undertaken by conventional bulk mining methods utilising hydraulic excavators, dump trucks and drill and blast coupled to a ROM stockpile. Ore will be trucked directly from the blasted faces to the ROM stockpile and fed to the primary crusher using Front-End Loader (FEL). Allowance has been made for blending from the ROM and external stockpiles. The planned mining operation is based on 12 hour shifts with two crews working one week (7 days) double shifts and 2 weeks (14 days) single shifts.
Planned mining activities are as follows:
- Clearing of vegetation, stripping of topsoil and overburden, and removal to storage location on-site;
- Haul road and ramp construction;
- Drilling and blasting of ore and associated waste, including pre-splits on final walls;
- Loading of ore and waste from the pits;
- Haulage of ore to the ROM pad and waste to dump areas.
The pit will be mined using 2m and 3m flitches for ore and waste respectively. This height gives reasonable production efficiency while keeping dilution to a minimum. In waste, the flitch height could be increased to improve efficiency within the limits of the equipment size.
The proposed pit has been designed based on the geotechnical requirements and recommendations prepared by Golder Associates. The design outlines a pit of ~1,350m in length, an average of 750m width and down to a final pit depth of 270m.
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