The mine plan assumes conventional open pit mining using a contract mining equipment fleet at a total mining rate of 1.0 Mt/a to provide a mill feed of 365 kt/a, or 1,000 t/d. The mining operations will have a 40-year mine production life, with a two-year pre-production period, and seven-years of stockpile reclaim feed at the end of mine life.
Pit and Mine Design Criteria:
Inter-ramp angles by sector - 45° OSA;
Single/double bench configuration - double bench;
Bench height - 2.5 m double benched;
Ramp width - 16 m two-way traffic and 10 m one way traffic to accommodate up to 40 tonne trucks;
Minimum mining width - 18 m in pit bottom and 20 m on benches;
Max mine development rate - Maximum vertical advance per phase per year is 12, 5 m benches;
Grade control - Blast hole drilling and blast hole assaying.
In total, 19 pit phases were developed for the Project. Phases one through seven, and phase 17 are mined from the two Moody Hill ultimate pits. Phases eight though 16 are mined from the two Sharpe Farm ultimate pits. Phases 18 and 19 are mined from the two Iron Ore Hill ultimate pits.
Smoothed pit designs were not completed for internal phases, rather pit shells were incorporated in the production schedule. Individual phases were selected from the different pit shells within the ultimate pit and based on operational parameters such as bench advance, pushback widths, and quantities of resources.
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