The Murray Brook deposit is relatively shallow in depth and lends itself to conventional open pit mining methods. A single open pit will be developed that will have a maximum depth of approximately 340 m from the highest point (550 masl) to lowest point (212 masl).
The mine production schedule consists of one pre production year for pre-stripping and then ten years of actual mine production.
The target milling rate is approximately 2,000,000 tonnes per year, or approximately 6,000 t/day. Daily mining rates of mineralized material and waste combined will range from 12,000 t/d to 32,000 t/d and average about 27,000 t/day.
The open pit will require the excavation of four different materials:
• Overburden (placed into an overburden stockpile);
• Waste Rock (placed into a waste rock dump);
• Oxide Waste (mineralized material not defined as processable and placed into a separate stockpile);
• Sulphide Mill Feed (processed through the plant);
• The development of the mine production schedule entailed several sequential steps. These are:
- Run pit optimizations to select the optimal pit shell;
- Design an operational pit (with ramps and benches) based on the optimal shell;
- Develop internal pit phases (push-backs) to smooth the annual production tonnages;
- Develop a life-of-mine mining schedule; o Develop a life-of-mine processing schedule.
PIT DESIGN PARAMETERS
Haul Road ........
