Cannington consists of an underground hard rock mine and surface processing facility, a road-to-rail transfer facility and a concentrate handling and ship loading facility at the Port of Townsville.
In Q4 FY22 Cannington transitioned to 100 per cent truck haulage to bring product to the surface.
The underground mine is accessed via a single surface portal with a decline extending to a depth of 645m below surface. Stope production is conducted using the Long Hole Open Stoping (LHOS) with backfill mining method. The primary backfill method is paste fill with a supplementary use of ROM waste and ROM paste rock.
The stoping areas are accessed by sub-levels developed on a nominal 25 m vertical interval.
A number of ore passes, developed in ore, feed to a crusher loading level. Approximately two-thirds of the ore is crushed underground at the underground crushing station located at the base of the mining operation and hoisted to the surface. A 5.6 m diameter hoisting shaft extends to a depth of 650 m and is equipped with a tower mounted friction winder.
The balance of the ore is hauled directly to the surface via decline access, passes through a crushing plant and is stockpiled on the run-of-mine (“ROM”) ore stockpile.
Once stopes have been completely mined, they are backfilled with waste rock or paste. Paste fill is delivered from the paste plant to the underground workings for distribution via a conveyor syste ........
