The Mining focus is high ore recovery and conventional drill and blasting methods will be employed.
The Project is comprised of three main rock types:
• The upper horizon is a saprolite, this does not require blasting.
• The lower weathered and fresh granite horizons require blasting.
• Ironstone (not all of which is ore), RC grade control drilling is required.
The ore dips at between 10 and 45 degrees and varies in thickness between 1m and 20m at Frasers and 1m and 30m at Bald Hill, with an average thickness of 4m. The ore zone (ironstone) is visually distinct from the host rock, providing some control for ore identification.
RC grade control drilling will be done on a 10m x 10m grid, prior to ore delineation.
Selective blasting and mining around the ore zones are designed to remove the hanging-wall as cleanly as possible to expose the ore.
The ore is then mined to the footwall contact using selective mining. Due to the high value of the ore, a high ore recovery is the focus of mining. As such, a 50cm skin of dilution is added to the ore mined to enable a 98% ore recovery assumption.
The ground water at Frasers has a pre-mining static level at 309 metres reduced level (mRL) is 45m below the mining surface and at Bald Hill the pre-mining static level is at 309 mRL and is 45m below the mining surface. Pits will be dewatered ahead of mining using bores to provide a dewatered rock mass at no more t ........
