Overview
Stage | Production |
Mine Type | Underground |
Commodities |
- Nickel
- Copper
- Cobalt
- Platinum
- Palladium
- Gold
|
Mining Method |
- Slot-Slash
- Uppers Retreat
- Cemented paste backfill
- Unconsolidated hydraulic fill
|
Production Start | ... |
Garson mine is part of Vale integrated Sudbury (Ontario) Operations which also includes Coleman, Copper Cliff, Creighton, and Totten mines, processing and refining facilities (Clarabelle Mill, Copper Cliff Smelter and Nickel Refinery, Port Colborne refining complex), supported by the Clydach Refinery in Wales, and non-operating mines, and non-producing properties. |
Source:
p. 16
The Sudbury (Ontario) Operations are wholly-owned by Vale Canada Limited (Vale Canada), a Vale S.A. wholly-owned subsidiary. Vale S.A. uses Vale Canada, as operator of the Operations.
On 27 July 2023, Vale S.A. signed a binding agreement with Manara Minerals, a joint venture between Ma’aden and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), under which Manara Minerals will invest in Vale Base Metals Ltd. (“VBM”), the holding entity of Vale’s Energy Transition Metals business, at an implied enterprise value of US$ 26.0 billion.
On April 30, 2024, Vale S.A. announced the completion of its sale to Manara Minerals, under which Manara Minerals will acquire 10% of Vale Base Metals Ltd.
Contractors
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Summary:
Garson is a deformed Contact-style deposit. Contact-style mineralized zones are remobilized into a series of near-parallel ductile shear zones. Shear-hosted copper–nickel sulphides are offset by later stage dykes and possible late-stage shearing. The 1 Shear and 4 Shear are the primary mineralized zones.
The 1 Shear extends from surface to below 6500 Level, a distance of approximately 1,980 m. It has a strike length of 120–600 m, with strike length decreasing with depth. Hanging wall to footwall widths along the orebody vary between 3–60 m, with an average width of 10 m.
The 4 Shear extends from the 2800 Level to a currently known limit of 6700 Level, a distance of approximately 1,200 m. It has a strike extent of 685 m and an average width of 7 m. It strikes east– west and generally dips 70° south. The 4 Shear orebody runs parallel to the 1 Shear orebody, lying approximately 45 m to 60 m to the northwest.
Both shears dip at a slightly shallower angles than the SIC contact, which means that above the 4000 Level the shears are mostly hosted in the SIC with the dominant lithology being Sublayer Norite and below the 4000 Level the shears cut the metasedimentary and metavolcanic Huronian footwall rocks.
The deposit is crosscut by two separate olivine diabase dykes. These dykes are sub-parallel to each other and range in width from 15–60 m.
STRUCTURE
The Garson region was subjected to significantly more structural ac ........
Mining Methods
- Slot-Slash
- Uppers Retreat
- Cemented paste backfill
- Unconsolidated hydraulic fill
Summary:
The Garson deposit includes the actively mined McConnell deposit, surface ramp (13 and 360), and Garson mine #1 Shear, #4 Shear deposits. Inactive deposits include the Garson ramp (600) zones.
Slot–slash and Uppers retreat mining methods are employed for ore extraction.
Alluvial sands are used for backfilling. A high density hydraulic backfill is used which introduces much less water into the Main mine than typical hydraulic backfill.
Slot–Slash
Slot–slash mining is a bulk mining method that entails blasting vertical slices of ore to a free face, which initially will be a blasted inverse raise, or a bored raise. The amount of ore that can be blasted at any given time is limited to the existing void space and the available free face. Blastholes are loaded with staggered decks to break anywhere from 6 m to the entire length of the hole. The blocks are slashed out to the stope boundaries and up to a crown. The final crown is taken in one blast.
This method concentrates loading and blasting operations, and, once a slot has been established, stopes of 25,000–40,000 t of ore can be completely broken in 3–5 separate blasts, while smaller stopes can be blasted in one blast.
Blastholes are drilled using in-the-hole (ITH) drills. Prior to blasting, long blastholes are surveyed in order to determine their location and all holes are probed with a conductivity probe to confirm ore limits. If required, new holes are drilled to ........
Flow Sheet:
Clarabelle Mill
In 2017, the crushing plant and rod mill circuit was put on care and maintenance and the Clarabelle Mill became a SAG-only operating plant.
The ore feeds the semi-autogenous grind (SAG) mill where ore is ground with added water. Discharge passes through a trommel; coarse trommel oversize material is transferred back to the tipple building by conveyor, while the trommel undersize is pumped to vibrating screens located near the feed of the SAG mill. Screen oversize is fed back into the SAG mill while the screen undersize is pumped to the ball mill feed distribution pumping system;
Product from primary grinding circuit feeds the ball mill feed distribution system, which can send slurry to the cyclone feed pumpboxes of six ball mills. Each ball mill in combination with its own cyclone system grinds the material to a target of 80% passing 150 µm (106 µm for sulphides). Once the material is ground to the correct size, the slurry is sent to flotation.
Flow Sheet:
Summary:
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Production:
Combined production numbers are reported under
Sudbury Operation
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Operational Metrics:
Metrics | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
Ore tonnes mined
| ...... | ...... | ...... | 641 kt | 655 kt | 635 kt |
Daily ore mining rate
| ...... | ...... | ...... | | | |
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Reserves at December 31, 2022:
Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade |
Proven & Probable
|
4,822 kt
|
Nickel
|
1.47 %
|
Proven & Probable
|
4,822 kt
|
Copper
|
1.15 %
|
Proven & Probable
|
4,822 kt
|
Cobalt
|
0.05 %
|
Proven & Probable
|
4,822 kt
|
Platinum
|
0.59 g/t
|
Proven & Probable
|
4,822 kt
|
Palladium
|
0.45 g/t
|
Proven & Probable
|
4,822 kt
|
Gold
|
0.21 g/t
|
Measured & Indicated
|
3,923 kt
|
Nickel
|
1.41 %
|
Measured & Indicated
|
3,923 kt
|
Copper
|
1.33 %
|
Measured & Indicated
|
3,923 kt
|
Cobalt
|
0.06 %
|
Measured & Indicated
|
3,923 kt
|
Platinum
|
0.89 g/t
|
Measured & Indicated
|
3,923 kt
|
Palladium
|
1.51 g/t
|
Measured & Indicated
|
3,923 kt
|
Gold
|
0.39 g/t
|
Inferred
|
1,497 kt
|
Nickel
|
1.5 %
|
Inferred
|
1,497 kt
|
Copper
|
1.7 %
|
Inferred
|
1,497 kt
|
Cobalt
|
0.06 %
|
Inferred
|
1,497 kt
|
Platinum
|
0.6 g/t
|
Inferred
|
1,497 kt
|
Palladium
|
0.7 g/t
|
Inferred
|
1,497 kt
|
Gold
|
0.2 g/t
|
Heavy Mobile Equipment as of December 31, 2022:
HME Type | Size |
Truck (underground)
|
45 t
|
Truck (underground)
|
27 t
|
Truck (underground)
|
36 t
|
Corporate Filings & Presentations:
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