Open pit mining at the Falciani mine is planned to use conventional truck and shovel mining methods with drill and blasting to break the rock mass into manageable particle sizes.
TThe life of mine production covers 43 years with 32 years processing feed from mining activities and 11 years processing low grade stockpiles build up over the mine life. Mining activities commence two years (Years -2 and -1) prior to start of production resulting in 34 years mining activities
Mine Planning
Post Whittle pit shell selection, production scheduling and push back planning was undertaken on the selected pit shells. The conceptual mine scheduling for the ramping up from 1.5 to 6 Mt/y process plant feed.
Dilution and Loss
Since the mining mineralized deposits zones are massive with low strip ratios the following dilution and losses parameters where used:
• Mining losses of only 2% were used due to the limited zones of interaction between waste and mineralized material.
• Geological losses of 5.8% average are derived from the geological resource works which consider the current relatively low drilling density.
Mine Sequencing/Scheduling
The annual mining schedule has been developed based on the three phases (1.5, 3.0 & 6.0 Mt/y) of production ramp up. Production is planned to be ramped up to a maximum mill feed of 6Mt/y, (˜16,500t/d). The LoM of this Project is approximately 33 years, (including 6 months pre-product ........