Orelogy was commissioned by Lotus to conduct the design and scheduling work for the open pit mining component of the Restart DFS.
The mining operation extends over a 6-year mining period followed by a further 4 years of stockpile rehandle. Mining will be undertaken by an independent mining contractor using a multi-stage approach to focus on value maximisation and minimising waste development in the early years, whilst ensuring ore continuity can be maintained over the life of the project.
Mining Method
Conventional open pit mining has been adopted as the preferred mining method as:
- The ore presents as a series of horizontally stacked arkose layers separated by mudstone layers all of which are close to the surface.
- There is space to construct waste dumps to the west of the open pit development.
- It has already been successfully demonstrated with operations running from 2009 to 2014.
- It is expected, with a high chance of success, to generate the best value.
The operation is currently planned in four stages over the 6-year mine life. Open pit mining will be undertaken using:
- A fleet of 75 t class excavators and 60 t class rigid dump trucks supported by an appropriate ancillary fleet will be used to mine approximately 7 Mtpa. This equipment matches the scale of the operation and the mining environment, characterised by predominantly oxide/transitional materials. Bench heights are 10.0m hi ........
