Mine-to-mill integration for block cave mines

不列颠哥伦比亚大学的地质力学小组和矿山到磨坊小组正在积极开展洞穴到磨坊的研究，这是一种将洞穴采矿与碾磨过程相结合的创新方法，以改进产量预测并支持实时品位控制。根据最近利用New Afton矿的初步信息进行的研究工作，从洞穴到磨坊的方法可以改变未来深部低品位高吨位矿藏的开采方式。拟议的研究将通过增加项目价值和能源效益来促进洞穴开采。这项研究得到了新阿夫顿矿以及加拿大技术供应商的支持，这些供应商对洞穴到磨坊概念的发展至关重要。拟议的研究跨越洞穴采矿作业所特有的领域，并寻求采用迄今在露天采矿作业中进行的作业战略。这项研究将地下崩落矿石的粒度和硬度与下游选矿性能联系起来。此外，它还将调查基于传感器的分类系统在洞穴作业中的使用。NSERC提出了一项为期两年的合作研究与开发(CRD)赠款，旨在整合复杂的实验室实验和数值方法，以利用当前东西洞穴运行的历史数据，生成预测模型，用于评估、规划和潜在开发新Afton的新洞穴区域(例如，正在考虑在不久的将来开发的C区)。这项研究将应用传感系统根据粒度、硬度、金属含量和矿石类型等参数对岩石进行分类，这将为分选、活动或混合等实践提供信息，以降低能源消耗并有利于整个过程冶金。

The Geomechanics Group and the Mine-to-Mill Groups at the University of British Columbia are actively pursuing research on Cave-to-Mill, an innovative approach to integrating cave mining with milling processes to improve production forecasting and support real time grade control. Based on recent research efforts using preliminary information from the New Afton mine, the Cave-to-Mill approach can change the way that deep low-grade high tonnage deposits are mined in the future. The proposed research will advance cave mining by increasing project value and energy performance. The research is supported by the New Afton Mine as well as Canadian technology providers that are critical to the development of the Cave to Mill concept. The proposed research spans across fields that are particular to cave mining operations and looks to adopt operational strategies that up to now have been carried out at open-pit operations. The research will relate the underground caved ore size and hardness to the downstream mineral processing performance. Furthermore, it will investigate the use of sensor-based sorting systems at a cave operation. A two-year NSERC Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) grant is proposed that will work towards integrating sophisticated laboratory experiments and numerical methods to leverage historical data from the operation of the current East and West Caves to generate predictive models for evaluation, planning and potential development of new cave areas at New Afton (e.g. the C-Zone, that is being considered for development in the near future). The research will apply sensing systems to classify rock according to parameters such as particle size, hardness, metal content and ore type that will inform practices such as sorting, campaigning or blending to reduce energy consumption and benefit overall process metallurgy.