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-磨矿小组正在积极进行洞穴-磨矿的研究，这是一种将洞穴采矿与磨矿过程结合起来的创新方法，可以提高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，“从洞到磨”的方法可以改变未来深层低品位高吨位矿床的开采方式。所提出的研究将通过提高项目价值和能源性能来推进洞穴开采。这项研究得到了新阿夫顿矿以及加拿大技术提供商的支持，这些技术提供商对“从洞到磨”概念的发展至关重要。拟议的研究跨越了洞穴采矿作业的各个领域，并希望采用迄今为止在露天矿作业中实施的作业战略。研究将把地下崩落矿粒度、硬度与下游选矿性能联系起来。此外，它将研究在洞穴作业中使用基于传感器的分类系统。一项为期两年的NSERC合作研究与开发（CRD）拨款将致力于整合复杂的实验室实验和数值方法，以利用当前东洞和西洞运营的历史数据，为新阿夫顿新洞穴区域（例如c区，正在考虑在不久的将来进行开发）的评估、规划和潜在开发生成预测模型。该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，这些参数将为诸如分选、运动或混合等实践提供信息，以减少能源消耗并使整个冶金过程受益。

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.