Surface Mining

(The Concept of Surface Mining)

Mnge 315

Dr. B. C. Paul Spring 2003 revisions 2010, 2011

These slides contain concepts considered by the Author to be
common knowledge to those schooled in Surface Mining. Many of
the ideas found in these slides can be found in any of numerous
basic texts on Surface Mining

Profile of an Industry
Basic Divisions of Mining Industry
Coal
Hardrock
Metal
Industrial Minerals
Quarries/ Sand and Gravel

Deposit Geology influences how each

division would apply surface mining

Surface Mining
Called Surface Mining because mine
is open to the sky where mineral of
interest is being excavated
Why is being open to sky important
Safety (no stone ceiling above you)
Health (open exchange of fresh air)
Mechanization economics
Fewer confined space limitations bigger
more productive equipment

Liabilities of Surface Mining

Easily seen
More likely target for Nimbys and Bannanas

Not compatible with two things being on

exactly the same land at exactly the
same time

Underground allows separate use of surface

and mineral resources underground

Where Deposits are Found

Some deposits just sitting up on the
surface

Sand and Gravel

Placer Deposits (a metal in sand and
gravel)

Most of the time the target minerals

are buried under something else

Ore and Overburden

Ground or rock that contains enough of
some mineral of value to pay for
extraction is called Ore

Gets a little awkward with coal because coal

miners consider ore to be a hardrock term
They expect that when you call coal coal that
you will already figure out that it is valuable

The stuff that sits on top of ore and has

to be moved to surface mine the ore is
called Overburden

Good Stuff Bad Stuff

In order to mine a mineral of interest
you must pick up rock and take it
somewhere to process

Costs money to pick up and move rock

Ore has enough good mineral to be
worth picking up and processing
Overburden is the stuff that is in the
way and has to be moved to mine the ore

Good Stuff Identification

Has a market where it can be sold
Has to sell for more than mining and processing cost
Obvious case
Coal

Example Costs $1.25 a ton to break up dig and deliver the

coal
Costs $2.50 a ton to clean rock and sulfur out of the coal
Coal sells for $28/ton
$28 - $1.25 - $2.50 = $24.25 >0 Yup that looks like good stuff

Limestone

Cost $1.50 to break up dig and deliver limestone from a quarry

to processing
Cost $0.75 a ton to crush a screen it to marketable size
Crushed rock sells for $6.50 per ton
$6.50 - $1.50 - $0.75 = $4.25 >0 Yup that looks like good stuff

Trickier Good Stuff

Sometimes only a little of the rock is
something valuable

Copper few rocks are pure copper

Copper case is a rock with scattered grains of
minerals that contain copper
Need to contain a certain amount of copper
before the rock is worth while
We measure with a Break Even Cut-Off Grade
Minimum amount of a mineral or element that must
be present for things to be worth while

A Break-Even Cut-Off Grade

Suppose Copper will bring you $3 per lb

after smelting, refining, and delivering

expenses
Suppose a ton of rock costs $2.50 to breakup load and deliver to the mill
Suppose a ton of rock costs $4.00 to grind
up and put through a concentrator (mill)
How much recoverable copper has to be in
the rock for it to be Good Stuff?

A Calculation
$3/lb*2000lbs/ton*BECOV = $2.50+$4.00
Break Even Cut-Off Value (BECOV) is the
fraction of the rock that is copper

Quick Algebra

$6.50/(3*2000) = BECOV = 0.001083

Often we like to talk in %
Multiply by 100 to convert to parts per hundred
0.1083% copper (about 0.11% BECOV)

But Wait there is a catch!

Do you think our processes get 100% of the

copper in the rock?

A Look at Process
Copper ore is mined using drilling and blasting,

followed by truck and shovel loading and haulage.

The ore is taken to a concentrator where it is
crushed and ground to powder and then put into
flotation cells.
Flotation cell is a stirred bubble bath
Some minerals hate to get wet (sulfide copper and iron
minerals) they grab onto the air bubbles and form a dirty
froth at the surface
Scrape off the froth its a concentrate
Other minerals like quartz, feldspar and calcium carbonate
(that have no copper in them called gangue minerals)
love the water and stay in the bath

They get sucked out the bottom with the water

What are the Chances of

Perfect Recovery?
What if a mineral particle is part

gangue and part copper sulfide?

This is the reason for crushing and
grinding to minimize this problem by
achieving liberation copper minerals
and gangue as separate particles.
Suppose we recover 90% of the copper
Now our break even cut-off grade is
0.001083/0.9
Result 0.001203 or 0.1203%

More Process
Copper Concentrates are sent to a smelter

Copper is still chemically combined with sulfur

Here we will try to get rid of the sulfur
And suck iron up into a rock slag
Put the concentrates in a very hot furnace and burn
off the sulfur to make sulfur dioxide
Iron and impurities go into Flux to make slag
Copper settles to the bottom to form blister
copper copper metal with some minor metal
impurities

Suppose smelter gets 92% of the copper

0.001203/.92 = 0.001308 or 0.1308%

Last of a Process
Refining of Blister Copper
Blister Copper is placed in electrolytic cells
Acid baths with electricity going through

Blister Copper electrode dissolves away

Pure copper plates out on the other electrode

Trace metal impurities settle as slimes on the bottom

Suppose this process is 99% efficient

0.001308/.99 = 0.001321
The Break Even Cut-Off Grade must be at least
0.1321% copper in place for the rock to be good
stuff or ore.

Economic Considerations
When a block or area of mineralization exists
that can be mined at a profit the ore can be
called Ore
Ore can be picked up and processed for a profit
What about the overburden
Have to loose money to get it out of the way

Whether an ore deposit can be considered a

reserve depends on whether it makes enough

extra to pay for getting the overburden out
of the way

Stripping Ratio
Becomes important to know how much bad

stuff has to be moved to get to the good stuff

Amount of Bad Stuff that must be moved to get
to the good stuff is called the stripping ratio
For Coal we ask how many cubic yards of
overburden must be moved to get to one ton of coal
In metal mining it is usually tons of overburden per
ton of ore or cubic yards of overburden per cubic
yard of ore
Note that for metal a stripping ratio comes up unit-less

Stripping Ratio Impact

While Ore is worth picking up to process the

amount of overburden that must be moved will

determine whether the deposit is profitable

The stripping ratio is key in determining whether ore

becomes a reserve

If too much overburden is in the way

You cant mine the ore

You consider tunneling around under the overburden
and mine the ore without moving the overburden
That is underground mining
Were too cool in a Surface Mining Course to talk about the
evil competition

Bad Stuff Liabilities

Overburden has to go somewhere
The evil word waste
Just plain rock may become a major regulatory target

The Mineral of Interest Problem

Society tends to use pure concentrations of
substances nature seldom makes pure
concentrations
Even ore often leaves substantial other stuff
behind
Sometimes tailings are not entirely just a natural rock

Our Challenge
Use the advantages of open surface

assess to safely and economically

produce minerals our society needs
Control and manage any of our
disturbances into a form that can be
integrated back into a sustainable
environment

Some Basic Stripping Ratio

Calculations
I have 1800 cubic yards of overburden and
600 cubic yards of ore

1800/600 = 3 (Stripping ratio is 3:1)

This is called a volumetric stripping ratio because
it is based on volume
We can often get a volumetric stripping ratio from the
maps or geometry of the ore body

May need to consider density of materials

Suppose my overburden is 4000 lbs/cubic yard

Suppose my ore is 4500 lbs/cubic yard
We can adjust a volumetric stripping ratio to a
weight based stripping ratio (more common in
metal mines)

Converting to a Weight Based

Stripping Ratio
1800 cubic yards OB * 4000 lbs/cubic
yard =7,200,000 lbs

Since we usually work in tons

7,200,000 lbs/ 2000 lbs/ton = 3,600 tons

600 cubic yards of Ore * 4500 lbs/cubic

yard / 2000 lbs/ton = 1350 tons
Weight Based Stripping Ratio is
3,600 / 1350 = 2.67 to 1

Looking at an Economic
Limit
Suppose we have a ton of copper ore with
0.5% copper

Suppose copper sells for 3.30/lb

To make copper we have to

Mine the ore
Crush it and put it through a concentrator to get
just the copper minerals
Smelt the copper minerals to get out just the
copper
Refine and purify the copper then we can sell it

More on Economic Limits

Suppose it costs 10 cents a lb to refine copper
Suppose it costs $85/ton to smelt concentrates
Unrefined copper then is worth $3.30 - $0.10 = $3.20
Adjusting for 99% recovery
$3.20*.99 = $3.17

A typical Cu concentrate is about 30% copper

A ton of concentrate contains

2000 * 0.3 = 600 lbs of Cu

$85/ton to smelt concentrates costs

85/600 = 0.142 or 14.2 cents/lb

Adjust for 92% recovery 14.2 cents/lb/0.92 = 15.43 cents/lb
recoverable

Copper in concentrates is thus worth

$3.17 0.154 = $3.016 per lb

Continuing Our Copper

Economics
Suppose the Concentrator costs $3.00

per ton to process ore

Suppose the mining costs $2.25 per ton
to break up, pick up and deliver the ore
Our 1 ton of ore will cost $5.25 to get
ready for the smelter
Our ton of ore contains 0.5% copper
2000 lbs * 0.005 = 10 lbs of copper

Can we afford to move that

ore?
10 lbs of copper in concentrates is worth
10 * 3.016 = $30.16
But only recover 90% in concentrator
$30.16*0.9 = $27.14

To get that ore out of the ground and into

concentrate will cost $5.25
$27.14 - $5.25 = $21.98

Oh Yes its worth while to dig that ore up and

process it!!

But What if It Has Overburden

Above it Can I move that?
Check the Break Even Limit
The ore is worth $21.98

Suppose it will cost me $2.50/ton to

break up, pick up, and dump
overburden material

$21.98/$2.50 = about 8.76 tons of

overburden can be moved to get that
ton of ore
This is called a break-even stripping ratio

Now Its Your Turn

Do Homework #1
The problem has you calculate stripping
ratios and break even limits for a copper
mine.