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Daylighted fracture
Offers an opportunity Non-Daylighted fracture offers little
To slide off. Risk
Probability of Failure
Not all daylighted fractures will slip
Not every non-daylighted fracture will hold
More major extensive daylighted fractures
more likely a major failure is
– One New Mexico mine lost entire pit as slide
slipped in over several months
Significance of Failure
Some small failures will take a few hours to
clean up – can risk these to save money
Larger regional failures are fatal, probably
cannot endure much risk
Berm
Localized single bench failures from a steep toe to crest slope are much more
Tolerable than an over-all pit slope failure over the entire side of a pit.
Pit Slopes
Quarries in strong rock can sustain about 80
to 85 degree toe to crest slopes
Geology determines limits but about 58 to
72 degrees is a common range for toe to
crest in open pit metal.
Over-all slopes often more conservative
– Frequently less than 45 degrees
Cannanea Mexico is nearly 60
The Equipment Considerations
Why benches?
– Benches stop rolling rocks (a rock rolling down
600 ft and hitting you in the head will split your
scull – even if there are no brains)
Benches act as rock catchers – they need to be wide
enough for this – with the aid of a berm (around 10-
15 feet)
– Benches match equipment digging height
Woops!
Bigger shovels allow bigger bench
Height – but require bigger trucks
Why Benches Continued
Flat area on benches provides room for
equipment to move
– Bigger trucks have bigger turning radius
Truck
Shovel
75 ft Turning Radius
Shovel
5 ft wall clearance
5 + 75 ft turn radius + 37 feet length + 5 foot from edge = 122
(say about 125 foot bench width for working.)
Looking at Geometry
125 ft
67º
X
40 ft
17+125 = 142 ft
Tan (?) = 40/142 so ? = arctan(40/142) = 15.73º
Final Pit Slope
Arctan(40/27) = ? = 56º
40 ft
17 ft + 10 ft = 27 ft
Pit Slope Limits
Geological Over-All Pit Slope Limit = 47º
Geometry based final pit slope = 56º
Geometry based working slope = 15.73º
Diameter Ore
Pit Slope
Enter Your Information in the
Present Depth
yellow fields below
Waste
Ore My slope
We will Increase in Depth
Geometry Calculations
Input Area
Incremental
Stripping ratio
area
Average Stripping
Ratio
Advancing the Pit Downward Cone Pit
Diameter Ore
Pit Slope
Enter Your Information in the
Present Depth
yellow fields below
Increase number Waste
Of existing benches
Ore
To 2 Increase in Depth
Input Control
Diameter Ore 2100 ft
Pit Slope 15.73 degrees Portion of Cone not Mined
Pit Slope in radians 0.27454
Density of ore 4700 lbs/yd^3
Density of Overburden 4100 lbs/yd^3 Incremental Stripping Ratio for Pit One Going to
Number of Existing Benches 2 Total Volume Pit 2 22484982 yd3
Present Depth 80 ft Total Volume Pit 1 13289007 yd3
Incremental Increase in Depth 40 ft Incremental Volume 9195975 yd3
New Depth 120 Ore Volume Cylinder 2 15393804 yd3
Stripping ratio for Diameter Origional Pit 2668.076 Ore Volume Cylinder 1 10262536 yd3
3rd bench is Height of total cone (origional) 375.735 Incremental Ore Vol. 5131268 yd3
Diameter Incremental Pit 2952.114 Incremental Waste Vol 4064707 yd3
0.69 to 1 Height of total cone (incremental) 415.735 Incremental Vol. SR 0.792144713
Weight of Increm Ore 12058480 tons
Weight of Increm Waste 8332649 tons
Weight Based SR 0.691019856
Continuing Our Activity
Cone Pit
Diameter Ore
Pit Slope
Enter Your Information in the
Bench #12 is the yellow fields below
Present Depth
Input Control
Will get a 5.44:1 ratio) Diameter Ore 2100 ft
Pit Slope 15.73 degrees Portion of Cone not Mined
Pit Slope in radians 0.27454
Density of ore 4700 lbs/yd^3
Density of Overburden 4100 lbs/yd^3 Incremental Stripping Ratio for Pit One Going to P
Note that we can Number of Existing Benches 11 Total Volume Pit 2 215587062 yd3
Reach a limiting depth Present Depth
Increase in Depth
440
40
ft
ft
Total Volume Pit 1
Incremental Volume
182070481 yd3
33516581 yd3
Of 480 ft. New Depth 480 Ore Volume Cylinder 2 61575216 yd3
Diameter Origional Pit 5224.419 Ore Volume Cylinder 1 56443948 yd3
Height of total cone (origional) 735.735 Incremental Ore Vol. 5131268 yd3
Diameter Incremental Pit 5508.457 Incremental Waste Vol 28385313 yd3
Height of total cone (incremental) 775.735 Incremental Vol. SR 5.531832019
Weight of Increm Ore 12058480 tons
Weight of Increm Waste 58189891 tons
Weight Based SR 4.825640697
The Depth Effect
Note that as a pit goes deeper the stripping
ratio increases until it reaches an economic
limit
Rule 1 – as slope decreases S.R. increases
Rule 2 – as depth increases S.R. increases
Damages from our 15.73 Degree
Slope Cone Pit
Diameter Ore
Had I been able to mine
At the Geologic Limit Enter Your Information in the
Pit Slope
Present Depth
Of 47º instead of the yellow fields below
Equipment limit at 15.73º Waste
Atan(160/283) = 29.48º
?
Working Pits
Pits usually go in at working slope
– Often initial pit is mined top down to open the deposit
Mine then picks a direction and distance to push-
back
– Push back is worked at the working slope
– Slope is steepened as limit of the push back is reached
Mine then picks the next push-back direction
– They have to open a number of working benches
– As these benches are opened the slope declines to the
working slope
Cycle Repeats until the final pit slope is reached.
How Big is My Push-Back Distance
To push back the mine must open a certain
number of shovel positions
– Usually more than the actual number of shovels
Suppose I open 7 benches for 3 shovels
– Suppose I need at least 25 meters of width for working
bench
– Suppose my regular bench width is 10 meters
– Every active bench needs an extra 15 meters
– 7 of them need 105 meters so my minimum pushback
size would be 105 meters.
How Do I Arrange My Benches in a
Push Back
In the Example I could have 7 different work
spaces
– That would mean 7 benches each with road
access
Suppose I build one very wide bench with
room for 4 shovels (about 100 meters) and
another with room for 3 shovels (about 75
meters).
– Now I only need 2 sets of roads.
How Do I Choose?
Cheaper is better?
For most metals and industrial minerals (things most likely to be mined
by a classic open pit), processing of ore is usually more expensive than
mining the ore.
Processing Plants that have trouble
– See increases in operating costs (that can easily offset any savings in
mining)
– May loose recovery of the mineral (you already have all your mining cost
into the rock and now you flush it away – ouch there goes your profit)
– Both of the above.
Processing Plants like steady grades of ore with similar characteristics
– Mother nature likes to put stuff all over creation and not build anything to a
standard
– One of the ways to get even ore feed is to blend ore from different parts of
the mine
Working faces that are far apart give me more blending options than if
all my shovels are working together.
The Distance Factor
As pits go deeper the roads to the surface
get longer
– Trucks drive further so that ore and waste from
the bottom of the pit is more expensive to move
than that at the top
Sometimes the impact of distance can limit
the pit depth before the stripping ratio does
Checking Our Case Study
Our economic limit appears to be 1800 ft
Generally haul roads must be at least 10 ft long for
every foot of rise (more than that rips up
transmissions – and violates laws in some cases)
– Suggests at the bottom of the pit the road may be
18,000 ft long – lets allow 1000 ft to dump point
19,000 ft – traveled two ways is 38,000 ft or 7.2 miles round trip
– At that distance the truck may only make 2 trips an hour
(it would have made 4 closer to the top)
Impact of Distance
Greater haul cost reduces the earnings on a
ton of ore
Greater haul costs increase the cost of OB
removal
If haulage is about 35% of direct mine cost
– O.B. removal near the bottom would be about
135% of normal (when haul costs doubled)
– 5/1.35 = limit may be about 3.73: 1 at the
bottom
The Haulage Distance Effect
Cone Pit
Present Depth
S.R. then the pit yellow fields below
Waste
Will reach about
1560 ft – not 1800 ft Ore
Increase in Depth
Input Control
(haulage economics Diameter Ore
Pit Slope
2100
47
ft
degrees Portion of Cone not Mined
Controlled the depth Pit Slope in radians 0.820305
Density of ore 4700 lbs/yd^3
Of the pit) Density of Overburden 4100 lbs/yd^3 Incremental Stripping Ratio for Pit One Going to Pit Two
Number of Existing Benches 38 Total Volume Pit 2 605416535 yd3
Present Depth 1520 ft Total Volume Pit 1 576650362 yd3
Increase in Depth 40 ft Incremental Volume 28766173 yd3
New Depth 1560 Ore Volume Cylinder 2 200119452 yd3
Diameter Origional Pit 4934.846 Ore Volume Cylinder 1 194988184 yd3
Height of total cone (origional) 2645.987 Incremental Ore Vol. 5131268 yd3
Diameter Incremental Pit 5009.447 Incremental Waste Vol 23634905 yd3
Height of total cone (incremental) 2685.987 Incremental Vol. SR 4.606055386
Weight of Increm Ore 12058480 tons
Weight of Increm Waste 48451554 tons
Weight Based SR 4.018048315
Industry Responses to the Limit
In-pit crushing and conveying – have the
trucks carry the ore to a point in the pit a
constant distance away – then crush and
convey
– Result – you keep the flexibility of haul trucks
for mining but the increased haul distances in
more mined out upper areas of the pit are
handled by conveyors which have a lower unit
cost for moving material
Radical Ideas
Putting inclined hoists on the pit surface or
just in the wall and hauling the ore straight
up the side with a skip
– Was done at least once in New Mexico
– Has been the object of many studies over time
Now Its Your Turn
You will need to figure a working and final pit
slope.
You will need to determine how deep a pit
can actually become before it is
economically infeasible to go further.
Homework #4 is now assigned.