Australia's first block caving operation at northparkes mines

摘要

Northparkes Mines is a joint venture between NorthLimited (80 percent and mine operator), Sumitomo Metal MiningCo., Ltd. (13.3 percent) and Sumitomo Corporation (6.7 percent).The copper/gold mine, located 30 km north of Parkes in centralNew South Wales in Australia, consists of two open cut minesproducing 1.0 Mtpa and an underground mine (the E 26 orebody)producing 4.2 Mtpa feeding a conventional copper/gold flotation plantNorthparkes Mines has introduced the technique of block caving toAustralia for mining the E 26 orebody. Although the rock mass isquite competent, the block caving method is selected where openstoping would be the conventional preference. It is the use ofadvanced geotechnical analysis and applied knowledge of cavingbehaviour that has successfully reduced the risk associated withselecting this mining method.Some of geotechnical work having contributed to the design ofAustralia's first block cave mine are presented in this paper. Thisincludes assessments on rock mass quality, cavability,fragmentation and stability of major infrastructures fordetermining an optimum mining strategy for the E 26 lift 1 block cave.Northparkes has now established itself as one of the lowest costunderground operations in the world and perhaps the mostproductive underground hard rock mine in the world. Recentbenchmarking has indicated world's best underground productivityat 50,000 t per man-year for underground employees.