planninganewironoremine.docVIP

Planning a New Iron Ore Mine J.E. Everett Adjunct Professor, Centre for Exploration Targeting, University of Western Australia, Nedlands 6009 jim.everett@uwa.edu.au (618) 9386 2934 Planning a New Iron Ore Mine ABSTRACT Over recent years Australia, and in particular Western Australia, has been insulated from the global financial crisis by China’s continuing insatiable demand for minerals, in particular iron ore. In Western Australia the demand has led to a number of new mine prospects being evaluated. This paper discusses the evaluation process for a projected new mine. When samples from a grid of drill holes have identified a potential iron ore prospect, a block model of the ore body is prepared by statistical interpolation of the drill hole data, and is used to plan the mine. The first requirement is to identify ore to be extracted, leaving behind waste, so as to meet target grade, generally in multiple analytes. Commonly this is done by setting cut-off values on each analyte to distinguish ore from waste: it will be shown that, if more than one analyte is important, this procedure is wasteful of ore and a composite cut-off function is preferable. A second requirement is to sequence the ore extraction so that the variability in ore grade is controlled: failure to do so will result either in low-quality ore being marketed, or excessive re-handling being required to blend the ore to reduce the grade variability. A third requirement is that the extraction sequence should be such as to control the amount of equipment movement required, enhancing the equipment productivity. The overall objective, to optimise the Net Present Value (NPV) of the mined ore, is simply stated but complex in realisation, since so many factors, such as target grade, grade variability, equipment choice, equipment movement, and downstream blending all have alternatives which can be traded off against each other, and all of which contribute to the costs and benefits making up the total NPV. This