Assignment briefing - field trip report RSE3040 – MINING SYSTEMS Mining System Report SITUATION You are employed as a graduate Mining Engineering by Monash Consultants. The company has been engaged by...

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Answered Same DaySep 15, 2021RSE3040Monash University

Answer To: Assignment briefing - field trip report RSE3040 – MINING SYSTEMS Mining System Report SITUATION You...

Ivsn answered on Sep 22 2021
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Mining system Report
Background information:
Ginkgo mineral mines are located 40 kilometers to the west of Pooncarie and 170 kilometers to the south of Broken Hill in far western South Wales approximately. Ginkgo mines are owned and governed by Cristal Mining Australia Limited called as Cristal. Snapper Mineral sand mines which are approximately 10 kilometers southwest of Ginkgo are also operated by Cristal. The mineral sand concentrates from both these mines are processed by Broken Hill Mineral Separation Plant (MSP).
On 30 January 2002, the minister of planning has granted development agreement to Ginkgo mine under Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 part 4. As per this development agreement Cristal was allowed to extract 13 million tonnes
per annum (Mtpa) for production of 576000 tonnes per annum in a period of 14 years.
The Ginkgo mine was ordered in 2005, and the agreement was later modified in 8 occasions. These modifications generally linked to minor variations in mining site operation like dredge pond and snapper mines. The 8th modification which was sanctioned in 2010 is the most important modification and improved the life of mine two years (12 - 14 years) and also the total mining ore capacity increased from 128Mt to 145Mt.
Minister of planning approved Snapper mines on 28 August 2007 under Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 part 3A. The operations under this act have been implemented from 2010 and later this project has undergone modification proposed in four occasions.
Figure 1 Ginkgo Mining site
Geology of site:
Ginkgo mine contains 5.8Mt heavy mineral with good concentration of Zircon. Heavy mineral fine grained deposits are also found along North western region in New South Wales. Zircon is very important for the economical market of feedstock industry. If it is present in huge quantity then it has the capability to make sufficient profits in the mineral sand deposits, also net cost of production of other titanium dioxide minerals decreases (Whitehouse et al. 1999).
Generally mineral sands constitute sand sized detrital minerals having high value of specific gravity like rutile, zircon, magnetite, kyanite, chromite, garnet, tourmaline, sillimanite. These types of heavy minerals have specific gravity value more than 2.9; they are chemically stable and are generally resistant to scratches (Baker G. 1962).
The process of mineral sand mining has been started in late 2005 by Bemax Resources NL in Ginkgo Mines and the shipment of mineral concentrates to other mines has been started in the year 2006. Later New South Wales has been turned to a global supply source of heavy minerals like zircon, rutile and ilmenite. Ginkgo mines have been stated to consist of some unusual thickness of 40m and 30% of heavy minerals in sectionalized mineral zones. This mine has similar facies to the stacked beaches with amplitude of sea level variations at 30-40m (Roy & Whitehouse, 2003).
The richest grade heavy minerals with greater than 10% concentration are present in the central part for a distance of approximately 4km. The concentration of heavy minerals decreases with the increase in distance from the central sector across the end. The decrease in concentration is slow towards North West whereas towards South East there is a huge change. This discontinuity in the heavy mineral concentration is similar to the change in deposited mineral thickness and height of the deposit.
The base of the Ginkgo mine can be defined by sharp change in grade and it is planar. However, the upper surface of the deposit is largely irregular. The slopes of the basin have towards the South West basin which shows discontinuity in erosion. A maximum thickness is observed towards the back of the basin whereas the front part of the basin is mostly erosional having 10-15m depth (Roy & Whitehouse, 2003).
Various sections along the main part of the mineral deposit indicate complete mineralization from low grade usually from 1-2% of heavy minerals at North East side to high grade from 20-30% of heavy minerals at South West side. The internal structure of the deposit is classified basing on various mineralization degrees. Typically it is classified into five South West dipping zones. The zones having high mineral concentration are divided from the zones with less mineral concentration with 5-10m thickness, 40-70m width and are usually inclined at. These zones have extension from 30- 40m vertically and will be inclined at 300- 400m. This interrelated concept between lithofacies and heavy mineral concentrates indicate that mineral rich zones match with the beach sand facies. These beach sand facies are interstratified with non - laminated sand which has less heavy mineral concentrates.
Method of exploration:
Traditional wet dredge method is employed for mining in Ginkgo mines to explore the ore bodies. In this method dredge is operated along with the first gravity concentrator placed in a pond of water. This wet concentrator removes the heavy mineral concentrates which are sent back to the shore to Mineral Separation Plant (MSP) by proper means of transportation. Traditional Mobile excavation apparatus are implemented to avoid overburden on the system. Previously the process of removal of over burden is done by conveyor system which was later replaced by shovel and truck equipments.
Figure 2 Mining ore equipment
After the proper removal of heavy mineral concentrates, the left over barren sands are sent back to the dredge pond filled with overburden sand. Due to the added advantage of large ground water as a resource, dredge mining method is best suited method also suitability of the sand makes up an ore body.
A rotating bucket is attached to a wheel that can dig into the sand. This technique is named as floating dredge and it can recover ore from the body. In this method a suction pipe is placed to make suction of ore possible from below the level of water. This dredge is maintained and controlled by anchors employed in series, or also with spuds and winches. The lateral movement of the dredge is controlled by anchors and winches whereas backward and forward movements are controlled by spud. Dredge mining method can extract 13Mtpa and can move over 24Mtpa of overburden (M. I. Pownceby et al, 2015).
Mineral separation plant:
The site selection for Mineral separation plant (MSP) will be held under Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS). The proper selection of the site involves infrastructure facilities, a cost effective energy management and skilled human workforce. Presently Broken Hill is most preferred for huge capital investments due to its huge economic and constructional benefits.
Heavy Mineral Production:
Annual production from Mineral Separation plant generally includes the following compositions,
Rutile - 55000 tonnes (95% TiO2)
Zircon - 40000 tonnes (Premium grade)
Sulphate feed ilmenite - 45000 tonnes (52% TiO2)
Chloride feed ilmenite - 120000 tonnes (60% TiO2)
Altered ilmenite products - 90000 tonnes (65-80% TiO2)
Figure 3 Expected output from Ginkgo Mineral separation plant
Mineral Processing:
Processing of heavy mineral sands generally include separating the useful minerals from sand till the end product in various stages. Usually this processing depends on the site and can occur on site or can take place off shore. Light sand which includes quartz and clay can be separated from heavy mineral sand by implementing gravity processing techniques. These techniques use spirals or classifiers for the processing method.
Figure 4 Processing spirals to separate heavy minerals from sand
The first stage...
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