Reference no: EM132252596
Design project
Project information and requirements:
1. Deposit Description
The deposit is coal seam of averaging 7m in thickness, 12 m deep and nearly horizontal. This deposit is part of a tropical coal basin of Late Permian age of fluviatile and lacustrine origin, with good coking coal. The delineated reserves, to date, total around 109 Mt of high quality coking coal. Overburden is a typical basin sedimentation stratigraphy, and all bedding is nearly parallel to the coal seam.
The lease is located approximately three hundred kilometres, by road, from a suitable port facility, and fifteen kilometres from a railway. Infrastructure in the area is minimal, with only one small pastoral village within a fifty-kilometre radius. Local government has offered large subsidies for services to encourage development in the area.
2. Design requirements
Based on the information for the mineral deposit given, design a suitable mining system in detail for the shallow part of the deposit. The student should include in their answer the following:
Select and justify a suitable mining system.
Design and optimise the annual production rate using NPV method.
Design and plan in detail mine excavation.
Plan the rehabilitation of the spoil pile or waste dump
As well as any other salient points as required by the mining system, for economic analysis refer to current market prices in A$ for the commodity as required. Accurate costing is not an essential aspect to the project but some notional economic modelling is required to illustrate the viability of the method detailed.
3. Report writing requirements
1) Individual formal academicreport.
2) No less than 10 A4 pages, including the references.
Assignment
1. Calculation:
The expected life of a rope shovel is 16 years, after which time the mine will close and the salvage value will be effectively zero. What is the annual owning cost, including allowance for rate of return on your capital invested in the rope shovel? If the shovel works 6,000 hours per year, what is the hourly cost?
Required return on capital: 15%
Cost of rope shovel: $7,000,000
Time: 16 years
Taxation: Nil
2. What are strategic risks? How would you manage these risks?
3. Define short, medium and long term planning?
4. Discuss some of the factors that an engineer needs to account for when planning a mining operation.
5. What techniques of pit optimisation are available?
6. Define the following in relation to network techniques (CPM and PERT)
a) Earliest start time
b) Latest start time
c) Earliest finish time
d) Latest finish time
e) Slack
f) Float
7. Discuss the floating cone process.
8. Describe three problems with regard to the application of the floating cone technique. What are the positive aspects of the floating cone technique?
9. Summarise the steps in the Lerchs-Grossmann 2D algorithm
10. A project is defined by the list of activities detailed in Table 1.
a) Draw the network as an activity on the arc network
b) Find the critical path
c) Find the slack for each activity
Table 1
|
Activity
|
Immediate
|
Duration days
|
|
|
predecessors
|
|
|
A
|
-
|
3
|
|
B
|
-
|
4
|
|
C
|
-
|
3
|
|
D
|
C
|
2
|
|
E
|
B
|
1
|
|
F
|
A
|
5
|
|
G
|
B
|
2
|
|
H
|
B
|
3
|
|
I
|
C
|
11
|
|
J
|
D, E
|
3
|
|
K
|
F, G
|
1
|
|
L
|
K
|
4
|
|
M
|
J, H
|
4
|
11. The network shown in the next diagram is to be used in the planning of the installation of an underground crusher station. Determine the total project time and the critical path.
12. Cut-off Grade
Following are the variables for choosing the "Optimum Cut-off Grade":
M = maximum amount of material that the mine can produce in any given time (mine capacity)
C = maximum amount of ore that can be put through the concentrator in any given time (mill capacity)
R = maximum amount of final product that can be produced in the given time period (production capacity)
m = mining costs, $/t of material mined c = concentrator cost, $/t of ore milled
r = smelting, refining, packaging, insurance cost, $/kg of final product
f = fixed cost
s = selling price y = recovery
T = length of production period
Qm = quantity of material to be mined
Qc =quantity of ore sent to the concentrator
Qr = amount of product actually produced over this production period
A. Using these above variables, develop the basic equations for
a) total cost, Tc
b) revenue, R
c) profit, P
B. Develop the equations for cut-off grade assuming that
a) mining rate is the governing constraint
b) concentrating rate is the governing constraint
c) refining rate is the governing constraint
13. Calculation:
The operating costs for a Gold mine are $ 55/ton. The recovery at the mill is 85% and the mining dilution is 15%. The smelting and refining costs are $ 10/oz Au. At a Gold price of $ 400/oz, what is the break-even cut-off grade in oz Au/ton.
Attachment:- Design project.zip