SORTING IN A MINING OPERATION

摘要

A method of mining is disclosed. The method includes mining material in a mine in accordance with a mine plan designed to maximise the financial performance of the mining operation at the mine. The mine plan is based on mining to at least produce: (i) recovery grade ore that is valuable and suitable for recovery processing and there is no net economic benefit in sorting the ore prior to recovery processing the ore; or (ii) waste material that is waste and there is no net economic benefit in sorting the material; or (iii) economically sortable ore wherein there is a net positive economic benefit in sorting the ore prior to recovery processing the ore

主权项

1. A method of mining includes:
(a) preparing a mine plan with consideration of the cost of sorting material with a sorter and including identifying material in a mine as:
i) recovery grade ore that is valuable and suitable for recovery processing and there is no net economic benefit in sorting the ore prior to recovery processing the ore; orii) waste material that is waste and there is no net economic benefit in sorting the material; oriii) economically sortable ore wherein there is a net positive economic benefit in sorting the ore prior to recovery processing the ore; (b) mining the material to producing a recovery grade ore stream, a waste stream of waste material, and a sortable stream of economically sortable ore in accordance with the mine plan; and (c) sorting ore fragments in the sortable stream by differentiating between ore fragments which are of relatively higher grade and relatively lower grade to produce an upgraded stream of relatively higher grade ore fragments suitable for recovery processing.