Narrow Vein Mining. CASE STUDY.

Citigolds perspective on weighing up the

benefits against the challenges of narrow
vein mining
Chris Towsey
Chief Operating Officer, Citigold Corporation Ltd

1000 km
625 miles

Rai
lw

ay

Previous mining (yellow) developed

200km of underground drives and
produced 6.6 million ounces of gold

4 kilometres

Decline
portal

Warrior Mine

Stockholm
mine

Washington
mine
Warrior
X mine

Processing
Plant
Tailings dam

0
km

Diagram from Peters, 1987. EGRU Contrib 19

No. 2 Cross Vein

(Maude St. Leger reef)

No. 2 Cross Vein (Maude St. Leger reef)

Decline
portal

Warrior Mine

Stockholm
mine

Washington
mine
Warrior
X mine

Processing
Plant
Tailings dam

0
km

Development Plan
Warrior mine & gold resource Long section

Development Plan
Warrior gold resource drilling Cross Section

Cross section
Looking West

BENEFITS OF MECHANISED
NARROW VEIN MINING
Low mining cost per ounce
low tonnage to break, haul and mill
high grade per tonne 13 g/t
floor of drive preserved

Mining method:
Longhole open stoping
10m sub-levels

Atlas Copco Simba

BENEFITS OF MECHANISED
NARROW VEIN MINING
Low mining cost per ounce
low tonnage to break, haul and mill
high grade per tonne 13 g/t
floor of drive preserved

Safer than hand-held

Mechanised
Cut and fill

Shrink stoping

Mining method:
Longhole
open
Expansion
slot stoping
by
vertical
crater retreat
10m
sub-levels

BENEFITS OF MECHANISED
NARROW VEIN MINING
Low mining cost per ounce
low tonnage to break, haul and mill
high grade per tonne 13 g/t
floor of drive preserved

Safer than hand-held

Accurate grade control

Grade variation
1.1 g/t Au
9.6 g/t Au

7.0 g/t Au

0.2m

0.1m

0.7m

No. 2 Cross Vein in stope pillar

showing rapid pinch-out

CHALLENGES
Dilution planned and unplanned

Planned
dilution
Ore

Unplanned
dilution

Overbreak

Cross section

Ore Sorting
Dilution removed by ore sorting
Feed screened
and washed

ORE
WASTE
Photometric ore sorter

The 30% waste and

dilution removed
by sorting

CHALLENGES
Dilution planned and unplanned
Multiple working faces required

Conventional long-section view of a shoot within a planar structure

Payability of structure 30%

Extraction levels

Drill pierce points

below cut-off

Drill pierce points

Above cut-off

Charters Towers structure with payable areas no defined shoot

Payability of structure 30%
70% chance of a barren hole
Stope blocks

Extraction levels

Drill pierce points

below cut-off

Drill pierce points

Above cut-off

CHALLENGES
Dilution planned and unplanned
Multiple working faces required
Flat-dipping stopes difficult mucking

Stope cleaning of 10m x 20m panels

will use water-jets rather than scrapers

Ore is jetted down the stope to a gully or sump

Mining Costs
Materials
$/Tonne
Ore

Labour
$/Tonne
Ore

Total
$/Tonne
Ore

Total
$/oz

Production

13

16

29

77

Development

23

29

74

Sub-total

36

22

58

151

10

17

45

SURFACE HAULAGE

ADMINISTRATION

21

52

33

85

222

MINING

PROCESSING

TOTAL COST

Thank you