Enhancement of mining efficiency at structurally complex deposits with advanced extraction of very high-grade ore

Structurally complex mineral deposit mining without profound selectivity of extraction results in substantial dilution and misgrading of ore, especially when a range of contents of useful components is wide, and in the increased end-to-end losses of metals. The authors substantiate a system of indicators to assess the internal structural complexity of an ore body and to be a framework for adopting an extraction flowchart decision procedure with regard to the physicotechnical parameters and quality factors of ore, as well as considering mining equipment specifications toward profound selectivity of very high-grade ore extraction. Advanced extraction of very high-grade ore pockets and their processing using ad hoc methods ensures high end-to-end recovery of metals, while the tailings or cakes afterward have a sufficient content of valuable components for the efficient re-processing by relatively low-cost-techniques. Loosening and extraction of very high-grade ore should be carried out mechanically, including softening by surface-active substances which reduce ore strength by 20–40% and more. Furthermore, advanced extraction of very high-grade ore allows scaling down variability of ore contents later on and enables the stabilized ore quality, which makes it possible to cut down losses of metals in ore processing using traditional approaches. Low-grade ore and standardquality fractions extracted from very high-grade ore are subjected to heap leaching. The introduction of the proposed process designs in mining of structurally complex deposits can increase the end-to-end metal recovery by 4–5% and decrease the production cost.

Rasskazov I. Yu., Sekisov A. G., Cheban A. Yu. Enhancement of mining efficiency at structurally complex deposits with advanced extraction of very high-grade ore. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2023;(4):5-19. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2023_4_0_5.

The research used the assets of the Equipment Sharing Center for Scientific Evidence Storage and Processing at the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Project No. 075-15-2021-663.

I.Yu. Rasskazov¹, Corresponding Member of Russian Academy of Sciences, Dr. Sci. (Eng.), Director, e-mail: rasskazov@igd.khv.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2215-6642,
A.G. Sekisov², Dr. Sci. (Eng.), Chief Researcher, e-mail: sekisovag@mail.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5780-6150,
A.Yu. Cheban², Cand. Sci. (Eng.), Leading Researcher, e-mail: chebanay@mail.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2707-626X,
¹ Khabarovsk Federal Research Centre, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Khabarovsk, Russia.
² Institute of Mining of Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Khabarovsk, Russia.

A.Yu. Cheban, e-mail: chebanay@mail.ru.

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