MINE LIFE CYCLE, DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING, AND SUSTAINABILITY

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MINE LIFE CYCLE, DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING, AND
SUSTAINABILITY

• STAGE 1 - Exploration and Assessment
• STAGE 2 - Construction
• STAGE 3 - Operation
• STAGE 4 - Closure

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MINE LIFE CYCLE, DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING, AND
SUSTAINABILITY

• STAGE 1 - Exploration and Assessment (1-10 years)
• Exploration - Geophysics
• Exploration - Drilling (1/10)
• Geology - Analytical and Mineralogical Assessment
• Economic Feasibility Assessment (1/10)
• Orebody Modeling (1/10)
• Mine Planning and Metallurgical Testwork

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3-D Orebody Model for Mine Planning

• INCO's Research Mine at Sudbury, Ontario

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Underground LHD
Campbell Mine, Ontario
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Remote-LHD
Olympic Dam Mine, Australia
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Mine Life Cycle (continued)

• STAGE 2 Construction (0.5-2 years )
• Mine
• Shaft-sinking tunnel/stope development (U/G)
• Adit tunnel/stope development (mountain-top)
• Top soil removal, key-cut, haul road development
  (Open-Pit)
• Plant
• Site Preparation, Foundations, Construction of
  buildings
• Procurement and Installation of Equipment
• Waste and Tailing Disposal
• Site Selection and Preparation
• Construction of Initial Coffer Dam for tailing
  disposal

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Open Pit Mining
Shovel Loading - Porgera Mine, Papua New Guinea
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Strip Mining
Coal Mine Shovel-Truck Operation
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200 T Haulage Truck
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Open Pits are Colorful
Florida Phosphate Mining
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Diamond Pipe Deposit
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Ekati Diamond Mine
Kimberlite Pipe Deposit
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What its all about at Ekati!
Diamonds are forever!
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Canadian Diamonds
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Polar Diamond Certificate
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Ekati's Polar Diamond
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Open Pit Mine
Bingham Canyon Mine
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Mill Complex
Bingham Canyon Mill
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Secondary Crushing Plant
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Grinding Mills
Bingham Canyon Grinding Mills
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Grinding Mills
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Mill Control Room
Carlin Mine, Nevada
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Mine Life Cycle (continued)

• STAGE 3 - Operation ( 3 - 400 years )
• Mine
• Blast, Load, Haul, Dump
• Transport (hoist, convey, truck, rail), Stockpile
• Safely Store Waste (on site or in-mine)
• Mill
• Crush, Grind (comminution)
• Physical Separation (maybe chemical)
  (beneficiation)
• Thicken and Filter (dewater)
• Safely Store Tailing

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Mine Life Cycle (continued)

• STAGE 3 - Operation ( 3 - 400 years )
• Waste Disposal
• Dump
• Contour, Spread top soil
• Hydro-seed and plan for final drainage
• Tailing Disposal
• Plan for Lifts as Tailing Dam builds
• Control Water Levels
• Recover water for recycle
• Revegetate dam walls

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Tailing Dam Reclamation
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Revegetation
Hydro-Seeding a Waste Dump
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Mine/Mill Complex
Musslewhite Mine, Ontario
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Downstream Processing

• Mine/mill complex
• produces ore or concentrate or unrefined
  metal/product
• product transported by airplane, rail, truck or
  ship to smelter or refinery
• if leaching is used at mine/mill, unrefined
  metal or final product is produced
• Smelting
• pyrometallurgical processing (multi-stage)
• roasting to partially remove/control sulfur
  content
• melting to separate oxides from sulfides (flux
  and slag)
• oxidation to remove sulfur and iron
• need SO2 control and slag disposal system

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Downstream Processing

• Leaching
• hydrometallurgical processing
• vat leach, agitation leach, heap leach, in-situ
  leach
• Pressure Oxidation or Biological Leaching
• solid/liquid separation or ion adsorption process
• solution purification (solvent extraction/ion
  exchange)
• need residue disposal method (dewatering/storage)
  
• Refining
• electrometallurgical processing
• electrowinning to recover metals from solution
• electrorefining to purify unrefined metal
• treatment of slime deposits for PMs recovery

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Copper Ores Concentrating

• Simplest Copper Flotation Circuit

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Copper Ores Concentrating

• Copper Oxide Processing to final metal

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Heap Leach Operation
Installing a Plastic Membrane Liner
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Zaldivar Copper Heap Leach
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Copper Downstream Processing

• Kidd-Creek Smelter flowsheet

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Copper Anode Casting Wheel
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Downstream Processing

• Nickel
• Typical Mine/Mill Treatment

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Downstream Processing

• Nickel
• Matte Separation processing

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Chuquicamata Mine/Mill/Smelter
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Downstream Processing

• Bauxite
• Al2O3 production

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Downstream Processing

• Phosphate ore processing

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Downstream Processing

• Uranium Ore processing

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Uranium Mines - Australia
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Uranium Resources
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Copper-Uranium Ore
Olympic Dam Mine, Australia
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Olympic Dam Refinery, Australia
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Olympic Dam Refinery, Australia
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Downstream Processing

• Gold processing options

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Gold Flakes
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Gold Panning
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Gold Flakes
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Grinding and Cyanide Leaching
Musslewhite Mine, Ontario
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Smelting Gold
Campbell Mine, Ontario
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Pouring Slag
Musslewhite Mine, Ontario
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Pouring Gold Bullion Bars
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What its all about!
Gold Bullion
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Samarco Iron Ore Flowsheet
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Samarco Iron Ore Concentrator
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Samarco Iron Ore Pipeline
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Iron Ore Pellets
Malmberget, Norway
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Downstream Processing

• Coal processing

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Downstream Processing

• Coal processing

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Downstream Processing

• Coal processing

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Downstream Processing

• Coal processing

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Downstream Processing

• Coal processing

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Mine Life Cycle (continued)

• STAGE 4 - Closure( 1 - 20 years )
• Mine
• Flood Pit
• Seal Underground workings
• Long-term Acid Rock Drainage plan for waste dumps
• Mill
• Salvage Equipment
• Raze Buildings
• Contour and reseed site
• Long-term ARD plan for tailing dam

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Sustainability

• Important Factors
• Technical
• Economic
• Social/Political
• Environmental
• Past mining activities focused on only the first
  two
• The latter two have now become equally, if not
• more important

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Sustainability

• A Mine must plan for closure before it starts up
• A mining company must always consider local
  communities in all parts of the world
• As an industry, we must find ways to enhance our
  image and to influence government decision-making
• Future methods must reduce the footprint of
  mining
• no more open pits
• waste returned to the mine
• processing at the face
• robotics and remote-mining systems

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Sustainability

• The BC Mining Industry must encourage its members
  to institute vertical integration policies
• We need to invest in much more value-added
  processing (i.e. smelting and refining in BC)
• Downstream manufacturing industries must be
  encouraged to develop in BC
• This will provide the necessary systems to begin
  significant recycling of metals and other
  materials in the Pacific North-West

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Sustainability

• Social/Political Issues
• Land Use
• Government policies
• The Influence of Activism
• Environmental concerns
• Aboriginal peoples and treaties
• Need for jobs and a diversified economy
• In BC, the Tatsenshini/Windy Craggy decision has
• had important long-term impact on Mining
• Similarly, the Delgamuk decision and Nishka
  Treaty are important to the future of BC's mining
  industry