Woomera, south australia

Sublevel stoping at Olympic

Dam
Rapid expansion Darwin

Since discovery of the massive Northern

Teritory
Olympic Dam orebody in 1975, Western Queensland
and the establishment of the mine Australia
Brisbane
in 1988, the complex has been New South
through a series of rapid expan- Perth Wales South Australia
Victoria Sydney
sion programmes. Owned and op- Canberra Lake Eyre
Melbourne
erated by BHP Billiton, it is the lar- Coober North
Pedy
gest single underground mine in Tasmania Hobart
Lake Eyre
South
Australia, with a production rate of
30,000 t of ore per day to produce OLYMPIC DAM
Lake
around 185,000 t of copper product

a r
Torrens

ome
annually and significant quantities

Wo
Port
Augusta
of uranium, gold and silver. Total
mineral resource underground is
3,810 million t grading 1.1% copper Adelaide
and 0.4 kg/t uranium oxide. The
mine’s staged expansion has been
run in parallel with a philosophy of
continuous improvement of mi-
ning methods. They employ a fleet
of Atlas Copco Simba rigs for down-
hole production drilling within a Olympic Dam location in South Australia.
carefully planned and controlled
sublevel stoping method of pro- towards the outer edges of the deposit, plant, and associated infrastructure with-
duction.
through to copper-iron sulphides and in a mining lease area of 29,000ha.
increasingly copper-rich sulphides to- Situated 80 km north of Woomera, and
Geology wards the central and upper parts of the 560 km north-north-west of the South
deposit. The zonation can continue with Australia state capital of Adelaide, the
The Olympic Dam mineral deposit rare native copper through to gold- mine has sufficient estimated reserves
consists of a large body of fractured, enriched zones, and finally into silici- for a possible life of 70 years within cur-
brecciated and hydrothermally altered fied lithologies. Uranium occurs in rent rates of production, although the
granite, a variety of hematite-bearing association with all copper mineraliza- actual mine plan is in place for only 20
breccias and minor tuffs and sediments. tion. The predominant uranium mineral years at present. The mine has its own
The breccia lies under 300-350 m of is uraninite (pitchblende), but coffinite purpose-built town, Roxby Downs, lo-
barren flat-lying sediments comprising and brannerite occur to a lesser extent. cated 16 km away. There are around 980
limestone overlying quartzite, sandstone Virgin rock stress conditions are employees, of which 490 work in mi-
and shale. The deposit contains semi- comparable in magnitude with most ning, and there are also 400 contractors
discrete concentrations of iron, copper, Australian mines, with the principal on site.
uranium, gold, silver, barium, fluorine stress horizontal and approximately 2.5 Access to the mine is through a 4 km
and rare earth elements. These are scat- times greater than the vertical stress, long surface decline and three shafts:
tered throughout an area 7 km-long and due chiefly to the weight of overlying the Whenan shaft, which was the origi-
4 km-wide, and having a depth of over rock. nal exploration access, converted for
1,000 m. There are two main types of With few exceptions related to weaker hoisting; the Robinson shaft, sunk in
mineralization: a copper-uranium ore areas, the workings are generally dry. 1995; and the new Sir Lindsay Clark
with minor gold and silver within nu- In-situ rock temperatures range from 30 shaft.
merous ore zones, making up most of to 45 degrees C. The last completed expansion stage
the resource; and a gold ore type which results from a feasibility study carried
occurs in a very restricted locality. Mine programme out in 1996 that recommended an
There is distinct zonation evident expansion of ore output from 3 million
throughout the deposit, ranging from The Olympic Dam mine comprises under- t/year to 9 million t/year. The facilities
iron sulphide (pyrite) at depth and ground workings, a minerals processing for this expansion were completed in

underground mining methods 109

 Woomera, south australia

Olympic Dam mine exploration.

1999 at a cost of Aus$1,940 million. ber, 2000, ore reserves were predicted the grade and volume of the ore; the
They included an automated electric to be 707 million t, with average grad- mine’s production requirements.
rail haulage system (based on that at ing of 1.7% copper, 0.5 kg/t uranium This type of mining is most suitable
the LKAB Kiruna mine), a new under- oxide, and 0.5 gm/t gold. for large ore zones that are character-
ground crusher station, a third haulage The mine’s revenue is made up from ized by relatively regular ore-waste
shaft (the Sir Lindsay Clark), a substan- sales of copper (75%), uranium (20%) contacts and good ground conditions.
tial increase in ventilation capacity, a and gold and silver (5%). Copper cus- At Olympic Dam, the method features
new smelter, and an enlarged hydromet- tomers are based in Australia (26%), the development of sublevel drives, us-
allurgical plant. The Sir Lindsay Clark Europe (16%), northern Asia (28%) and ually at 30-60 m vertical intervals.
shaft is fitted with the largest mine win- south-east Asia (30%). Uranium is sold From these sublevels, a 1.4 m-diameter
der in Australia, both in terms of power to the United States (54%), Japan (23%), raise hole is excavated by contracted
(6.5 MW) and hoisting capacity (13,765 Europe (22%) and Canada (1%). raise boring. This extends the whole
t/h). These facilities increased the an- vertical extent of the designated stope.
nual production capacity to 200,000 t Mining method Production blastholes of 89-155 mm-
of refined copper, 4,300 t of uranium diameter are then drilled in ringed fans,
oxide, 75,000 oz (2.33 t) of gold and A carefully sequenced and monitored or rows parallel to the ore limits. Plan-
850,000 oz (26.44 t) of silver. method of sublevel open stoping is em- ning engineers, in consultation with the
Further expansion under the Optimi- ployed to extract the ore. This was chosen drill-and-blast engineer, develop the
sation Phase 3 plan in 2003 increased chiefly on the basis of: the depth of the patterns using the Datamine Rings soft-
copper production to 235,000 t/year. orebody and volume of overburden; the ware package. The normal hole para-
Since 1988, more than 100 km of un- large lateral extent of the orebody; the meters are 3 m overburden and 4 m toe
derground development has taken place geotechnical attributes of the ore (see spacing.
to facilitate the production of more than above), the host rock and barren materials, A powder factor of 0.25 kg of explo-
17 million t of mined ore. As of Decem- as well as their geological distribution; sives per tonne of ore is generally main-
tained. Blasts range in size from about
World ranking of Olympic Dam mine 500 t, when opening an undercut slot, to
Metal Resource ranking Production ranking % of world production 250,000 t for the maximum stope ring
firing. There are six to ten blasts/week.
Copper No.5 No.17 1.4%
Charging is carried out by two 2-man
Uranium No.1 No.2 11%
crews, working 14 shifts/week. Firing is

110 underground mining methods

 Woomera, south australia

Activity Overview Mucking Overview

STOPE
STOPE DRAWPOINT

E
IV
UNDERCUT DR
TION
MUCKING AC
R
on XT
DUMPING cti DRAWPOINT E
x tra ive
E Dr LOADER

TRAMMING

Dumping Overview

MOBILE ROCK
BREAKER
Tramming Overview LOADER TRAMMING
TO ORE PASS GRIZZLY
FINGER PASS
STOPE TRUCK GRIZZLY
HAULING
TO ORE PASS ORE PASS
GRIZZLY

ON
CTI
X T RA E
E DR I V
IV E
DR
TION
AC
TR
EX

IV E
N DR
TIO TRUCK DUMPING
AC LOADER INTO FINGER PASS
X TR ORE PASS
E TRAMMING TO GRIZZLY
TO TRAIN LEVEL
ORE PASS <250 M AWAY

Activity overview showing mucking, tramming and dumping of ore from a typical stope.

carried out by a remote initiation system generally domed to maximize stability. data such as drill-and-blast design lay-
using an electromagnetic field link con- Perimeter drives are located a minimum outs, firing sequences, ground support
trolled by PEDCALL software from a of 1.5 m away from stopes. designs, backfill design, ore grades,
desktop computer. Called BlastPED, the The stopes are laid out by mine de- structural controls, and ventilation se-
system has improved the reliability and sign engineers in consultation with the quencing.
safety of blasting. The maximum trans- area mine geologist, and then presented
verse width (across strike) and length to the operating personnel. This is in- Extraction and filling
of the stope have been determined as 60 tended to gain formal approval from
and 35 m respectively. underground production, development WMC employs Atlas Copco Simba
The stope length (along strike) is ge- and services departments, so providing 4356S electro-hydraulic rigs for down-
nerally based on mineralization, geolo- a forum for continuous improvement. A ward blasthole drilling, whilst upholes
gical discontinuities, and other geotech- final document incorporating any re- are avoided as much as possible. Mining
nical issues such as in-situ stress distri- commendations is then issued, so that usually commences at one end of the
bution, possible stope geometry and everyone is aware of the agreed stope stope, and from one sub-level to the
stope filling. The stope crowns are development procedure and all relevant next, until the stope is completed. Once

underground mining methods 111

 Woomera, south australia

CAF fill

CAF fill
Secondary

Secondary

Primary
Primary

Tertiary

Unmined

Unmined
Unmined

Unmined

Unmined

Unmined
Unmined
Designed stopes

Primary stope extracted

CAF filled due to unmined adjacent stopes
2nd Primary stope extracted
ROCK fill CAF filled due to adjacent unmined stopes
CAF fill
CAF fill
ROCK fill

ROCK fill
Unmined

Unmined

Unmined

Secondary stope extractio n

CAF filled on side adjacent to unmined stope Secondary stope extracted
ROCK filled on side adjacent to mined stope
CAF filled on side adjacent to unmined stope
ROCK filled on side adjacent to mined stope Tertiary stope extracted
ROCK filled as no adjacent stopes

Stope extraction and filling sequence.

drilling is complete, the stope is fired tation and minimum dilution of ore. bored hole, and then subsequent blasts
in stages to ensure maximum fragmen- First the slot is formed around the raise- peel away the ore into the void. Suffi-
cient broken ore has to be removed by
loader from the bottom sublevel of the
Ore progression from stope to train level.
stope at the footwall to allow for swell-
ing of the rock and the next firing
FINGER PASS
GRIZZLY stage.
400 m B.S.L. The extraction process continues in
this way, and then all broken ore is re-
450 m B.S.L. moved leaving a roughly rectangular
Loaders and Trucks dump ore prism-like vertical void, which is then
into the Ore Pass Grizzly's. ORE PASS backfilled. The broken ore is transferred
The Grizzly is essentially a large
steel grate designed to stop
to one of the permanent, near vertical,
large rocks getting into the ore pass. orepasses linking the extraction levels
These large rocks are broken up 520 m B.S.L. with the rail transport level. These load
by a Mobile Rock Crusher. minecar trains, which carry the ore to
Ore slides down the ore passes
into the Surge Bin. the underground crusher and shaft hoist
550 m B.S.L.
system.
The optimum geotechnical dimen-
sions of the unsupported open stope are
SURGE BIN FINGER PASS usually insufficient for complete extrac-
tion of the suitable ore at that position,
570 m B.S.L. so a series of secondary, and maybe
650 m B.S.L. tertiary, stopes have to be developed
FINGER PASS adjacent to the primary stope. This ne-
The Ore is loaded onto the Train. cessitates a substantial structural fill for
The Train continues to the Crusher,
dumps the ore which is crushed TRAIN LEVEL the primary stope, to ensure the struc-
and hauled to the surface tural security of the adjacent stopes
36 tonnes at a time. without leaving a pillar. This comprises
a cement aggregate fill (CAF) produced

112 underground mining methods

 Woomera, south australia

on site. Later stopes, which are not cri-

tical in geotechnical terms, can be re-
stored more economically with uncon-
solidated rock fill, or a combination of
both.
Other factors determining the use of
CAF include planned future develop-
ment within the stope, and/or a need for
a tight fill to the crown of the stope.
Since CAF forms a substantial pro-
portion of the mining costs, mine devel-
opment plans usually try to minimize
the size of primary stopes in favour
of larger secondary stopes, which use
unconsolidated fill.
This is particularly important in
areas where the orebody is relatively
narrow. If the primary stope is not
filled with CAF, and adjacent stopes
are then required, a pillar, gener-
ally 10 m-wide, is left between the two.
Additional support of the stope crown
may be required, and this is carried out
by cable bolting. This is also used to
reinforce drawpoints.
Careful sequencing of the stope ex-
traction programme is an important
feature of mining at Olympic Dam, for
economical mining and minimal ore di-
lution. The sequence is determined by
several factors, including ventilation
capacity to remove radon gas and other
contaminants, the grade and tonnage
requirements of the mill, and the prox-
imity of any unfilled stopes. The XPAC
Autoscheduler computer software pack-
age has been introduced to improve the
efficiency of the sequencing process.

Pride of Simba rigs Simba 4356S longhole drill rig with COP 4050 tophammer rock drill.
Atlas Copco has had a fleet of Simba
4356S machines at Olympic Dam since
Olympic Dam mining and production statistics
1992, and has had a service contract
on site supporting and maintaining the Description Amount
fleet since 1994. The machines consist- Underground development drives (2000) 1,100 m/month
ently achieve high levels of productivity Producing stopes each month (2000) 24
and availability at a minimal cost. The Average stope size (2000) 300,000 tonne
Simba rigs are predominantly used to
Average stope production rate (2000) 30,000 tonne/month
drill downhole production blast holes
for the stopes. Their average mechani- Average stope production time Ten months

cal availability is 88-92%, and they drill Average stope filling time One month
between 8,629 m and 9,359 m/month. Average stope fill curing time Three months
Drill-and-blast methods are also used Copper production (2002) 178,523 tonne
for main drive developments, and for
Uranium Oxide production (2002) 2,890 tonne
roof bolting as necessary, or in the
rehabilitation of old mining areas re- Gold production (2002) 64,289 oz

entered. Silver production (2002) 643,975 oz

underground mining methods 113

 Woomera, south australia

More expansion ahead

The Optimisation Phase 3 expansion
Intake Raise
programme was carried out over three
years to 2006, looking at mining fac-
tors such as: loader performance; stope
Intake Raise
design; fragmentation and productivity;
rail haulage reliability and interfaces;
Exhaust Raise

and exploration to improve ore quality

and optimize infrastructure.
Studies of options for further expan-
Slot Raise sions to Olympic Dam’s operations are
Internal
Exhaust Raise underway in 2007, due to exploration
work indicating that the orebody will
support a doubling of output. This will
Ore Pass
help meet future long-term global de-
mand, which has expanded significantly
over the past few years. An open pit mine
Intake air is the current preferred option to achieve
Exhaust air
the proposed capacity increase because
of the scale of the orebody. However,
a two-year prefeasibility study includes
the examination of a broad range of al-
ternatives, with expansion planning
Typical stope ventilation flow layout.
split into five key stages to be carried
out over a 7-year period to production
Load-haul-dump (LHDs), wheel so the general rock mass condition can ramp-up.
loaders and a trucking fleet, as well as be regarded as ‘massive’. Jointing is also
the automated rail haulage system, make uncommon, but some faults have been Acknowledgements
up transport system at the mine. The rail identified. The most significant have
system transports ore from surge bins sericite filling of <10 mm size. Conti- Atlas Copco is grateful to BHP Billiton
to an underground crusher. A computer nuous natural structures that may reduce and the management at Olympic Dam
located in a central control room con- excavation predictability are increasing- mine for their kind assistance in the
trols all operations. After crushing to ly being digitized for further analysis. preparation of this article.
around 150 mm, ore is hauled in 36 t A new process is being used to transfer
skip buckets to the surface ore-blending geological data to 3-D digital models.
stockpile for processing. The mine development schedule in-
cludes the sequencing of stope develop-
Mine planning ment, but is also based on a combination
of copper and uranium grades, copper/
Extensive site investigation, analysis of sulphide ratio, ventilation, and orepass
rock properties, and computerized plan- use. Ventilation is particularly impor-
ning and control procedures aid mine tant, as current underground mining
management in the most efficient ex- practices are primarily governed by suf-
ploitation of reserves. The programmes ficient ventilation resources to handle
are discussed at meetings with relevant radon. Other air contaminants are heat,
line managers to be agreed or modified, diesel fumes and dust. Each ventilation
before implementation. district, including its own intake and ex-
As geotechnical conditions are so im- haust (return) air routes, has the capac-
portant for stope stability, the materials ity to operate two to four producing
properties of the intact rock have been stopes at a time.
determined from more than 200 labora- A five-year production schedule is
tory tests. A three-dimensional model evolved in a spreadsheet format using
of estimated Uniaxial Compressive the area stoping sequence. This is used
Strength (UCS) has been developed as the basis for scheduling other mine
for the resource area. Evaluation of activities. The operations department
drill core logs indicates that the mean carries out short-term scheduling on a
structural spacing is greater than 6 m, three-month rolling basis.

114 underground mining methods