Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Submitted by
Luiz Miguel Porciuncula
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering
Submitted to the
Department of Mining, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
College of Engineering
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
July 2015
Title Pagei
Table of Contents...ii
List of Figures and Tables.....iii
List of Abbreviations.............iv
Introduction. ..........................1
A. The UP DMMME Plant Practice Program...1
B. Apex Mining Company, Inc. Profile1
C. Business and Technical Management...3
Schedule of Training..5
Technical Report7
A. Geology and Exploration..7
B. Production Line8
C. Mill Operations.9
D. Commodities and Support Services..9
Work Experience..10
Assessment of the Company10
References12
Appendix
Page ii of iv
Page iii of iv
List of Abbreviations
AMCI - Apex Mining Company, Incorporated
LHD - Load-Haul-Dump Truck
LPT - Low-Profile Truck
MORE - Monte Oro Resources & Energy, Inc.
MPSA - Mineral Production Sharing Agreement
PPE - Personal Protective Equipment
SAMICO - Samar Mining Company
Page iv of iv
I. Introduction
A. The UP DMMME Plant Practice Program
The Plant Practice Program of the UP Department of Mining, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering (UP
DMMME) is participated in by incoming fifth year mining engineering, metallurgical engineering and materials
engineering students. The students are required to undergo a two-month, in-plant training as a prerequisite for
graduation.
The Plant Practice Program aims to 1) expose the students to the nature of work to be expected in their particular
field of interest; 2) provide a venue for putting into practice the theories and concepts which have been learned;
and 3) update students information on more advance technological equipment and techniques currently practiced
in the industry.
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The ownership is tabulated in Figure 1 and detailed in the companys website; copied here for reference: MOREs
mining interests in the Philippines consist of 100% ownership over Paracale Gold Ltd. which, in turn, fully owns
Coral Resources Philippines, Inc. and 40% of Bulawan Mineral Resources Corporation, both located in the
Municipality of Jose Panganiban, Camarines Norte. MORE has mining interests in other countries consisting of:
(a) 100% shareholding in Minas de Oro Mongol LLC (a Mongolian company) which owns 51% equity in
Erdenejas LLC, a joint venture company holding a mining license in Khar At Uul in Mongolia; (b) 90%
shareholding in Monte Oro Mining Company Ltd., which is engaged in mining exploration in Sierra Leone, and
in MORE Minerals SL which is engaged in artisinal mining and gold trading in Sierra Leone; and (c) 3.92%
participation in National Prosperity Gold Production Group Ltd. which holds mining claims and license from the
government of Myanmar to develop and operate the gold mine located at Moe di-Moe mi Region, Township,
Mandalay Division, Myanmar, known as the Maudi Taung Gold Mine. MORES non-mining businesses consist
of a 52% ownership over International Cleanvironment Systems, Inc., a company engaged in solid waste
management, and a 30% participating interest in Service Contract No. 72 for natural gas in the Sampaguita gas
field offshore northwest of Palawan in the West Philippine Sea. [2]
The acquisition of MORE provided the fuel for the expansion of Apex from a single-mine company to a
multinational business and project manager including several operations in Mongolia and Myanmar. [3]
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The companys head office is located at 3304B Wes Tower PSE Centre, Exchange Road Ortigas Center, Pasig
City.
Page 3 of 12
Page 4 of 12
Section/Division, etc.
Activities
Immediate Supervisor
June 9, 2015
Training Department
Company overview
Memorandum of Agreement
Signing
SDMP Presentation
Community Relations
Department
Environmental
Department
General Services
Department
Apex Clinic
Security Department
Security Induction
HR Department
Issuing of IDs
Safety Department
Safety Induction
PPE issuance
June 12 -13,
2015
Safety Department
Mine Operations
Department
Geology Division
Drilling and Core logging
Page 5 of 12
Geology DivisionExploration
Surface mapping
Compass Traverse
Geology DivisionExploration
Soil Sampling
Mountain trek
Geology Division
Resource Estimation
Geology overview of Apex
Area overview
June 29 July
1, 2015
L 700/720/780 Portals
Area visit
Shotcreting
Page 6 of 12
July 11-12,
2015
Masarita/Barabadan/Fern
Vein Portal
Mine Mechanical
Department
Lecture on mechanical
availability and utilization
July 14-19,
2015
Mine Operations
Department
July 20-23,
2015
Mine Operations
Department
Research Presentation
Training Department,
Safety Department,
Security Department
All concerned
Submission of presentations
Return of PPE
Completion of Clearance
Issuance of Certificate
Page 7 of 12
such as rock types, structure systems (presence of faults, folds, fractures), mineralogy were gathered through daily
mapping activities (surface mapping, underground mapping). These daily mapping activities produced level maps,
sections, geologic face maps and vertical longitudinal maps for underground purposes and area geologic maps
and sections for surface exploration. Outcrop sampling, trench sampling and test pit sampling were performed.
The company has undertaken two drilling activities under the MPSA-225 in 2005 and in 2009. The current drilling
program is a hybrid consisting of in-fill, resource definition and production support drilling. Extension of the 2009
surface and underground drilling activities to further reinforce and verify previous identified alteration systems
was also performed.
As of 2014, exploration was focused on near-mine extensions for the area of MPSA 225. A total of 4 rigs including
two DE-140 rigs, one HFU-3A rig and one Kempe rig were utilized for the underground diamond drilling to
further evaluate the continuity of the veins. A total of 27 holes were completed for the whole year.
B. Production Line
Having a vein type ore body, Apex has different levels of operations measured in meters above sea level. From
the lowest, L530 Masarita Portal, L 545 Barabadan Portal, L590 Maligaya Portal, L700/720/780 Portal, L840/870
Sandy Portal and the Dons Area. The Dons Area particularly Don Calixto Portal and Don Fernando Portal are
operated by contractors as well as the Masarita and Barabadan Portals. The Maligaya Portal is the largest mine
area in Apex and is the main source of production while the Sandy Portal has a target of 250 Tons per day out of
the 800 Tons target of the whole mine operations department per day. Both Maligaya and Sandy portals are
mechanized, mainly using Load-Haul-Dump trucks (LHD) and Low Profile Trucks (LPT) for the ore and waste
handling while the smaller mine areas (eg. Dons area) employ conventional methods using raises, chutes, mine
cars and a railway system to transport the ore.
The Maco gold mine employs both conventional and mechanized methods as stated earlier. Conventional methods
primarily use pneumatic drills, muckers (also called scooptram) and mine cars for their production. Stoping
methods are common; cut and fill and sublevel stoping are most common. The mechanized methods include
longhole stoping, cut and fill stoping, sublevel and shrinkage stoping. The mine generally employs a ramp system
with low-profile trucks (LPT) and Load-Haul-Dump trucks (LHD) to handle the material.
Page 8 of 12
From the stopes, the ore is loaded, hauled and dumped by a Load-Haul-Dump truck (LHD) to a Low-Profile Truck
(LPT) and is brought out of the mine via the ramp. Ore traffic is controlled by a dedicated spotter situated near
the ore yard. Spotters are responsible for ensuring that the material is dumped in the correct stockpile. The ore is
dumped in the designated stockpile for a designated working area while waste is dumped at the designated waste
dump for a specific area. The spotters also sample the stockpiles by grab sampling using a shovel per trip of the
LPT. These samples are brought to the preparatory lab located near the Maligaya Portal before being brought to
the assay lab located at the mill site. The stockpiles are then marked using red and blue flaglets if they are ready
to be hauled to the mill yard. When the stockpiles in the ore yard are ready, dump trucks are used to deliver them
to the mill yard where a spotter is also situated.
The mine operations department classifies the ore as marginal, good or waste. Good ore having a grade of 2 gpt
above, marginal 1-2 gpt and waste having a grade of less than 1gpt. The mine operations send ore according to
the grade required by the mill department and usually uses high grades to dilute the low grades to extend the mine
life.
C. Mill Operations
Transportation of run-of-mine (ROM) from the mine to mill utilizes four to five Volvo dump trucks with capacity
of forty tonnes. Reduction of ore sizes is done using jaw and cone crushers, followed by grinding (ball mill and
rod mill) producing finer products, with desired size of 0.8mm. The material then undergoes thickening before it
is pumped to leaching tanks. It is then subjected to leaching by Carbon-in-Leach (CIL) and Carbon-in-Pulp (CIP)
for the selective extraction of valuable components. The further use of carbon is done to separate the gold and
silver from the liquid solution. Waste as a result of the previous leaching method undergo detoxification before
pumping it to the tailings dam. Further extraction of the metals is employed using an electrolytic extraction process
called electrowinning. Finally, the electrolytic product undergo separation by melting of approximate temperature
of 1,250oC. Dore, which is a non-bank standard gold-silver bar, is the final mineral beneficiation product.
AMCIs milling plant has 900 tonnes per day milling capacity as of December 2014. Several mill upgrades were
decided and employed during the year 2014 which includes the installation of additional 3-ft cone crusher, 1000kW ball mill and cyclones, fine ore bin expansion, rehabilitation-conversion of old conventional thickener to highrate one, upgrading electrical capacity to 9.5 MW and new tailings pumping system and pipe line installation.
In 2014, mill production is composed of bullion containing gold and silver, transported and refined at Metalor
Refinery in Switzerland. By 2015, a Refining and Transportation Agreement between Apex and a Hong Kongbased refiner, Heraeus Limited - was signed.
Page 9 of 12
Page 10 of 12
Accommodations were provided by the company care of Ms. Imelda Timosan, from the General Services
Department. It is located outside the Apex compound, in the heart of the Barrio of Masara. It is a 10-minute walk
from the compound. The house was reasonably clean and weve grown comfortable with our rooms as we ended
the plant practice. It was also safe since the people around us are also employees of Apex. Food was not that a
problem to us since many sari-sari stores are near to us. There were times when we cooked our own food and
times were we just bought complete meals in the stores. Drinking water was delivered every other day or so by
the company. Electricity was a main problem in our house because there was always a rotating brown-out during
the night and we were sometimes forced to do our research inside the Apex compound.
Page 11 of 12
References
[1] Company Profile Apex Mining Company, Inc., accessed March 19, 2016,
http://www.apexmines.com/?page_id=39
[2] Our Company Apex Mining Company, Inc., accessed March 19, 2016,
http://www.apexmines.com/?page_id=10
[3] Apex Mining Company Inc. 2014 Annual Resource Estimate Report. Retrieved from
http://www.apexmines.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/APEX-AR2014-FA06.pdf
Page 12 of 12
Appendix
A. Certificate of Completion
B. Reports/Case Study/Project/Finite Study/Presentation
(Include the technical reports or presentations that you composed during your plant practice. Consider
your NDA when you attach files here)
C. Daily Time Record and Identification Card
D. Training Contract
E. Non-Disclosure Agreement
F. Miscellaneous pictures (Figure F1. Caption)