Mine Planning 332/532:

309995/12585

WASM Mining Engineering

Quiz 1, Semester 2, 2012

Attendance Mode:

309995 Internal Only

12585 Internal/External

Centre(s):

Kalgoorlie Campus/Bentley Campus/External Supervised

Date: Monday, August 13, 2012

Duration: 1 Hour
Start @ 12:30pm, Reading Time: 10 minutes, End @ 1:40pm
External Supervisors for EXTERNAL STUDENTS must submit
scanned copy of the quiz no later than 1:55pm (i) by email
(waqar.asad@curtin.edu.au) or a copy by fax to +61 8 9088
6151, and (ii) hard original copy by mail to Dr. Mohammad
Waqar ASAD at WASM Mining, Locked Bag 30, Kalgoorlie WA
6433, Australia.
Total Marks: 50 (Weight towards final grade = 10%)
Calculator: Yes

CLOSED BOOK
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
Possession or use of:
Mobile phones or any device of communication is prohibited during examinations.
Electronic Organizers/PDAs (except calculators) or other devices capable of storing text or restricted
information are prohibited during examination.
Calculators: only university/department approved may be used during examination. Prior to
commencement of examination, calculators will be checked for compliance by the examiner.
Any breach of examination regulations will be considered cheating and appropriate action will be
taken in accordance with university policy.

Student Name: _______________________

Student Signature: ________________

Supervisor Name: ____________________

Supervisor Signature: ______________

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Mine Planning 332/532:

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Topic: Mine planning process:
1. (Marks = 3) Long-term mine planning refers to:
a. Pushback design.
b. Strategic planning that looks into all aspects from establishing resources and
reserves to project closure.
c. Ultimate pit limit design using floating cone algorithm.
2. (Marks = 3) A conceptual study utilizes limited exploration data and its outcome justifies
the potential financial worth of the project without conducting detailed feasibility
studies.
a. True.
b. False.
3. (Marks = 3) A technical risk in an underground coal mining operation includes:
a. Change in coal price and transportation cost to port facilities.
b. Change in quality of coal to an unacceptable limit.
c. Performance of coal shearer below designed rate.
4. (Marks 3) Owing to the material handling costs and an opportunity to increase the life of
operation, a mining company is looking into the possibility of switching its open pit
mining operation to an underground operation. Since, the company has more than 15
years experience working in open pit environment; the development of short-term plan
would be sufficient to accomplish this objective.
a. True.
b. False.
Topic: Block economic values
5. (Marks 3) Given a block grade of 0.43% Cu and mill recovery of 79%, what is the quantity
(kg per tonne of ore) of Cu recovered by mill?
a. 3.397 kg/t.
b. 340 kg/t.
c. 33970 kg/t.

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Net Value
($/tonne)

(0.43, 3)

Figure 1:

Cu (%)
(0.25, -2)

6. (Marks 3.5) Given the NV-grade curve in Figure 1, what is the net value of a block with
grade = 0.34%.
a. $2.00/t.
b. $3.5/t.
c. $0.51/t.

Establish a straight line equation. Given, grade = x = 0.34%, net value = $0.51/t.

7. (Marks 3.5) Given the NV-grade curve in Figure 1, what is the breakeven cutoff grade?
a. 3.105%.
b. 0.322%.
c. 0.53%.

Given net value = y = 0, g = 0.322%.

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Topic: Open pit optimization
8. (Marks 3.5) Given the ore body model in Figure 2, the cutoff grade is 0.45% and each
block contains 1000 tonnes of material. If all blocks are inside the pit, what is the
stripping ratio?
0.23
Figure 2:

1.24

0.29

0.05

0.12

0.25

0.54

1.23

2.14

0.45

0.06

2.51

1.36

0.84

0.65

a. 2.14.
b. 0.67.
c. 2.63.
9. (Marks 2) Problems associated to Floating Cone Algorithm include:
a. It honours the time value of money.
b. It does not allow mutual support among ore blocks.
c. It ensures optimal solution.
d. All of the above.
10. (Marks 3.5) Given the tableau for Whittle 2D in Figure 3, assign arrows to blocks located
at (row i=1, column j=4) and (row i=2, column j=4).
Figure 3:
i

-1

-1

-1

-1

-1

-1

-4

-4

-4

-1

-7

2
3

-1+3 = 2

-4+4 = 0

Production scheduling and Whittle:

11. (Marks 2) Ultimate pit limit design identifies the extent of extraction.
12. (Marks 3) An increase in price of metal results in increase (decrease) in the number of
ore (waste) blocks, thus increases the size of the pit.
13. (Marks 3) Given the range of revenue factors from 0.25 to 2.00 at a step size of 0.025
generates 70 pit shells.
Range = (2.00-0.25) 0.025 = 70.

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14. (Marks 2) Open pit production scheduling maximizes the undiscounted future cash flows
and satisfies slope, mining, and processing capacity constraints.
a. True.
b. False.
15. (Marks 2) The worst case schedule mines each bench completely before starting the
next bench. Thus it allows mining from multiple pushbacks simultaneously.
a. True.
b. False.
16. (Marks 2) Given the schedule in Figure 4, if minimum and maximum mining rates are
40,000,000 tonnes and 140,000,000 tonnes, respectively, how would you deal with
these two extremes in terms of mining capacity utilization? Your response may not
exceed two lines.

Figure 4:

Extreme stripping in initial years may be contracted out. This will allow smooth mining
capacity during life of operation.
17. (Marks 5) Compare schedules in Figures 4 and 5:
a. What is common in both schedules?
Milling rate.

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b. Which one promises higher NPV and why?
Figure 5, deferred stripping.

c. Which one is better in terms of capital cost and why?

Figure 5, less mining capacity 120,000,000 MT < 140,000,000 MT.

Figure 5:

Good Luck.

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