Case Study

Resue Mining with eDev™ Electronic Tunnelling

System
Stawell Gold Mine (SGM)

Site Profile spent at the face with the use of conventional

pyrotechnic delays.
Stawell Gold Mine (SGM) is an underground mining
operation located in Victoria, Australia. The mining Prove that aside from segregating ore and waste,
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method employed is long hole retreat stoping, utilising the use of eDev will result in improved advance
up and down holes with artificial concrete pillars. rates and perimeter profile.
Stawell is currently mining the Golden Gift and
Magdala orebodies.
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Conventional pyrotechnic Exel Long Period Delays
are utilised to blast and advance development
headings.

The Situation
The use of pyrotechnic initiation for development
drives similar to Figure 1 results in broken rock of
combined ore and waste thrown approximately 10
metres from the face and all material hauled to the
surface for milling. This reduces the development ore
grade by an average of 40%.
Figure 1 showing waste and ore boundary for the 1335
TM
heading fired with eDev . SGM’s normal drilling pattern was
Technical Solutions used.
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The introduction of eDev Electronic Tunnelling
The Result
System and applying Orica development drill and blast
know how such as; Firing order adopted a spiralling technique to the left
resulting in a concentration of the broken rock on the
Locating the burn into the more dominant
left side of the drive.
rockmass of the face to enable a further throw.
Program the blast to fire slowly whilst creating the
initial void then very fast on the area to be thrown.
The shot is then paused and the section to be
heaved at the face is fired slowly. Adoption of a
spiraling method of firing that has been proven to
result in better rock pile shape.
Involvement of geologists to map out the face and
evaluate results to clearly identify the boundary
between ore and waste to guide loader operators.
Enhancing the drilling pattern to allow for flexibility
of timing to allow throw firing.
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Showing the user friendly eDev system will be at Figure 2 showing blast result in cross section
least as fast to load and program as the time

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www.oricaminingservices.com | Document reference: 100060
Case Study
Resue Mining with eDev™ Electronic Tunnelling
System
Stawell Gold Mine (SGM)

Figure 3 longitudinal section of the blast. The wall was painted by a Geologist to indicate the ore/waste boundary.
Figure 1
Grab samples revealed 7grams gold/tonne of ore ™
• Fragmentation with eDev fired faces had been
removed and mullock removed at 0.19grams recognised by loader operators to be fine and
gold/tonne. This agrees with the predicted ore/waste uniform resulting in ease of bogging/mucking.
split. This is an increase in grade of more than 40%.
• Resistance to change that is normal for new
product introduction was hardly felt and positive
Demonstrated Benefits feedback from the shotfirers was noted especially
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• Ore and waste separation can be achieved after operating the eDev system.
improving ore recovery at the headings.
• No split firing steps required.
• Butts were measured on the faces fired with
pyrotechnic delays. The butts measured ranged • 40% increase in head grade is achievable. The
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from 200mm to 300mm. eDev fired faces are
above figures would have resulted in an over-all
coming out to be flatter and measurement of butts
revealed a maximum of 100mm on the wall whilst head grade of 3.6grams gold/tonne with the use
no butts can be seen at the centre of the face, ™
of pyrotechnic. Result with eDev showed 50% of
indicating improvement on advance rates. This
™ broken ore hauled to the mill at a grade of 7grams
will be continuously monitored as more eDev
faces are fired. gold/tonne equivalent to 48% increase.

• Perimeter control cannot be substantiated at this • Less milling costs as less low grade ore to mill.
stage as no cavity survey has been undertaken.
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• Time in motion study on the latest eDev face at
1335 revealed a total charging time of thirty Acknowledgements
minutes and a scanning and clipping time of
Orica Mining Services wish to acknowledge Stawell
seventeen minutes for a total of forty seven
Gold and in particular to Chris Hamilton for his support.
minutes. This, according to the shotfirers is
comparable to the time consumed with the use of
conventional pyrotechnic initiation.

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www.oricaminingservices.com | Document reference: 100060