Method of mining ore
AssigneeTechnological Resources Pty. Limited
InventorAndrew Stokes
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of open cut mining comprising carrying out mining operations in an area of an open cut mine with manned resources and unmanned resources and providing separate access for these resources to the mine area at selected locations. Alternatively, or in addition, the method comprises carrying out mining operations in the mine area with manned resources and unmanned resources operating in selected, separate unmanned and manned zones, respectively within the mine area.
Claims18
A method of open cut mining an ore in a mine with manned resources and unmanned resources, the open cut mine including an area to be mined bounded by a perimeter, the area to be mined having separate unmanned and manned zones within the perimeter, the perimeter including a first manned resource access location including a roadway, the perimeter also including a separate second unmanned resource access location including a roadway, the method including:
- providing access to the unmanned zone for unmanned resources at the first unmanned resource access location in the perimeter, providing separate access to the manned zone for manned resources at the second manned resource access location in the perimeter, carrying out mining operations with manned resources and unmanned resources operating in the separate unmanned and manned zones within the perimeter, and changing the manned and unmanned zones as mining operations progress within the perimeter in response to requirements of the mining operations.
The method defined in 1, wherein the operations in the manned zone comprise any one or more of grading the zone, taking samples of ore in the zone for analysis, and drilling blast holes, charging explosives into the blast holes, and blasting at least a part of the zone to release ore for removal from the mine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.