ULTIMATE PIT DESIGN USING SURPAC

MENTORED BY:- KASHINATH PALASST. PROFFESOR, DEPARTMENT OF MINING ENGINEERING,INDIAN SCHOOL OF MINES,DHANBAD (Signature with date)

PREPARED BY:- BISHAL Admn. No: - 2010JE0501 10TH SEMESTER, DUAL DEGREE (MINING ENGINEERING)

Department of Mining Engineering Indian School Of Mines,Dhanbad

CERTIFICATEThis is certify that the thesis entitled Ultimate Pit design using Gemcom Surpac submitted by Mr.Bishal (Admission No-2010je0501) in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Master of Technology Degree in Mining Engineering at Indian School of Mines,Dhanbad is an authentic work carried out by him under my supervision and guidance.To the best of my knowledge, the matter embodied in the thesis has not been submitted to anyother university/ Institute for award of any Degree.

Kashinath PAL Assistant Professor ISM,Dhanbad

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to record my indebtedness and gratitude to my mentor K.Pal, Assistant Professor,Department of Mining Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad for their constant guidance untiring encouragement and suggestion in conducting out this project work. It is indeed a great pleasure to work under them. I am especially thankful to ISM library, department lab and for extending their help in my project work.

DATE:-15/04/2015 BISHAL

ABSTRACT

In this developing world, the demand for raw materials is increasing at a steady rate, in order to bridge the gap between supply and demand, technological advancement and automation in production method is needed. Since the raw materials are non-replenishable in nature and have took millions of years in their formation, so these resources should be judiciously used with maximum extraction level and aiming for zero mining waste, while adhering to all safety and regulatory norms.

In this project, an effort have been made to estimate the resource using Surpac software for ore modeling ,shape of Pit and Ultimate Pit could be designed.Computer aided methods have become mandatory in the design of open-pitmining projects. Planning and extraction sequence software has lagged behind in terms of development, as these were often modules of existing mine design software and were not given attention when designing newer versions and upgrades to the full package. A fundamental aspect in the development of any open-pit mining project is the determination of the mineable reserves and the respective design of the ultimate pit limits. The design of the ultimate pit is of prime importance for practical open pit mining as is evident from the worldwide attention it has been receiving in the past decades. All major mining software offer some version of pit limits design packages among their services. The drill-hole information and the topographic map are used to get the realistic geological information about the reserve.Keywords : Open pit mine, Planning ,reserve estimation

TABLE OF FIGURES

TABLE OF CONTENTSr. No Description Page no. CERTIFICATE I ACKNOWLEDGEMENT II ABSTRACT III CONTENTS IV LIST OF FIGURES V CHAPTERS1.0 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1BACKGROUND STUDY 1.2OBJECTIVE 1.3 SCOPE OF WORK2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION3.0 STUDY AREA 3.1 INTRODUCTION 3.2 OBJECTIVE 3.3 SCOPE OF WORK4.0 RESULT & DISCUSSION5.0 CONCLUSION6.0 FUTURE WORK REFERENCES

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUNDThe magnanimous growth and ever increasing demand of finished products have pressurized the mother industry (mining) to supply raw materials to meet the increased demand for growth and sustainable development of the society. These materials can be extracted from the earth crust by any of the two methods of mining i.e., surface mining methods and underground mining methods. Surface mining operations can be classified into open pit, opencast, strip, alluvial andin-situ mining, depending on method of mining being considered (1),(9)Hartman, 1987). Open-pit mining is a method of developing and exploiting the deposit by making a void in the surface, also known as pit and developing it sequentially to extract the ores. It starts off with a small pit and gradually develops with the lapse of time in a pre-planned manner to take the final shape of pit called as ultimate pit which includes the initial void by which the deposit was attacked.Opencast mining is the advancement in the open pit mining methods, developed due to the acute shortage of granted lease hold area where the overburden can be piled for future reclamation purposes. In open-cast mining method, after all the ores in a particular area have been mined the overburden materials are dumped in-pit in those extracted area instead of dumping it in overburden pile within the lease hold area outside the pit. This has proved to be cost effective and acquires lesser land area and continuous reclamation work is also ensured. At presentopencast mining has larger share of total ore production in India, owing to the technological advancement due to availability of heavy earth moving machines (HEMMs) which has increased the rate of production while ensuring safety and requires lesser manpower. The increased rate of operation facilitates lesser development time.

1.2 OBJECTIVE

A fundamental aspect in the development of any open-pit mining project is the determination of the mineable reserves and the respective design of the ultimate pit limits. The design of the ultimate pit is of prime importance for practical open pit mining as is evident from the worldwide attention it has been receiving in the past decades. All major mining software offer some version of pit limits design packages among their services. The drill-hole information and the topographic map are used to get the realistic geological information about the reserve.

In this paper, at first, the Surpac software, applied over the data of Iron ore deposit, will be introduced. As the current cut-off grade could be reduced to 50 % by using advanced beneficiation technologies like enhanced gravity separator like Falcon, Knelson concentrator ,etc. The block modeling of the ore deposit(at 50% cut-off) was done using a geological database of ____ diamond core samples. Finally, the ultimate pit limits of the deposit were determined and the design of the ultimate pit presented.

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF PROJECT

Manual method of open pit mine planning and design require tedious work by planning team in order to define ore boundaries, defining mine configurations in sections based on available economic and technical information. This method was labor intensive, prone to error and time consuming, moreover it cannot be applied to large open pit mines with millions of blocks. Hence, it was one of the most important topics for researchers.Last 40 years have seen a tremendous advancement in the field of computer application and numerical modeling and its increased use in mining industry. With the evolvement of new softwares incorporating geostatistics based modeling of pit like solid modeling, 3D block modeling(4),(6), etc. and development of various pit design softwares like Surpac,whittle,etc have helped mine planners in developing mine plans which are accurate and reliable. Benefit of using these softwares are that they are simple to formulate and use, requires lesser computational time and are user friendly, i.e. they can be customized as per users need and can incorporate real time complexities like mining constraints, working slope angle, etc. With the advancements in pit design softwares even low grade deposits can be mined successfully which earlier was not possible. 1.4 SCOPE OF WORKWith the gradual technological developments mining industry is seeking for -- automation of their operations in order to meet the increased demand from society. --The project aims at providing an insight of how softwares can be helpful in reserve determination and can be beneficial in Ultimate pit design. --Use of software has made calculations easy for various parameters like calculations related reserve estimation, etc. --This can be helpful to top management people as resources can be easily modeled and are easy to view and analyze and hence steps can be taken for ensuring steady production.

2. LITEARTURE REVIEW

2.0 INTRODUCTION An extensive literature review was carried out to find various approaches which researchers have used in past in field of Ultimate pit design in open cast mines .In this thesis, developments in the field of Ultimate pit design using Surpac software has been widely reviewed. Sevim & Lei 1998, developed a method which had the capability to determine cut-off grade, mining and processing rate, mining sequence, mine life and the ultimate pit limit design.

Ronson 2001, has done an extensive study on various software available for open pit mine planning and scheduling. He had made an attempt in outlining the various modules available for particular work and had also made a comparative study on which module of particular software is user friendly and easy to learn and the accuracy of results obtained from them. A detailed review of mining softwares is available like, Minex, Vulcan, Surpac,etc.

Sattarvand & Delius 2008, in their paper have made an effort to bring up the various metaheuristic optimization methods in open pit production planning.By this we understand the other methods used.

Achireko & Frimpong 1996, proposed an algorithm which can utilize the random field properties associated with grade of ore, product price, etc. They classify blocks into classes on the basis of their conditioned value after modeling block characteristic to optimize the ultimate pit limit by minimizing desired errors in multiplayer perception under pit wall slope constraints.

Dowd. P.A, Optimal open pit design; sensitivity to estimate block values.. Public. Mineral Resource Evaluation II, methods and case histories, vol. 79. p. 87-94, Geological Society Sp Editor's: M.K.G. Whateley and P.K. Harvey. 1994 New York. This helps in estimating the block size which can help in estimating the total production blocks in the reserves.

Dowd. P.A, Onur. A.H, Open-pit optimization - part1: optimal open-pit design. Trans. Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, section A: Mining Industry, vol. 102, 1993, p. A95-104, New York.

Roberto Rodrigues Costa. Mining project. Textbook in Portuguese. Federal University of Ouro Preto. UFOP. Brazil. Vol.2. p. 186, Ouro Preto (MG), Brazil

Willian Hustrulid and Mark Kuchta, Open pit mine planning & design;. Colorado School of Mines, vol. 1 Fundamentals. 636 p., Colorado, 2006.

Maptek site: http://www.maptek.com/products/vulcan/index.html eletronic acces

Neme M. B, CURI A, SILVA, J. M and CARNEIRO A. C. B, Underground mine design using specific softwares. Rem: Rev. Esc. Minas [online]. 2011, vol.64, n.4, pp. 519-524. ISSN 0370-4467. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0370-44672011000500019

Ken Allen TS17.2 Open Pit Mine Scheduling A Case Study at Bogoso Gold Limited.It helps in understanding the use of Surpac for the opencast Gold mine using drillhole data and collar coordinates.

Willian Hustrulid and Mark Kuchta, Open pit mine planning & design;. Colorado School of Mines, vol. 1 Fundamentals. 636 p., Colorado, 2006 . It gives the steps that were generally used to create a block model for a mine to evaluate the mineral reserves. Create a file containing the collar coordinates of the exploration drill holes, the hole directions and the assay values along the hole lengths. Create a surface topography and plot the locations of the drill holes. Plot vertical sections through lines of drill holes in order to examine probable pit location. Choose the size and position of the blocks and the model grid.

3.0 STUDY AREA

3.1 INTRODUCTIONA fundamental aspect in the development of any open-pit mining project is the determination of the mineable reserves and the respective design of the ultimate pit limits. The design of the ultimate pit is of prime importance for practical open pit mining as is evident from the worldwide attention it has been receiving in the past decades. All major mining software offer some version of pit limits design packages among their services. The drill-hole information and the topographic map are used to get the realistic geological information about the reserve.

In this paper, at first, the Surpac software, applied over the data of Iron ore deposit, will be introduced. As the current cut-off grade could be reduced to 50 % by using advanced beneficiation technologies like enhanced gravity separator like Falcon, Knelson concentrator ,etc. The block modeling of the ore deposit(at 50% cut-off) was done using a geological database of ____ diamond core samples. Finally, the ultimate pit limits of the deposit were determined and the design of the ultimate pit presented.

Geology and other featuresThe rock formation containing iron ore deposits of Noamundi belong to the series of Dharwarian age. The principle ore is Hematite consisting of hard ore,soft ore,friable flaky ore and natural fines commonly known as blue dust.STRTIGRAPHIC ORDER (TOP) LATERITE ------- SOFT ORE ------- HARD ORE ------- FLAKY ORE ------- BLUE DUST -------- (BOTTOM)BANDED HEMATITE JASPER ------

Introduction to SURPAC:- Surpac is the worlds most popular geology and mine planning software, supporting open pit and underground operations and exploration projects in more than 110 countries. The software delivers efficiency and accuracy through ease-of-use, powerful 3D graphics and workflow automation that can be aligned to company-specific processes and data flows. Surpac addresses all the requirements of geologists, surveyors, and mining engineers in the resource sector and is flexible enough to be suitable for every commodity, ore body and mining method. Its multilingual capabilities allow global companies to support a common solution across their operations.SURPAC Benefits:- Comprehensive tools include: drill hole data management, geological modelling, block modelling, geostatistics, mine design, mine planning, resource estimation, and more. Increased efficiencies within teams result from better sharing of data, skills and project knowledge. All tasks in Surpac can be automated and aligned to company-specific processes and data flows. Software ease-of-use ensures staff develops an understanding of the system and of project data quickly. Surpac is modular and easily customised. Surpac reduces data duplication by connecting to relational databases and interfacing with common file formats from GIS, CAD and other systems.SURPAC Functionality:-Geological database Creating a geological database Displaying drillholes Adding styles to geological patterns Creation of drillhole layout CREATING SURFACE DTM COMPOSITING CREATING SECTIONS DIGITISING SECTIONS

SOLID MODELLING TRIANGULATION VALIDATION MAKING SOLID

BLOCK MODEL CREATING A BLOCK MODEL DISPLAYING A BLOCK MODEL ADDING CONSTRAINT TO BLOCK MODEL ADDING ATTRIBUTES TO BLOCK MODEL BLOCK MODEL REPORT

ULTIMATE PIT DESIGNING DIVIDE THE BLOCK MODEL IN DIFFERENT LEVELS BOTTOM LAYER PAN IS CREATED BENCH IS CREATED EXPAND THE BENCH VERTICALLY AND LATERALLY

Basic procedures:-- Surpac GUI String Concept DTM Concept&Application-Conturing Survey Database Geological Database&its application Solid Model Block Model&Slice Plan Pit Desin

SURPAC DATA TYPES DATA TYPEEXTENSION

String file .str

DTM file .dtm

Geological database .ddb

Survey database .sdb

Block Model .mdl

Plot file .dwf

Macros file .tcl

Plug inns file .dxf(Auto CAD)

Style .SSI

Methodology Introductry work flow:-

Lab/field work carried out We get data from Tata Noamundi iron ore opencast project Assay value Collar value Geology Survey data In lab we use surpac to make the Ultimate pit design Analysis of investigation After arranging the raw data and making pit design we analyse it to get: Optimum place to start box cut to exploit the area get extend and design of benches and ramp needed to extract the ore extend of mining area to be leased

STRING Concept:-

The most common file format used for storing information in Surpac is a String file. A string file contains coordinate information for one or more points, as well as optional descriptive information for each point. A string file can store up to 100 descriptions for a single point and can take 626 letters for each description

STRING HIERARCHY :-

Points > Segments > String

All points in a string file are grouped into segments, which are further grouped into strings.

IMPORTING OF FILE TO SURPAC :-Surpac does not accept excel/word (raw data) files so the raw data should be converted to the formats acceptable. Ex: .csv Go to :- 1) save as 2) In save as type option select CSV (comma delimited)

There are 2 ways of importing a .csv file namely:

1) Data from one file: All points are connected or stored in one string number/file. So one cant differentiate between different land features like pit and boundary will appear same. 2) Data from many file: points are already specified a particular string number, hence different features are connected via different string.

CREATING A FILE There are two ways to create a file in surpac: 1) With information: If co-ordinates of points, angle with some reference lineetc. is correctly known, and is used to create file.

2) Without information: when points, lines are created randomly by cursor selection.

TO DISPLAY STRING/SEGMENT/POINT NUMBERS:

TO CREATE A NEW STRING WITHIN A LAYER

Go to :- create >> Digitise >> properties >> window pops up.

Change the string number to get a new string, now work is stored in the specified string observable from the change in string color.

IMPORTING DATA(ADVANCE/FULL PROCESS):- Go to file >> select it and save it in .csv format to the working directory >> right click on the working directory folder and refresh to get the .csv file. Importing for making a string file File >> import >> data from one file/data from many file >> window pops.

DIGITAL TERRAIN MODEL (DTM)

DTM CONCEPT:- A DTM surface is a set of triangles which represent a surface To create a DTM a relative string file is must Even to view a DTM in Surpac window its string file must exist Any editing in the string file after making DTM results loosing the DTM, the DTM is to be created again

DTM DEPENDENCIES:-

DTM:-

4. RESULT AND DISCUSSION4.0 INTRODUCTIONThe study has been carried out based on the borehole data available from an opencast iron ore mine under the TISCO at Noamundi.It is located in west Singhbhum district of Jharkhand at a distance of 125 km from the steel city of Jamshedpur.It has best quality iron ores in the country.The place is connected to Jamshedpur both by train and road routes.Details of the area Total lease hold area 1160.6 hectareAccording to the generally accepted concept, the iron ore body was formed by secondary process of leaching and enrichment of iron bearing rocks under certain structural and meteorological controls. This process has also produced different ore types of varying physical, textural and chemical compositions. The ore body occurs as capping of various spread and thickness over several prominent hills, generally following strikes of country rocks.The rock formation containing iron ore deposits of the Noamundi belong to the iron ore series of Dharwarian age.The principal ore is Hematite consisting of hard ore,soft ore,friable flaky ore and natural fines commonly known as blue dust.The deposit spread over and area of 11.6 sq. km.It is distributed in two ridges namely Eastern and western ridges separated by a natural stream,majority iron ore resources of about 170 MT is concentrated in the eastern ridge.

Principal types of iron ores met in the area areFrom TOP: 1.LATERITE 2.HARD ORE 3. SOFT ORE 4. FLAKY ORE 5. BLUE DUST 6. BANDED JASPER HEMATITE

4.2 OBJECTIVEIn last twenty years importance is slowly tilting towards slime beneficiation and in addition to the traditional methods of processing, enhanced gravity separators (EGS) such as Falcon,Knelson concentrator are also being experimented with to beneficiate the Slimes. Now a days novel method of beneficing iron ore slime is used via magnetic and gravity method of separation.The current CUT-off grade is 58% but using these technologies the cut-off grade could be reduced to upto 50%..This project determine the Ultimate Pit Design using 50% as the cut-off grade.WORKFLOW:-

Two methods: -

1) GRAPHICS BASED METHOD (You must display your string file on the graphics; DTM is displayed as soon as it is being created)

2) FILE BASED METHOD

(String file need not to be displayed on the screen, DTM is formed and saved into a file; one has the opportunity to declare Spot Heights, Break Lines)

Digitize a boundary inside dtm edge

1st dtm > initial 2nd dtm > final Boundary string > saved layer Click detailed report Report by elevation > give range Apply

We select the different sections and digitise the ore above cutoff grade

solids triangulate between segments select the adjacent segmentsand they get triangulated Block modelling To visualize the possibility of a deposit & in order to get a detailed estimation on the basis of smallest possible block block model is prepared By a rule of thumb minimum size of a block should not be less than average drill hole interval , height of a block is generally kept as the preferred bench heightAdd constraint to the block model

PIT DESIGNING Sections can be made along the constrained block at regular vertical spacings, here 10 m. These sections help in getting a better visualization of the variation of grade along the orebody & pit can be designed easily by extending the digitised ore in vertical direction . block model sections create select normal to z axis in section type give section range from block model summary report apply give a location where slices to be formed get saved check constrain model define fe in model attribute apply select constraint in type select constraint of ore apply Without Mine Ramps : Digitise the bottom slice in a new layer delete the layer containing sliceSlice 531.027 m rl

give a bench height , 10 here direction of expansion apply It is to be remembered that the segment will expand upwards forming a bench only if the digitised segment is clockwise in direction , even if we give up in direction but segment drawn is anticlockwise in nature , the bench will be expanded upwards but with inward slope wrt digitised segment . Oncewhen the segment is heightened with bench height , it is expanded along berms as .. design expand segment by berm width

To get the pit from string file formed by digitized segments , surfaces dtm file function from stringfile select the saved file apply The following dtm surface was formed

CONCLUSIONThere is no doubt that the 20th century has witnessed a real revolution in computer technology and the mining industry has had its fair share. This has led to a sophistication in mine planning tools resulting in greater confidence level in planning results.With mining operations becoming ever more complex and costly, the use of sophisticated methods/tools to accurately predict the strengths, weaknesses and risks of a particular operation cannot be over-emphasised.The ore body modeling is done using Surpac and the geological database, solid model and constraint block models was developed using Surpac. Owing to the flexibility, that Surpac data can be used in any other software a detail analysis of the constraint block model created in Surpac.Using 50% cut-off grade,the Ultimate Pit is designed using Surpac software.The mining parameters are set based on experience and reference journals and mine-specific geo-mechanics parameters.The ultimate Pit design help in excavating more reserves efficiently.The proper planning and scheduling could be done.The required rate of production and mine life could be calculated based on our requirement.

REFERENCES

4 Achireko & Frimpong 1996, proposed an algorithm which can utilize the random field properties associated with grade of ore,etc. They classify blocks into classes on the basis of their conditioned value after modeling block characteristic to optimize the ultimate pit limit by minimizing desired errors in multiplayer perception under pit wall slope constraints.

(5) Dowd. P.A, Optimal open pit design; sensitivity to estimate block values.. Public. Mineral Resource Evaluation II, methods and case histories, vol. 79. p. 87-94, Geological Society Sp Editor's:.

(7) Dowd. P.A, Onur. A.H, Open-pit optimization - part1: optimal open-pit design. Trans. Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, section A: Mining Industry, vol. 102, 1993, p. A95-104, New York.12) Ken Allen TS17.2 Open Pit Mine Scheduling A Case Study at Bogoso Gold Limited.It helps in understanding the use of Surpac for the opencast Gold mine using drillhole data and collar coordinates. (6) M.K.G. Whateley and P.K. Harvey. 1994 New York. This helps in estimating the block size which can help in estimating the total production blocks in the reserves(10) Maptek site: http://www.maptek.com/products/surpac/index.html eletronic acces

(11) Neme M. B, CURI A, SILVA, J. M and CARNEIRO A. C. B, Underground mine design using specific softwares. Rem: Rev. Esc. Minas [online]. 2011, vol.64, n.4, pp. 519-524. ISSN 0370-4467. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0370-44672011000500019

(8) Roberto Rodrigues Costa. Mining project. Textbook in Portuguese. Federal University of Ouro Preto. UFOP. Brazil. Vol.2. p. 186, Ouro Preto (MG), Brazil

(2) Ronson 2001, has done an extensive study on various software available for open pit mine planning and scheduling. He had made an attempt in outlining the various modules available for particular work and had also made a comparative study on which module of particular software is user friendly and easy to learn and the accuracy of results obtained from them. A detailed review of mining softwares is available like, Minex,Vulcan, Surpac, etc.

(3) Sattarvand & Delius 2008, in their paper have made an effort to bring up the various metaheuristic optimization methods in open pit production planning.By this we understand the other methods used.(1)Sevim & Lei 1998, developed a method which had the capability to determine cut-off grade, mining and processing rate, mining sequence, mine life and the ultimate pit limit design.

(9) Willian Hustrulid and Mark Kuchta, Open pit mine planning & design;. Colorado School of Mines, vol. 1 Fundamentals. 636 p., Colorado, 2006.

Database Data Extent Report Nov 13, 2014

Database: upd_aryanNumber of drillholes :54 Total length drilled :2525.00

Hole Id Northing Easting Elevation Depth --------------------------------------------------------------MIN. NORTHING SMG1202 766.000 640.000 593.652 17.000 MAX. NORTHING SMG0002 1739.503 895.269 572.584 45.000 MIN. EASTING SMG0804 1078.764 380.502 580.268 34.000 MAX. EASTING SMG0706 1183.441 1067.030 574.950 50.000 MIN. ELEVATION SMG1104 838.343 840.924 568.440 21.000 MAX. ELEVATION SMG0301 1485.283 708.820 629.557 25.000 MIN. DEPTH SMG1101 842.389 480.528 599.631 16.000 MAX. DEPTH SMG0805 1083.163 664.546 611.000 77.000 Page 1 of 1