Assessment of the Rill Cut and Fill Mining system at Prestea Goldfields Limited
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Date
1990
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Abstract
The decline in gold production and increasing cost of mining at the Prestea Goldfield Limited (PGL) has called for the need to find ways and means of increasing productivity. This thesis analyses the current rill cut and fill mining system employed at PGL with the view to either modify this system or replace it with more efficient mining system. Three other alternative applicable mining systems intended to replace the current one namely Horizontal Cut and Fill, Sublevel stopping and Shrinkage mining systems have been selected from geotechnical considerations. Technological and economic appraisal of these alternative systems and the current one has been carried out so as to select the most efficient one. It has been established that where the orebody is and above 1.83m and the orebody and the host rock are competent, the sublevel stopping system (alternative C) is most efficient for PGL. The Preparetional Opening Efficiency of this system is 102.17m3/1000t, development cost per ton is ¢3017.52/t, the efficiency is 47.99t/manshift and the stopping cost per ton is ¢572.32/t. this will reduce the stopping cost per ton by 74.24% and increase the efficiency by 96.8%. Where the orebody width is below 1.83m and the host rocks are not very strong, the Horizontal Cut and Fill mining system will be more applicable
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A thesis submitted to the post graduate professional diploma in mining engineering,