Mining Geology

Prof. Dr. Mohamed A. Rashed

Geology Department
Faculty of Science, Alexandria university
CHAPTER I
Introduction
 Content
Chapter. I
 Introduction
 Mining terminology
 The job of mining geologist
 Stages in the life of a mine
1. Prospecting
2. Exploration
3. Development
4. Exploitation
5. Reclamation
 Unit operations of mining
 Data collection
Chapter II Chapter III
Minerals ores classification MINERAL RESOURCE AND ORE RESERVE
Tabular ore deposits ESTIMATION, GRADE CALCULATIONS
Massive ore deposits Evaluation of Ore Reserve
Vein Ore Reserve Classification
Bocket ore deposit • Proved
Placer deposit • Probable
Classification depend Ferrous and nonferrous Minerals • Possible
Physical and mechanical properties of rocks Factors of evaluation
(A) Physical Properties of rocks • Economic

(1)Specific gravity • Geologic

• Engineering properties
(2) Porosity
Calculation of ore reserve
(3) Permeability
• Tenor
(B) Mechanical Properties of rocks
• Assaying
1. Compressive stress
• Grade:
2. Shearing stress
• Tonnage
3. Tensile stress
Methods of Estimating of ore reserve
4. Modulus of rupture • Geometric Methods
5. Modulus of elasticity = Young’s modulus • Polygonal and Cross-sectional Methods
6. General stress-strain curve for rocks: • Triangular Method
7. Poisson’s ratio • Cut-off grade theory
8. Testing of rocks: Tonnage calculation methods
a) Uniaxial testing of rocks (unconfined test) A. Classical statistical methods
b) Triaxial testing of rocks (confined test or cylinder test B. Conventional methods
CHAPTER I
• Introduction
• Ore is an economic concept. It is defined as a
concentration of minerals that can be exploited and
turned into a saleable product to generate a
financially acceptable profit under existing economic
conditions.
• Sufficient knowledge of the mineral deposit, mining
technology, processing methods, and costs help to
make a feasibility study for develop the prospect into
mine.
Mining Terminology
• Mining Geology: The science, which deals with the application of
earth science to solve the mining and engineering problems. It is
include the study of mineral deposits, their prospecting and
exploration, their exploitation methods and their treatments. The last
stage is known as ore dressing or mineral technology (recently
mineral industry).
• Mine: an excavation made in the earth to extract minerals
• Mining: the extraction (the activity, occupation, and industry
concerned with this extraction) of valuable minerals and other
materials from the ground.
• Mining engineering : the practice of applying engineering principles
to the development, planning, operation, closure, and reclamation of
mines
The Job of Mining Geologist
1) Explore the mineral deposits depending on the geological and mineralogical
studies.
2) Understand & communicate controls on mineralization (mapping).
3) Ensure a representative sample is collected.
4) Accurately model and estimate grade.
5) Tones and grade reconciliation and feedback to exploration and planning of
mine.
6) Design most profitable ore blocks.
7) Help the mining department to improve the mining methods.
8) Help choose sites of the plant and roads, to the building stones deposits and
industrial and drinking water resources.
9) Manage acid mine drainage (AMD) according to best practice to minimize
environmental impact.
Stages in The Life of A Mine
• Mining is composed of five stages:
1. Prospecting
2. Exploration
3. Development
4. Exploitation
5. Reclamation
Prospecting and exploration, precursors to actual mining, are
linked and sometimes combined. Geologists and mining engineers
often share responsibility for these two stages—geologists more
involved with the former, mining engineers more with the latter.
Development and exploitation are closely related stages; they are
usually considered to constitute mining proper and are the main
province of the mining engineer.
Reclamation, closure and reclamation of the mine site has
become a necessary part of the mine life cycle because of the
demands of society for a cleaner environment and stricter laws
regulating the abandonment of a mine. The overall process of
developing a mine with the future uses of the land in mind is termed
sustainable development.
1-Prospecting
• Prospecting, the first stage in the utilization of a
mineral deposit, is the search for ores or other
valuable minerals (coal or non-metallic's). Because
mineral deposits may be located either at or below
the surface of the earth, both direct and indirect
prospecting techniques are employed.
1-Prospecting
The direct method of discovery,
• Normally limited to surface deposits
• Visual examination of either the exposure of the
deposit or the loose fragments that have weathered
away from the outcrop.
• By means of aerial photography, geologic maps, and
structural study of an area. Precise mapping and
structural analysis plus microscopic studies of
samples also enable the geologist to locate the hidden
as well as surface mineralization.
1-Prospecting
The indirect search :
• For hidden mineral deposits.

• Detecting anomalies using physical measurements of

gravitational, seismic, magnetic, electrical, electromagnetic, and
radiometric variables of the earth. The methods are applied from
the air using aircraft and satellites.
• Quantitative analysis of soil, rock, and water samples , and
geobotany.
2-Exploration
• The line of demarcation between prospecting and exploration is not sharp; in fact, a distinction

may not be possible in some cases:

1-Exploration determines as accurately as possible the size and value of a mineral deposit
• Exploration generally shifts to surface and subsurface locations, using a variety of
measurements.

2-to obtain the extent and grade of the ore body.

3-Representative samples may be subjected to chemical, metallurgical, X-ray, spectrographic, or

radiometric evaluation techniques that are meant to enhance the investigator’s knowledge of the
mineral deposit.
• Samples are obtained by chipping outcrops, trenching, tunneling, and drilling; in addition,

borehole logs may be provided to study the geologic and structural makeup of the deposit.
Rotary, percussion, or diamond drills can be used for exploration purposes.
2-Exploration
4-Used to calculate the tonnage and grade, or richness, of the mineral deposit.
5-Estimates the mining costs, evaluates the recovery of the valuable minerals.

6-Determines the environmental costs, and assesses other foreseeable factors

in an effort to reach a conclusion about the profitability of the mineral deposit.
• For an ore deposit, the overall process is called reserve estimation, that is,

the examination and valuation of the ore body. At the conclusion of this stage,
the project is developed, traded to another party, or abandoned
Exploration Drilling
• There are many drilling methods, but three percussion, rotary, and
diamond drill—are by far the most common in exploration work.
• Percussion Drilling In which compressed air drills used in drilling and
blasting have been applied to exploration. Used in collecting small samples
in solid bedrock to a depth of about 10 feet.
• Rotary Drilling are relatively fast and inexpensive to operate in a wide
variety of exploration conditions. Most of the rigs are truck-mounted and
completely self-contained, including the air compressor. Standard tricone bits
drill a hole 4 inches in diameter or larger, and drill cuttings are blown out of
the hole with compressed air. Some geologists object to rotary drilling
because the samples are broken into small chips and fragments where the
structure of the bedrock cannot be seen.
Exploration Drilling
Diamond Drilling providing a
superior core sample for
observation and preliminary
testing. The equipment can drill
at any angle, including upward
from underground stations. The
core passes inside the circular
bit face and is collected in a core
barrel which retains the sample
for removal from the hole. The
material ground up by the
diamond bit is called sludge, and
is carried up around the drill rod
to the surface. The core is
placed in compartmented boxes
and taken to the field office.
3-Development
• The work of opening a mineral deposit for exploitation is

performed.
• Access to the deposit must be gained either:

(1) by stripping the overburden, which is the soil and/or rock

covering the deposit, to expose the near-surface ore for

mining.

(2) by excavating openings from the surface to access more

deeply buried deposits to prepare for underground mining.

3-Development
• acquiring water and mineral rights, buying surface lands,
arranging for financing, and preparing permit applications
and an environmental impact statement (EIS), will
generally be required before any development takes
place.
• When these steps have been achieved, the provision of a
number of requirements access roads, power sources,
mineral transportation systems, mineral processing
facilities, waste disposal areas, offices, and other support
facilities must precede actual mining in most cases.
3-Development
• Stripping of the overburden will then proceed if the minerals are to
be mined at the surface. Economic considerations determine the
stripping ratio, or strip ratio refers to the ratio of the volume
of overburden (or waste material) required to be handled in order to
extract some volume of ore. For example, a 3:1 stripping ratio
means that mining one cubic meter of ore will require mining three
cubic meters of waste
• Development for underground mining is generally more complex
and expensive. It requires careful planning and layout of access
openings for efficient mining, safety, and permanence. The principal
openings may be shafts, slopes, or adits; each must be planned to
allow passage of workers, machines, ore, waste, air, water.
4-Exploitation
• Is associated with the actual recovery of minerals from the earth in

quantity.
• The mining method selected for exploitation is determined mainly

by the characteristics of the mineral deposit and the limits imposed

by safety, technology, environmental concerns, and economics.
• Geologic conditions, such as the dip, shape, and strength of the ore

and the surrounding rock, play a key role in selecting the method.
5-Reclamation
• In planning for the reclamation of any given mine, there are many
concerns that must be addressed.
• The removal of office buildings, processing facilities,
transportation equipment, utilities, and other surface structures
must generally be accomplished
• Any existing high walls or other geologic structures may require
mitigation to prevent injuries or death due to geologic failures.
• Restoration of the land surface, the water quality, and the waste
disposal areas so that long-term water pollution, soil erosion,
dust generation, or vegetation problems do not occur. The
restoration of native plants is often a very important part of this
process, as the plants help build a stable soil structure and
naturalize the area.
Unit Operations of Mining
• The production cycle employs unit operations that are normally

grouped into rock breakage and materials handling. Breakage

generally consists of drilling and blasting, and materials handling
encompasses loading or excavation and haulage (horizontal
transport) and sometimes hoisting (vertical or inclined transport).
Thus, the basic production cycle consists of these unit
operations:

Production cycle = drill + blast + load + haul

Unit Operations of Mining
• In addition to the operations of the production cycle,
certain auxiliary operations must be performed in many
cases. Underground, these usually include roof support,
ventilation and air-conditioning, power supply, pumping,
maintenance, lighting, communications, and delivery of
compressed air, water, and supplies to the working
sections. In surface mining, the primary auxiliary
operations include those providing slope stability,
pumping, power supply, maintenance, waste disposal,
and supply of material to the production centers.
Data collection
There are many kind of data collection but the important is
sampling.
Sampling:-
The sampling is important to the following purposes :-
a) Quality determination of the ore.
b) Estimate the amount of economic and valuable ore minerals.
c) Grade (Tenor) determination of the ore and the chemical composition.
To carry out mineralogical , petrological and geochemical study
for the ore minerals and the structural and textural relationship
between or minerals and country rock.
There are four hand sampling techniques, namely channel,
chip, grab and bulk sampling
Channel sampling
In mineral exploration, a channel is cut in an outcrop, usually
the same diameter as the core being collected, to maintain the
volume– variance relationships. Samples are normally 0.5–5 kg
in weight, mostly 1–2 kg, and each is rarely taken over 2 m or
so in length, but should match the core sample length.
Chip sampling
Chip samples are obtained by collecting rock particles chipped
from a surface, either along a line or over an area. In an
established mine, rock chips from blast holes are sampled
using scoops, channels, or pipes pushed into the heap. Chip
sampling is used also as an inexpensive reconnaissance tool to
see if mineralization is of sufficient interest to warrant the more
expensive channel sampling.
Grab sampling
In this case the samples of mineralized rock are not
taken in place, as are channel and chip samples, but
consist of already broken material. Representative
handfuls or shovelfuls of broken rock are picked at
random at some convenient location and these form
the sample. It is a low cost and rapid method and best
used where the mineralized rock has a low variance
and mineralization and waste break into particles of
about the same size. It is particularly useful as a
means of quality control of mineralization at strategic
sampling points.
Bulk sample
This sample obtained by collecting different samples from
different places and gathering them to make one sample.
There is another type of sample by machine using rotary drill it
can be obtain a core sample.
Data are collected from several sampling programs as
described above, including trenching, pitting, percussion
drilling, reverse circulation drilling, and diamond drilling, as
well as during trial mining. The object of this sampling is to
provide a mineral inventory. Once the mining engineers and
financial analysts have established that the mineral can be
mined at a profit, or in the case of industrial minerals can be
marketed at a profit, it can then be referred to as an ore
reserve.