This educational clip from Flocabulary explains how igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks are formed, how to identify a rock’s type and how the rock cycle can change one type of rock into another. Mine planning is after all about getting the rocks out, so might as well understand them a bit better...

For those of you who weren't able to install Deon's blasting programme on your computer, have a look at his YouTube video. It illustrates what you can expect from the programme, which is a portion of the information from the blasting ticket curriculum, on your very own computer... To install the programme, kindly click on the link below... "https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xD-rPlftR-fHcGAYT2wegI5LVtdCSA_3" Alternatively send Deon a mail: deondupreez079@gmail.com He's a super

The Komatsu PC5500-6 is the ninth biggest hydraulic mining excavator in service, with an operating weight of up to 495t with the shovel attachment. The excavator weighs up to 500t, has 8.6m high cab and an undercarriage that is 9.72m long and 7.54m wide. The excavator’s shovel and backhoe bucket capacity is 29m³. The crowd force and the breakout forces of the shovel are 1,870kN and 1,865kN respectively. The shovel’s maximum digging reach is 16.5m and the breakout and tear out

The board & pillar mining method consists of driving a series of narrow roads, separated by blocks of solid coal, parallel to one another, and connecting them by another set of narrow parallel road ways driven nearly at right angles to the first set. The coal pillars formed are extracted after the development of the mine leasehold and this later stage of extracting coal from pillars is known as depillaring - Mining Funda.

Take control of your career and get empowered by these mine planning courses. Companies want their employees to do the job using software, and this is exactly the exposure you get when you create a mine design and schedule during these courses. For your convenience, there is an online booking facility to secure your spot and avoid disappointment: "https://www.schoolofrockmining.com/book-online" Alternatively send me a mail at: info@schoolofrockmining.com and I’ll gladly assi

Don't have a university degree or diploma, but want to further your career in mining and hit that next promotion...? Don't have the means to travel to a far-off location to complete a mining course...? Or maybe you're a scholar and want to study Mining one day, but you have no clue what Mining is about...? Then consider the Mining for Non-miners course. The course was developed by the friendly people at RPMGlobal, one of the global leaders in mine planning software. The guys

Grasberg gold mine in the Papua province of Indonesia is currently the world’s largest gold mine in terms of contained gold. The estimated gold reserves at Grasberg as of December 2012 stood at 70.968 million ounces (Moz). The Grasberg mining operation consists of the Grasberg open pit and two underground mines, namely DOZ and Big Gossan. The mine is operated by Freeport Indonesia (PTFI), a subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX). PTFI owns 90.64% of the Grasberg m

Battling with the software to set up a mining schedule? We all know the feeling... when you're losing precious time because of fighting the software instead of running iterations and scenarios... You will never have confidence in your schedule if you do not have 2 or 3 scenarios to test the flex of your system. Your superiors want a number of options, not just one answer. RPMGlobal's XPAC SOLUTIONS products allows you to do just that - run scenarios instead of suffering in s

South Deep gold mine located 45km south-west of Johannesburg in the Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa, is the second largest gold mine in the world. The managed mineral reserve at South Deep as of December 2012 stood at 39.1Moz. South Deep is also the seventh deepest mine in the world with a mine depth up to 2,995m below the surface. South Deep was known by the name Western Areas Gold Mine until 2000. Mining operations at the site started in 1961. Goldfields became the owner

How sure are you that your mine designs have the minimum number of switchbacks? Have you tested the impact of having one switchback less, how that reduces your strip ratio and down-the-line costs, not to mention the health & safety of your employees ...? What about your benches & stacks, do they honour the geotechnical slope angles to prevent slope failure...? Your ramp systems on your interim high-walls - do they tie up with your final design and serve as dual access for tha