The mining industry is notorious for its volatile nature as commodity prices fluctuate. History shows that it's the companies that can adjust to the market changes the quickest that lead the pack. Mining on a 5-year old mine design that was based on a Whittle shell all those years ago can mean you're either leaving value in the ground, or more detrimental, you're now mining in areas where profitability is going South... With almost a decade of Whittle open pit optimisation experience I can help you dust off that old Whittle model, and make sure your mine is set up to run at maximum profitability under current economic conditions... Doesn't hurt to make sure now does it...

Rampura Agucha is a zinc and lead mine located on a massive sulphide deposit in the Bhilwara district of Rajasthan, India. Rampura Agucha is located 220 km from Jaipur. It is north of Bhilwara, and northwest of Shahpura. Rampura Agucha is 17 km southeast of Bijainagar on NH 79. The mine is owned by Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL), and has the world's largest deposits of zinc and lead. Rampura Agucha deposits were discovered in August, 1977 by T. C. Rampuria, a geologist with the Government of Rajasthan's Directorate of Mines and Geology. Hindustan Zinc Limited started drilling in February, 1980 and a report regarding the estimate of the deposit was submitted in 1981. The development of this min

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 that rainy day when you need it most...? Difficult questions I know, but prevention is better than cure as they say. Using state-of-the-art mine design software and almost a decade of design experience, I can help you sleep

Have a look at this interesting YouTube presentation by Danah AL-Enezi. It's a test conducted to gather data in understanding the liquefication of soil during an earthquake.

Are you 100% confident that your Excel calculations are correct in determining fleet numbers? Are your roads accurately set-up in terms of stop signs, single carriage areas, steep gradients, single-bay dumps? What happens when you have congestion in your pit, how does Excel cater for that? With the HAULSIM simulations you can set up your site accurately to generate realistic results in terms of fleet numbers. The simulations allow you to run a host of possible scenarios, to ensure you understand the flex of your loading & hauling system, and better prepare for possible surprises. Doing a little homework now might just save you years of agony when things don’t pan as out as hoped, and more im

Another great YouTube clip from the guys at Atlas Copco illustrating the principles of Block Caving. Note how it differs from Sub Level Caving in that the whole block caves, whereas with SLC the caving is done level by level. Any comments from the experts most welcome!

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 assist!

A very warm congratulations to these mining engineers from Kumba Iron Ore, completing the OPMS Basic & Advanced trianing course this week. Kumba was the first company to acquire RPMGlobal's OPMS scheduling package, and with 6 years under the belt of successfully using OPMS, the company's mine planning skill-set is growing from strength to strength. Well done Nkhangweni, Fundiswa, Masentle and Willie!!

So, you had a consultant do mine planning work on your project - great. The consultant used a variety of specialised software packages to do e.g. a Pit Optimisation, Mine Designs and a Mining Schedule - great. The consultant gave you Excel spreadsheets, a PowerPoint presentation with screenshots and a Word document of the work - great. The consultant also showed you on his/her computer what the work looks like in the software - great. But eventually the friendly consultant leaves and you don't have the software to open the work and look again. What if the screenshots don't reveal the ramp you need to see? Or you need to show your colleague all the great work quickly and efficiently, without

Native gold is an element and a mineral. It is highly prized by people because of its attractive colour, its rarity, resistance to tarnish, and its many special properties - some of which are unique to gold. No other element has more uses than gold. All of these factors help support a price of gold that is higher than all but a few other metals. Trace amounts of gold are found almost everywhere, but large deposits are found in only a few locations. Although there are about twenty different gold minerals, all of them are quite rare. Therefore, most gold found in nature is in the form of the native metal. Gold occurs in hydrothermal veins deposited by ascending solutions, as disseminated parti

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 at RPMGlobal used their incredible breadth of knowledge to develop an on-line course, that is available for 365 days once downloaded. The course covers the whole mining industry spectrum from geology, mine planning, min

The Red Dog mine is a zinc and lead mine located in a remote region of the Arctic, within the boundaries of the Red Dog Mine census-designated place in the Northwest Arctic Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska. The mine is the world's largest producer of zinc and has the world's largest zinc reserves. Red Dog accounts for 10% of the world's zinc production. Red Dog accounted for 55% of the mineral value produced in Alaska in 2008. In 2008 the mine produced 515,200 metric tons (507,100 LT; 567,900 ST) of zinc, 122,600 metric tons (120,700 LT; 135,100 ST) of lead, and 283 metric tons (9,100,000 oz.) of silver, for a total metal value of over one billion dollars. At the end of 2008 the mine had

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 friendly chap and makes the best coffee in the west!!

This clip from the Australian Centre for Geomechanics is a training video for underground metalliferous mine workers. The aim is to provide workers with the critical knowledge on drilling and blasting and to aid appreciation of the importance of these mining processes and their related hazards.

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 silence. With almost a decade of open pit scheduling experience allow me to help you create options for your company, so you can make informed decisions, and understand the risks with confidence!

Have a look on YouTube at the great explanation of sub level caving from the guys at Atlas Copco. This will be absolutely mind-blowing to experience in virtual reality, especially when tutoring students who are new to the concept.

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 assist!

This training experience at RPMGlobal's corporate office is one for the record books. The mine is in the process of potentially acquiring more kit, and they decided to rather be on the safe side and run HAULSIM scenarios to make 100% sure that is the correct way to go. As everyone is inundated with work, the Technical Services Manager - Katlego - took it upon herself to learn the software and run the simulations of her mine. I take my hat off to this fine lady as she could have easily delegated the job, but instead packed the bull by the horns. Now that is what I call true leadership if I have ever seen it! I wish you all the best Katlego!!

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 that rainy day when you need it most...? Difficult questions I know, but prevention is better than cure as they say. Using state-of-the-art mine design software and almost a decade of design experience, I can help you sleep

This is a photo taken of a record blast at Sishen mine on the 8th of April 1981, in which 7.2 million tonnes of rock was blasted with 2,427 tonnes of explosives. The length of the block was 2.6km. If you would like to feature a record blast from your mine in this weekly slot, please send me the details at: info@schoolofrockmining.com