Abstract

ANNAVARAPU, S.. Field validation of estimated primary fragment size distributions in a block cave mine. J. S. Afr. Inst. Min. Metall. [online]. 2019, vol.119, n.5, pp.437-444. ISSN 2411-9717.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2411-9717/16/287/2019.

Fragment size distributions play an important part in the design and planning of block cave mining operations. Though several methods have been proposed for estimating fragment size distributions in advance of mining, the calibration of these estimating procedures to field measurements has been a challenge. The Block Size Estimator (BSE) program was developed for providing an assessment of primary fragmentation expected in a block cave mine using drill-core piece length data and joint characteristics from the exploration and geotechnical evaluation programmes. In order to validate the results from the BSE program, the drill-core piece length data and the joint characteristics in different rock types from the DOZ block cave mine in Indonesia were used to help generate fragment size distributions in different areas of the mine. The predicted fragment size distributions were compared with the fragmentation observed at the drawpoints during operation of the mine. This paper presents the details of the validation of the fragment size estimates by the BSE program using fragment size distribution data from the drawpoints at the extraction level at the DOZ block cave mine, and the challenges encountered in developing reasonable correlations between the estimated and measured fragment size distributions.

Keywords : block caving; fragmentation; size distribution; rock mass characteristics; modelling.

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