News
Posts, technical articles and videos on how our customers make every ore blast more profitable.
BACKCase Study of a Grade Improvement Project at the Fimiston Pit
Fimiston Open Pit is operated by Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) as a joint venture between Barrick Gold and Newmont Mining. Over 110 years of underground mining resulted in the development of nearly 3500 km of underground workings including backfilled and open stopes up to half a million tonnes in size.
These voids significantly complicate blasting processes at KCGM, influencing blast movement direction and magnitude. Blast movement monitoring to improve mine reconciliations was identified as an improvement project in the business plan for the geology team in 2008. Following successful trials in 2008 to 2009, blast monitoring and translation of ore blocks were implemented as a permanent grade control program from late 2009 and remains part of the Management Operating System (MOS) of the mine.
Read the full report – Fitzgerald-et-al-KCGM-Case-Study