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Kazakhstan’s Vasilkovsky mine increases annual recovered value by US$29,243,000.00

Commodity Ore Grade Geology Powder Factor Location
Gold HG 2.2 g/t** Structured 0.82 kg/m3

Kazakhstan
Vasilkovsky is located 17 km north of the town of Kokshetau, Akmola Region (Kazakhstan). Average ore grade: 2.0 g/t.  The facility was put into operation in 2009.
This operation is one of the top producing open pit gold mines in Kazakhstan.
• The mineralisation is structural
• Ore shots are blasted in 7.5 m (25 ft) benches, which are then mined in a single pass

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Challenges

Substantial movement of ore was not monitored or accounted for
  • Misclassification of ore (i.e. high grade ore is stockpiled as low grade or low grade ore is sent to the mill as high grade)
  • Ore loss, with gold being sent to the waste pile
  • Dilution, with tonnes of waste being treated as ore

Solution

BMM System accurately translates post-blast dig lines
  • Blast movement monitors (BMMs) are installed in monitoring holes throughout the shot
  • Installation and detection as per site standard operating procedures
  • Blast is fired and movement monitored
  • BMT Explorer software calculates new dig lines, and areas of ore loss and dilution that would have occurred without monitoring

Results

More than 100 blasts monitored from 1st Jan 2018 to 26th Dec 2018 showed that:
  • Ore recovery improved by 3.2% or 678,000 t (747,400 US t)
  • Misclassification improved by 7.7% or 1,632,000 t (1,799,000 US t)
  • Overall increase in recovered value from these blasts was estimated at US$29,243,000***.
Reduced dilution, misclassification and recovered ore valued at $294,000 in one Blast

Significant variation occurs within all blasts. Movement in a similar blast could be ± 50% of these blast movement data.

  • Measured horizontal movement ranged from 0.3 m (1 ft) to 18.5 m (61 ft) and vertical movement of up to 4.3 m (14 ft)

As a result of accurately accounting for blast movement, this site:

  • Diverted dilution—7,200* t (7,940 US t) of waste would have been treated as ore, resulting in 15% dilution
  • Improved misclassification—6,200 t (6,830 US t) (13%) of ore would have been misclassified
  • Recovered ore—235 oz. of Gold at a value of US$294,000*** would have been sent to the waste pile (20% ore loss)

* Numbers are rounded
** Average grade of ore polygons
*** Calculated at a Gold price of 1,250 USD/oz.

 

 

BMT