Skip to main content

The 5 Stages of the Mining Life Cycle

 

The 5 Stages of the Mining Life Cycle

Photo wallpaper fantasy, Space, stars, man, planet, digital art, artwork, fantasy art, futuristic, mine, mining, convoy

Mining operations are complex.

They aren’t your run-of-the-mill type projects. These billion dollar complexes consist of various interconnected projects, operating simultaneously to deliver refined commodities like gold, silver, coal and iron ore.

1. Exploration

The beginning of any mining project begins with the exploration stage. It’s where the magic happens. Companies enlist geologists and others to prospect remote areas in search of mineral deposits. Methods such as geological surface mapping and sampling, geophysical measurements and geochemical analysis is often applied at an early stage to pin out potential deposits.

2. Mine-site design and planning

Once mapping and mineral resource data is collected, and the results are strong, the project can move forward to the design and planning stage. This typically consist of studies to help companies determine if and how a project can be safe, environmentally sound, economically viable and socially responsible.

3. Construction 

If you build it they will come. The construction process occurs after research, permitting and approvals are complete. Construction of mining sites invovles building roads, processing facilities, environmental management systems, employee housing and other facilities.

4. Production


The two most common methods of mining are surface and underground mining. The method is determined mainly by the characteristics of the mineral deposit and the limits imposed by safety, technology, environmental and economical concerns.

The first step in the production stage is recovering the minerals. This is the process of extracting the ore from rock using a variety of tools and machinery.

The second step is processing. The recovered minerals are processed through huge crushers or mills to separate commercially valuable minerals from their ores.

Once processed, the ore is then transported to smelting facilities.

The final step in production is smelting. This process involves melting the concentrate in a furnance to extract the metal from its ore. The ore is then poured into moulds, producing bars of bullion, which are then ready for sale.

5. Closure and reclamation

The fifth and final stage in mining operations is closure and reclamation. Once a mining site has been exhausted of reserves, the process of closing the site occurs, dismantling all facilities on the property. The reclamation stage is then implemented, returning the land to its original state.

A comprehensive mine rehab (rehabilitation) program has many clearly stated objectives which may include:

• ensuring public health and safety

• minimizing environmental effects

• removing waste and hazardous material

• preserving water quality

• stabilizing land to protect against erosion

• establishing new landforms and vegetation

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE ASTEROID TRILLIONAIRES

Asteroid mining Asteroid mining  is the exploitation of raw materials from  asteroids  and other  minor planets , including  near-Earth objects . Hard rock minerals could be  mined  from an asteroid or a spent  comet .  Precious metals  such as  gold ,  silver , and  platinum group  metals could be transported back to Earth, while  iron group  metals and other common ones could be used for construction in space. Difficulties include the high cost of spaceflight, unreliable identification of asteroids which are suitable for mining, and ore extraction challenges. Thus,  terrestrial mining  remains the only means of raw mineral acquisition used today. If space program funding, either public or private, dramatically increases, this situation may change as  resources on Earth become increasingly scarce  compared to demand and the full potentials of asteroid mining and  space exploration ...
Post a Comment
Read more
Buy Youtube Subscribers India Benefits of Organic YouTube Subscribers The number of subscribers is generally taken into account when ranking the best YouTube content producers. The concept of the subscription is created by the appreciation of the content manufacturer and offers significant long-term advantages. Since it is very difficult to measure the content quality of a channel with artificial intelligence, the attitude of the subscribers becomes important. Organic and high-quality YouTube subscribers are the most important tools to move the channel to the top and get more views. Artificial intelligence makes evaluations by measuring the attitudes of subscribers, which is much more measurable than evaluating content. The number of subscribers, whether or not the subscribers like the video, the viewing times and whether or not to turn on the notification ring are effective factors in increasing the ranking. Because many content producers know this, they try to turn the channel's ...
Post a Comment
Read more