Project information and requirements

1. Deposit Description

The deposit is coal seam of averaging 7m in thickness, 12 m deep and nearly horizontal (Fig. 1). This deposit is part of a tropical coal basin of Late Permian age of fluviatile and lacustrine origin, with good coking coal. The delineated reserves, to date, total around 109 Mt of high quality coking coal. Overburden is a typical basin sedimentation stratigraphy, and all bedding is nearly parallel to the coal seam.

The lease is located approximately three hundred kilometres, by road, from a suitable port facility, and fifteen kilometres from a railway. Infrastructure in the area is minimal, with only one small pastoral village within a fifty-kilometre radius. Local government has offered large subsidies for services to encourage development in the area.

2. Design requirements

Based on the information for the mineral deposit given, design a suitable mining system in detail for the shallow part of the deposit. The student should include in their answer the following:

a.Select and justify an optimal mining system (10 marks).

b.Design and optimise the annual production rate using NPV method (15 marks).

c.Design and plan in detail mine excavation (12 marks).

d.Plan the rehabilitation of the spoil pile or waste dump (7 Marks).

e.Appraise the effects of the project designed on social, political and environmental issues (6 marks).

As well as any other salient points as required by the mining system, for economic analysis refer to current market prices in A$ for the commodity as required.Accurate costing is not an essential aspect to the project but some notional economic modelling is required to illustrate the viability of the method detailed.

SG of coal is 1.32

current value is $93.20