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047 Innovative Mining at Garpenberg
047 Innovative Mining at Garpenberg
Dammsjö Agmin
?
400 Z ? Lappberget 400 Z
500-785 Z
500-
Finnhyttan 800 Z
Tyskgården Gransjön
800 Z 700- 800 Z
1000 Z Kaspersbo 870 Z
910 Z
Kanal Ore Strand Ore
? 925-1100 Z
Potential
1600 Y 2000 Y 2400 Y 2800 Y 3200 Y 3600 Y 4000 Y 4400 Y 4800 Y 5200 Y
Production levels
mine led to the progressive extension While the new shaft raised hoisting Higher output
of a 1:7 ramp down to the 910 m level. capacity, and ramp extension accessed
In 1998-9, it was extended to the 1,000 new ore in the North mine, metals pro- In 2005, the mine produced 1,102,000 t
m level, increasing the overall length to duction rose to record levels in 1998. ore grading 5.75% Zn, 2.28% Pb, 0.09%
8.7 km. However, this improvement could not Cu and 117 g/t Ag. Approximately 40%
To increase hoisting capacity at the be maintained. Zinc concentrate output of the ore came from Lappberget. The
Garpenberg mine, the new Gruvsjö pro- fell from 69,051 t in 1998 to 61,126 t in mill yielded 101,000 t of 55.3% zinc
duction shaft was completed in 1997 2001, despite a rise in ore production. concentrate; 29,000 t of 72% lead con-
and the original shaft was converted And proven plus probable ore reserves centrate with 1,800 g/t silver; 2,800 t
for personnel and materials hoisting. declined from 5.7 Mt in 1998 to 2.2 Mt of 15% copper concentrate with 40,000
With a hoisting capacity of 450,000 at 4.0% Zn in 2003, putting a question g/t; and 120 t of precious metal con-
t/y, the newer shaft connects with a mark on the future of the mine. centrate grading 65% lead, 40,000 g/t
ramp accessing the Kanal and Strand However, Boliden continued to make silver and 400 g/t gold. Some 967,000
orebodies. investments in technology for the long t of tailings retained 0.34% Zn, 0.29%
The present operating area extends term at Garpenberg. The mine, the com- Pb, 0.02% Cu and 25.5 g/t Ag. By end-
approximately 4.5 km SW to NE from pany and the market are now benefiting. 2005 Boliden employed 280 people at
the original shaft to the Gransjön mi- And the geologists are very popular. Garpenberg, with a further 70 working
ning section. for contractors at the site.
New reserves The operation works around the
Concentrate production clock 7 days/week in both the con-
Probably the most significant event at centrator and the mine, with mining
Upgraded in the early 1990s, the con- Garpenberg during the period of decline carried out by four production teams
centrator yields separate zinc, lead, was the discovery in 1998 of a new ore- supported by a development crew and
copper and precious metals concen- body between Garpenberg North and a charging crew. Garpenberg is the
trates. The zinc and lead concentrates Dammsjön, named Lappberget. This Hedemora Community’s largest private
are trucked to Gävle harbour and ship- encouraged the company to start deve- sector employer.
ped either to Kokkola in Finland or Odda lopment in 2000 of an approximately Since the start of 2005 exploration
in Norway. Copper and precious metals 3.0 km-long drift to connect the 900 m has continued, not only adding tonnes,
concentrates are railed to the Rönnskär level at Garpenberg North, first to Lapp- but also raising average grade. Thanks
smelter in Sweden. Since 1957, Boliden berget for exploration access, and thence to the exploration effort, Garpenberg
has milled over 20 million tonnes of ore to the ramp at the 800 m level at Garpen- also started 2006 with proven reserves
at Garpenberg. berg. During 2001, Boliden started core of 4.73 Mt grading 6.0% Zn, 2.5% Pb,
Sublevel stoping at
Lappberget
The geological and geotechnical char-
acteristics of significant portions of the Sublevel stoping layout and mining sequence for Lappberget orebody.
newly-discovered orebodies allow mi-
ning using more productive longhole concentrator capacity to 1.2 Mt/y; of development muck have to be accom-
methods instead of cut-and-fill. Lapp- designing and building a paste fill pro- modated underground as hoisting facili-
berget ore, for instance, can be 60 m-wide duction/distribution system; and start- ties are used for ore only.
through considerable vertical distances, ing longhole drilling. This latter project The method can be described as a
and has proved to be suitable for sub- involved rill mining in the Tyskgården modified sublevel stoping with succes-
level stoping using a system of primary orebody, followed by sublevel stoping sive back fill as mining is progressing.
and secondary stopes progressing up- in Lappberget. The 10 m-wide cut-off slots are drilled
wards. Primary stopes are 15 m-wide across the orebody using up-holes and
and 40 m-high and filled with paste Rill mining blasted in one single firing, starting from
made from concentrator tailings mixed the centre. Seven 127 mm holes are left
with about 5% cement. The 20 m-wide A special mining method known as rill uncharged to provide sufficient expan-
secondary stopes are filled with devel- mining has been developed for excavating sion for the remaining 64 mm holes.
opment muck without cement. High pre- the Tyskgården orebody. The orebody After the slot has been opened, 70 de-
cision drilling is necessary to get opti- is relatively small, and large quantities grees up-holes fans consisting of eight,
mum ore recovery and fragmentation.
This mining method can possibly be Development and primary stoping layout 1080 level.
used in parts of the Kaspersbo orebody,
if rock quality is high enough. This will
help with cost control, which is crucial
for mining in Sweden. With Lappberget
alone containing 5.46 Mt of the current
reserves, grading over 7% zinc and 2.6%
lead, plus silver and gold, it is no sur-
prise that present development activities
focus on using longhole-based produc-
tion from these orebodies to raise total
metal-in-concentrate output. Presently
eight orebodies are being exploited.
Garpenberg has generated a strategic
plan for 2006–2019 allocating SEK 1
billion for developing Lappberget. The
overall programme includes: increasing
Max
2m
Approx. 15 m
8h
Blasted ore
ole
3 fa
s in
Approx. 15 m
ns i
Cut off slot
eac
no
h fa
ne
nØ
bla
Waste
70 m
st
1.8
m
m
70°
45°
approximately 17 m-long, holes are available, with a limited amount of might double the amount of investment
blasted into the void. Three rows having truck ore haulage to surface possible. initially planned.
a total of 24 holes are blasted simulta- And, although flotation capacity has
neously. After mucking out each blast, been improved, concentrator through- New drilling technology
new waste is discharged into the stope put is now limited to the same sort of
forming a 45 degrees rill down into the tonnage by grinding mill capacity. Atlas Copco has supplied drilling equip-
drawpoint. As the waste material will Assuming demand for Garpenberg con- ment to Boliden’s underground mines
stay quite stable at 45 degrees rill angle, centrates increases in the near term, it for many years. Recently, the company
the risk of ore dilution is negligible. will be necessary for New Boliden to has worked particularly closely with
decide whether to increase hoisting Garpenberg on the development of
Output limitations capacity. computer-based technology for more
Developing the now-available reserves precise drilling and blasting to enhance
The total mine output is restricted to for higher long-term production using ad- productivity and reduce ore dilution and
the 1.2-1.3 Mt/y hoisting capacity ditional hoisting and processing capacity operating costs.
Headframe at Garpenberg.