Boris Lipatov
Senior consultant, Blast Movement Technologies (BMT)
Before joining BMT, Boris led a business excellence team at a gold mining site in Eastern Siberia and also managed a green-field quarry and crushing plant from zero to full production at a world leader cement company. Boris holds an engineering degree from Moscow State Technical University and a management diploma from Ecole Central de Lyon. He is based in Saint-Petersburg and supports customers across Europe and Asia.
Optimising Ore Recovery by Accounting for Blast Movement at Vasilkovsky Mine, Altyntau Kokshetau
Controlling ore contacts prior to excavation is essential so that material types reach the correct downstream locations and optimal ore recovery is achieved. Whether a mine’s priority is to minimise (i) ore loss, (ii) dilution, (iii) misclassification, (iv) contamination, or (v) adhering to strict blending requirements, blast movement is a problem for every mine, including iron mines, narrow-vein gold deposits, and those targeting massive, disseminated deposits.
An analysis of blast movement was conducted at Vasilkovsky Gold, a structurally-controlled gold deposit, to evaluate its effects on ore loss and dilution. Three-dimensional movement at mid-bench locations in all ore blasts since December 2015 have been measured. In each blast horizontal movement vectors are calculated, and pre-blast ore polygons were translated to post-blast locations using the measured data.
More than 100 blasts monitored from 1st Jan 2018 to 26th Dec 2018 showed ore block movement varied 0.3 – 18.5 m. By measuring and accounting for this movement, it is estimated that Vasilkovsky mine improved ore recovery by 3.2% (~678,000 tonnes) of ore loss as a result of ore moving into a waste block and 7.7% (~1,632,000 tonnes) in misclassification of ore type. The overall increase in recovered value from these blasts was estimated at 29,243,000 USD.