Cutback mining
The method is based on the establishment of relatively narrow cutbacks to incrementally expose mineralised material while minimising the waste stripping requirement to do so.
As early as 2006, we applied cutback mining as an alternative to the conventional pushback approach for a large iron ore project. This had a significant positive affect on the financial performance of the project. Based on this work, the project was approved, and the mine built. Since the establishment of the mine in 2009, the mining method has been consistently and successfully implemented on substantial manganese, PGM and chrome operations built from 2010 to 2012, where it is still being applied successfully. Since then, we have successfully implemented this method on several international
projects.
Suitable types of mineralisation are normally massive or massive tabular with multiple targeted layers, but generally dipping less than 30 degrees. These pits are normally exploited on dip, but if the conditions are suitable, mining on strike could lower the mining risk of the continuous access to ore, but at a higher establishment cost. The cutback length and width are critical parameters to ensure sufficient operational space, continuous pit access, and timeous, incremental exposure of suitable volumes of economic material, balanced with the minimum waste stripping requirement.