NorNickel’s Polar Division, Norilsk, Russia:

T. P. Darbinyan, Director, Department of Mining Practice, Candidate of Engineering Sciences
A. A. Tsymbalov, Deputy Director, Department of Mining Practice, Candidate of Engineering Sciences

Saint-Petersburg Mining University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia:
V. P. Zubov, Head of Mineral Mining Department, Professor, Doctor of Engineering Sciences
A. V. Kolganov, Post-Graduate Student, artemkolganov2011@yandex.ru

Dilution of valuable elements in produced ore as against their content in in-place reserves is one of the main quality factors in ore production. The adverse effects of dilution are the wasteful expenditure connected with barren rock haulage, the worse efficiency of processing, the increased consumption of ore in production of metal, and the ore price drop. The authors discuss the causes of produced ore dilution and the trends of this relevant research and production problem solution as a case-study of disseminated ore mining in Oktyabrsky Mine in the Talnakh ore province. The research shows that the major sources of dilution of the ore produced are: backfill in the cavities caused by rock falls from the sidewalls of the first-phase stopes affected by blasting during the second-phase stoping; roof rock falling in stopes as a result of blasting-induced seismic impact. In the system of bottom-up mining of high-grade copper-bearing disseminated ore, an evident cause of rock falls from the sidewalls of the first-phase stopes is high jointing of enclosing rock mass. The main factors to influence the intensity of rock falls from the roofs and sidewalls of stopes include the dip and the cross effect of the joint sets. The probability of spontaneous fall of ore blocks between the joint sets depends to a great extent on the stope design variables. Identifying the nature of the joints which have a major influence on ore falls from sidewalls in stopes driven in earlier undermined bodies of disseminated ore requires additional field testing and processing of the results using the methods of mathematical statistics.

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