Strategies to improve cave availability at a South African block cave mine

Block caving is relatively a cheaper method of extracting massive orebodies from underground massive Mines. Caving initiation commences in the undercut level, with drilling and blasting, for the propagation of ore to create sufficient material for the continuous loading in the production level. As the cave propagates, the more the material flows under the influence of gravity, which is regulated through effective draw control strategies to minimise environmental and safety risks, and to ensure high cave availability. One of the key areas in draw control is the reduction in the number of hang-ups and idling draw-points and the minimisation of early dilution. Achieving this successfully requires that key factors that contribute to low cave availability be identified in order to implement strategies to minimise impact to production performance. This research study follows a quantitative methodology and aims to outline strategies to employ in order to improve cave availability and production performance. The results indicate that focusing on improving equipment availability is inadequate to improve production performance, if considered as a sole determinant. The main findings also indicate two strategies that involve factoring grade distribution and the effective prioritisation in the treatment of hang-ups in sectors that have high-grade content and that are susceptible to frequent hang-ups.