SME Dinner Meeting - NEW LOCATION - Victorville - Improved Mine Planning

13229 Spring Valley Parkway,Victorville CA 92395

09 February, 2023

Description

From Blind to Clear View: The integration of different systems and how they helped to improve mine planning PRESENTED BY: Kojo Anim: Mine Engineering Supt.; Golden Queen Mining Co. ABSTRACT: The Soledad Mountain project is in Kern County in southern California. The project is located approximately five miles (eight km) south of the town of Mojave. The metropolitan areas of Rosamond and Lancaster lie approximately nine miles (14 km) and twenty miles (32 km) to the south, respectively. Los Angeles is about 70 miles (113 km) south of Mojave. California City lies approximately 10 miles (16 km) north-east of Mojave. The Soledad Mountain project is currently in production, utilizing conventional hard rock, open pit mining methods. Ore production to the crusher is planned at a maximum capacity of 12.5 ktpd (4.5 mt/yr). The mine production schedule was developed with the goal of filling the crusher at the required ore rate and maximizing the project's return on investment. The total material rate is tied to equipment productivity and fluctuates by period. The maximum total production will reach a rate of 84,000 tons/day (30,900 ktons/yr). The mine is operating 7 days/wk with two, 12-hour shifts/day. The Soledad Mountain Project is currently being mined by an owner-operated fleet, and this is planned to continue. The nearly all of the major mining equipment on hand is Komatsu, except for the drill fleet (Atlas Copco, now known as Epiroc). The mining fleet has been sized to operate at 20-foot operating bench heights. The schedule and production requirements were based on the following fleet assumptions: • The drilling fleet currently consists of four production drills that are in operation today, with a planned maximum drilling fleet of five drills. The current and planned drilling fleet consists of rotary down-the-hole hammer drills, with 45,000 lb. pull down capacity, and 6.75 in diameter blast holes. • The haulage fleet currently consists of twelve 100-ton haul trucks that are in operation today. • The loading fleet currently has two 21 cu yd hydraulic loading shovels, one 17 cubic yard front-end loader and two 15 cubic yard front-end loaders. The planned maximum loading fleet will remain at its current size. As a result of a production increment, Golden Queen was facing challenges controlling production because of an old-fashioned fleet control system. A new fleet management system was implemented to monitor the operation and ensure plan execution and compliance, thus capturing in the field the value of the project as forecasted in the mine plan. This presentation is about the importance of fleet management systems to Golden Queen Mining. BIOGRAPHY: Kojo Anim is the mine engineering superintendent of the Golden Queen Mining Company. He has over 15 years of experience in hard rock open pit engineering, and production. Graduated in 2002 from the University of Mine and Technology, Tarkwa Ghana, Worked as a pit controller dispatcher at the Goldfields Ghana Limited. Mr. Anim moved on to the United States to further his education for his master’s degree at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Mineral Engineering. Mr. Anim also got his MBA in project management from Southern New Hampshire University, USA. He worked for Asarco Ray Mine, Freeport McMoRan (Morenci and Safford operations), Hexagon Mining, all in Arizona, and Golden Queen Mining, in Mojave, California.