Presentado en XIII CONAMIN 2021, organizado por el Capítulo de Ingeniería de Minas del CD Lima CIP.

Por: Daniel Arcos Valverde, superintendente de Operaciones en Analytica Mineral Services, U.E.A. Orión. 

Abstract

This research work arose because of the decrease in mineral reserves of the mining unit. Monthly production did not cover operating costs.

The Chinchilico vein, where informal miners worked for a while and could not continue working because the vein was very narrow (on average 3 centimeters), although its gold grade ranged between two and three ounces per ton. A major difficulty arose when trying to exploit this vein. The high dilution percentage at the time of resuing the vein was on average 0.50 m and resulted in diluted grades averaging 10 g/Tn, which was not an economic exploitation, because it did not cover the operating costs.

Different types of field tests were carried out to find a suitable drill mesh and to obtain a 15 cm resuing in regular to hard rock quality. This mining width means that dilution is minimal, and mining is economical, where test results showed an ore grade of 20 g/Tn.

With this new drilling mesh, several tests were carried out, and the breakage width obtained was less than 15 centimeters, which is economically viable for the exploitation of the mineral, which helps to increase the mineral reserves of the unit.