November 2005

Volume 57    Issue 11

Rain underground mine, 1993-2002: mining a low-grade gold resource in weak rock

Mining Engineering , 2005, Vol. 57, No. 11, pp. 41-41
Kockler, M.; Jung, S.J.

Using underhand drift-and-fill and longhole stoping with delayed fill, underground operations at the Rain Mine averaged 360 t/d (400 stpd) between 1993 and 2002. Mining from four ore zones produced more than 803.8 kt (886,000 st) of ore at a grade of 9.32 g/t (0.27 oz/st). Even though openings in the ore could be as large as at 9 m (30 ft) wide, 30 m (100 ft) high and more than 60 m (200 ft) long, the weak rock surrounding the ore zones restricted development size to 3 m (10 ft) wide by 3.7 m (12 ft) high.

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