Process make-up water will be primarily sourced from the nine current open pits on the mining lease, plus the new Bedevere open pit. In all cases the open pit mining will be extending the depth of existing open pits, except for the Bedevere pipe, which has not been mined previously.ĭesign parameters assumed for the open pits included batter face angles of 75 degrees, batter height of 20m, berm width of 10m, dou.
No dilution factor has been applied as the resource grades are based predominantly on historical recovered grades. With a selective mining unit of 5m x 5m x 5m, a 2.5% ore loss factor was applied to the resource model. The use of 120t class excavators and 40t articulated dump trucks (“ADT’s”), mining 2.5m high flitches has been assumed.
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In the weathered zone, kimberlite will be free dig. Drill and blast will be employed for all waste rock and for kimberlite below the weathered zone. The Scoping Study has assumed conventional load and haul operations by a mining contractor for the open pit mining of each pipe. There is potential for viable underground mining beneath the VPM on certain pipes, however this has not been included in this Scoping Study and is the subject of a separate scoping study currently underway. When the open pit has been completed to the planned depth, vertical pit mining (“VPM”) will be used to deepen the mine below the base of the open pit. Initially each deposit will be mined by conventional open pit mining. Two different but complementary mining methods for the Merlin kimberlite pipes have been planned.
The pipes are located within four main clusters over an area of. The sagged nature of the infill sediments, the upturned edges with associated slickensides, the presence of a basal non-kimberlitic conglomerate and the thickened iron pisolite profiles, all suggest that the Cretaceous aged sediments have subsided into the pipe structures possibly due to solution weathering of the kimberlite. The kimberlites are strongly weathered to 60m - 80m depth from surface and appear to have sunk back down into the craters, that have been in-filled with Cretaceous sediments that are up to 40m thick. In the case of Palomides and Sacramore they coalesce into a larger single vent named PalSac.
In the softer sediments beneath the Bukalara/ Proterozoic unconformity, some pipes increase in diameter. At surface the shapes of the pipes are circular to elliptical and maintain their regular shape and near vertical sides within the Bukalara sandstone. The Merlin pipes are small, with the diameter of the upper levels varying between 50m–125m. Thin deposits of Cretaceous sediments and laterite overlie the pipes. The Merlin kimberlites are Devonian in age (382 million to 352 million years ago) and intrude mid-Proterozoic shales and dolomites of the McArthur Group and the unconformably overlying Cambrian Bukalara Sandstone. This article is supported by the MERLIN project.The Merlin kimberlite field is situated on the eastern side of the North Australian Craton, ~100km south-west of the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria. You can also listen and subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Amazon, and Apple Podcasts. The aim of this work is to encourage healthier European rivers, streams, peatlands and wetlands, which aren’t only good for nature, but also bring many social and economic benefits. At the meeting Rob spoke to project partners from all over Europe to find out about how they’re working together to research, plan, finance and implement major freshwater restoration projects. In September 2022 podcast host Rob St John travelled to Fulda, just outside Frankfurt in Germany, to attend the first MERLIN all-partner meeting. From dam removal to floodplain restoration, the European Union funded MERLIN project is investing millions of euros to disrupt and transform existing ways of carrying out freshwater restoration.īut what do these keywords – transformation and disruption – actually mean in practice? And what are the underlying inspirations that motivate scientists and environmentalists to help bring Europe’s freshwaters back to life? This episode explores the big ideas that are shaping how major freshwater restoration projects are being carried out across Europe.
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