Caving technology development and its application by Newcrest Mining Limited.

Developments in the last ten years have shown that caving methods can be successfully applied in strong orebodies at greater depths and in increasingly challenging geotechnical environments for which more traditional methods would be unsuitable, unsafe and/or uneconomic. The development is described of methods that Newcrest Mining is applying at Cu-Au operations at the Telfer and Ridgeway sublevel caving, the Ridgeway Deeps block caving and the Cadia East panel caving projects in Australia. Block and panel caving offer economies of scale opportunities to achieve high production rates at lower production costs, enabling the exploitation of mineral endowments at higher margins.
Developments in the last ten years have shown that caving methods can be successfully applied in strong orebodies at greater depths and in increasingly challenging geotechnical environments for which more traditional methods would be unsuitable, unsafe and/or uneconomic. The development is described of methods that Newcrest Mining is applying at Cu-Au operations at the Telfer and Ridgeway sublevel caving, the Ridgeway Deeps block caving and the Cadia East panel caving projects in Australia. Block and panel caving offer economies of scale opportunities to achieve high production rates at lower production costs, enabling the exploitation of mineral endowments at higher margins.