Located in Shangri-La county, Yunnan Province,
China’s biggest underground nonferrous mine Pulang Copper Mine is under
construction. To date, the defined copper reserves at the Pulang Copper Mine are 4.8 million tonnes of copper
and an average grade of 0.34%. The mineralized zone is 2300 m long, 600 - 800 m wide, and 1000 m high in
a dome shape. The first-stage mining and processing capacity is 12.5 million
tonnes of ore per year. By geotechnical investigation, ore haulage is adopted
via a drift and ore pass development system. From mineralogical analysis, a
majority of the Pulang copper ore body is classified as a type III rock, which
is generally considered to be suitable for block-caving methods. As an update to the traditional mine-to-mill approach, a cave-to-mill integrated production
concept is then introduced. This is essentially the integration of underground
mine production scheduling and monitoring with surface mineral processing
management based on
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