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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold and Silver Juniors, Mid-tiers and Producers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stan_hughes who wrote (66163)	7/14/2009 10:21:38 PM
From: hank2010	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78410

I do not want to interfere with your self-ed process, but I doubt if the handbook will give you what you are looking for. As Eric said, with the backfill line plugged, delivery of the paste fill (cemented sands/tailings)to the stope(s) serviced by that line is prevented. These are probably cut and fill stopes, so as one slice of ore is removed from overhead, an equivalent height of fill is placed underfoot. The paste fill hardens and provides a working surface for drilling, blasting and removing the next cut (layer) of ore. The question I have is when the borehole plugged, what length was affected. If they were on the ball (and lucky) and were able to divert the flow of paste and clean out the hole above the obstruction, the length of hole to be drilled could be relatively short and therefore cheap and quick. Conversely, if they plugged it all the way and were not able to clean it out before it set up, then it is a larger, longer, more expensive job. I disagree with trying to clean it out with acid or anything else. It will be cheaper to redrill. Perhaps they could replace (even temporarily) the bore hole or a portion with pipe. I do not know the situation. I note that in the NR they say the crews have been diverted to other work etc. If this is just one stope, it is not a big deal, but they refer to "certain mining areas requiring paste fill will be idled" so it is more than one stope. If stope development were far enough ahead, they could easily divert to stoping in other areas. If stope development is not far enough ahead, the diversion of the stoping crews to stope development will rectify the situation and lead to better mine efficiency. The costs of replacing the lines is not huge, of more concern is the delay of scheduled production. In either case this does not justify a 20% drop in value of the company, IMO.