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Finsch Mine, South Africa
The Finsch diamond mine, located 160km north west of Kimberley, is one of De Beers’ seven South African operations. Discovered in 1961 during exploration for asbestos, the deposit was first developed as an open pit. Since 1991, production has come from the underground mine beneath the old pit. .
GEOLOGY
Finsch is a classic diamondiferous kimberlite pipe. The country rocks consist of banded ironstones overlying dolomites and limestones, the pipe itself consisting of weathered kimberlite (yellow ground) to a depth of around 100m with unweathered material (blue ground) beneath.
MINING
The underground mine is accessed via a spiral decline from surface to the 680m level and a 9m-diameter, 763m-deep shaft equipped with three automatic hoists. The shaft was commissioned in 1982.
The upper levels of the underground mine use a sub-level open stoping system. The ore and waste is moved from the production levels via vertical ore passes that feed the material to the crushers. The ore is then transported by belt conveyor to the shaft systems for hoisting to the surface.
Stope development utilises ore passes raise-bored to 2.9m diameter, then opened out to 6m diameter using a sliping rig that fits within the ore pass to drill the full profile. Semi-automated drill rigs are used for drilling production rings in the open stopes. Rings consist of 102mm-diameter holes up to 45m long, through a full 360°. Dry drilling is used because of the weathering characteristics of the kimberlite.
Finsch makes use of specially developed, repumpable emulsion explosives, blended from components mixed underground and placed using dedicated transport and charging vehicles. The emulsion is sufficiently viscous to be pumped up 102mm vertical holes and to remain in position, and is inert until primed during charging. Benefits of this system include reduced carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emissions after blasting, and reduced explosive usage in fewer holes per ring. Detonation is controlled from the blasting cubicle in the underground production centre, with precise timing achieved by individually programmed microchip detonators.
COMMUNICATIONS
At first there was an underground
vehicle management and communication system. This was upgraded in 1995 to a radio-controlled
data transfer system. The system permits multi-channel voice and data transmission.
The controller on surface instructs individual machines where to load and dump
through the mine-wide communications network.
