We have extensive global underground mine engineering and operating experience across most major commodities and mining methods. Our innovative and rigorous methodology maximizes your projects’ economic benefits; by focusing on the deposit within the greater mining context, we help you select a suitable mining method and create a robust plan for your mine.
Our experts recognize the need to continuously adapt to commodity price and cost changes with appropriate mining operation responses, such as reducing operating and/or capital costs when prices fall and increasing capacity when prices rise. By producing practical mine designs and schedules, we ensure efficient use of mine capital.
Taking advantage of technological advances in underground mining, we offer highly mechanized and automated solutions using software packages such as Desk, Data mine, Gem com, Vulcan, Mine sight, and Mine Works Planner.
Services
- Engineering studies at all stages
- Strategic planning of economic cut-off grades and production rate analysis
- Geotechnical characterization and ground support system design
- Life-of-mine plan optimization
- Drill and blast design and fragmentation analysis
- Ventilation system modelling and design
- Equipment and manpower requirement estimation
- Operating and capital cost benchmarking and first principles cost modeling
- Open pit to underground transition analysis
- Due diligence reviews
- Operational reviews and assistance
Underground infrastructure presents unique challenges for engineers because usable underground space is limited in its extent and is not easily observed or accessible. The safety, health, and welfare of the public at large are among the civil engineer’s primary concerns while designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating physical infrastructure, including underground infrastructure. Underground engineers must rely on the skills and expert knowledge of all members of an interdisciplinary team to carry out their respective professional obligations within their scopes, budgets, and schedules.
A concept has recently been making its way into infrastructure systems requirements to be satisfied by the engineer: sustainability. There are numerous definitions of sustainability, but this report refers to sustainability as the ability to obtain and use resources to meet current needs and improve standards of living without compromising the ability of those in the future to do the same. Sustainable urban development includes the selective use of materials and resources and consideration of cost-effectiveness functionality, safety, aesthetics, and longevity. The concept of sustainability changes the scale of many engineering projects. Engineering for sustainability means that engineers will need to move beyond traditional practice and consider their projects as part of a far larger physical and social system. They will need to think about the functionality and behaviors of their projects over long time periods—perhaps well beyond the project’s service life. This is especially true of underground infrastructure, the impacts of which on society can be widespread and beneficial, but the failure of which can be devastating, and the remnants of which—post-useful service life—can affect society and the use of the underground for centuries into the future.
The committee was provided a detailed statement of task intended to define the role of underground engineering and works in sustainable urban development, as well as to provide direction for a future research track that supports such engineering. The broad and complex nature of the task necessitated only high-level consideration of its numerous points. The committee determined that simply responding one by one to each of the bulleted items in the statement of task would not fully respond to the intent of the task as described by the study sponsors. Instead, the committee tackled each bullet through discussions of the definition of sustainability, the evolution of underground use, potential contributions of the underground to sustainable urban development, health and safety in the underground, technological challenges of underground engineering, and research and training needed to increase capacity for underground engineering that supports sustainable development.
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