An explosives delivery vehicle for delivering a booster for initiating an explosion of an explosive material in a hole in a floor of a mine pit to an operative depth in the hole. The vehicle comprises a storage assembly for storing a plurality of the boosters, a booster loading assembly for (i) supporting the booster in a delivery position above the hole and (ii) moving the booster downwardly into the hole and inserting the booster at an operative depth in the hole; and a delivery assembly for transporting the booster from the storage assembly to the loading assembly.

A method of open cut mining comprising carrying out mining operations in an area of an open cut mine with manned resources and unmanned resources and providing separate access for these resources to the mine area at selected locations. Alternatively, or in addition, the method comprises carrying out mining operations in the mine area with manned resources and unmanned resources operating in selected, separate unmanned and manned zones, respectively within the mine area.

A method of open cut mining comprising carrying out mining operations in an area of an open cut mine with manned resources and unmanned resources and providing separate access for these resources to the mine area at selected locations. Alternatively, or in addition, the method comprises carrying out mining operations in the mine area with manned resources and unmanned resources operating in selected, separate unmanned and manned zones, respectively within the mine area.

The invention relates to a method for mining and processing of an ore. The method comprises at least one mobile comminution device (26) comprising at least one mobile crusher unit and at least one mobile grinding unit located proximate to an ore body that is being mined (20), fragmented ore (22) from the ore body is comminuted in the mobile comminution device (26) to a size which can be readily pumped (28) without the use of special carrier fluids, preferably to a particle size p50 in the range between 0.05 to 1 mm and the comminuted ore is combined with water to form a slurry.

The invention relates to a method for mining and processing of an ore. The method comprises at least one mobile comminution device (26) comprising at least one mobile crusher unit and at least one mobile grinding unit located proximate to an ore body that is being mined (20), fragmented ore (22) from the ore body is comminuted in the mobile comminution device (26) to a size which can be readily pumped (28) without the use of special carrier fluids, preferably to a particle size p50 in the range between 0.05 to 1 mm and the comminuted ore is combined with water to form a slurry.

An explosives delivery vehicle for delivering a booster for initiating an explosion of an explosive material in a hole in a floor of a mine pit to an operative depth in the hole. The vehicle comprises a storage assembly for storing a plurality of the boosters, a booster loading assembly for (i) supporting the booster in a delivery position above the hole and (ii) moving the booster downwardly into the hole and inserting the booster at an operative depth in the hole; and a delivery assembly for transporting the booster from the storage assembly to the loading assembly.

An explosives delivery vehicle for delivering a booster (65) for initiating an explosion of an explosive material in a hole (90) in a floor (91) of a mine pit to an operative depth in the hole. The vehicle comprises a storage assembly (10) for storing a plurality of the boosters, a booster loading assembly (30) for (i) supporting the booster in a delivery position above the hole and (ii) moving the booster downwardly into the hole and inserting the booster at an operative depth in the hole; and a delivery assembly (20) for transporting the booster from the storage assembly to the loading assembly.

An open cut mine includes an area to be mined bounded by a perimeter. The area to be mined includes (a) a manned zone within the perimeter in which manned resources operate to the exclusion of unmanned resources, (b) an unmanned zone within the perimeter in which unmanned resources operate to the exclusion of manned resources, (c) a first manned resource access location in the perimeter including a roadway through which manned resources move into and from the manned zone, and (d) a separate second unmanned resource access location in the perimeter including a roadway through which unmanned resources move into and from the unmanned zone.

An open cut mine includes an area to be mined bounded by a perimeter. The area to be mined includes (a) a manned zone within the perimeter in which manned resources operate to the exclusion of unmanned resources, (b) an unmanned zone within the perimeter in which unmanned resources operate to the exclusion of manned resources, (c) a first manned resource access location in the perimeter including a roadway through which manned resources move into and from the manned zone, and (d) a separate second unmanned resource access location in the perimeter including a roadway through which unmanned resources move into and from the unmanned zone.

A method for monitoring depth of a cave front in a cave-type mine. The method includes: providing a stationary reader device and mobile marker devices, each of the marker devices adapted to (i) emit an electromagnetic signal, (ii) detect strength of the signal emitted by another of the marker devices, and (iii) wirelessly transmit information related to the detected signal via the other marker devices to the stationary reader device; drilling a hole into a rock region of a mine, installing the mobile marker devices at sequential known depths within the hole; monitoring the reader device to detect a decrease in the strength of a signal emitted by a first marker device by a second marker device; and in response to a decrease being detected by the second marker device, inferring the depth of the cave front to be between the known depths of the first and second marker devices.