Assessment of underground mining copper deposit “Bregu i Gështenjës”

• Main Authors: Skender LIPO, Nevina POLO
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Geo-SEE Institute 2018-06-01
• Series: Micro, Macro & Mezzo Geoinformation
• Subjects: copper deposit; restricted mineral reserves; mineral losses and dilution
• Online Access: http://mmm-gi.geo-see.org/wp-content/uploads/MMM-GI_10/Lipo_Polo.pdf

In the last 20 years, the mineral extraction industry in Albania has experienced a significant decline. The main reasons for this decline have been the lack of market for these minerals. Nowadays, several new copper deposits have been evaluated but it is worth underlining that the amount of mineral reserves in these deposits has been limited. Although the constant interest in these copper deposits, from foreign and domestic companies, still today, there is a lack in investments for opening new mines in these deposits. The main reason is the limited amount of copper ore in these deposits. This paper analyses the mining assessment of one of these copper deposits with about a million tons of extracted mineral reserves. Based on the geological medium of this deposit and the continuity of the ore bodies, the mining method and the dimensions of the mining units have been selected which, due to the concrete conditions, realize a high annual production of mineral with low mining loss indicators. The impacts of indicators of mineral losses and dilution in the breakeven cutoff grade in mineral processing and operative cost in extraction of one ton concentrate are estimated.