Abstract:
Established natural caving (i.e. block or panel caves) projects and operations have been underway for decades and are clearly visible. In recent years, a number of new caving projects have been under study.
These projects are typically new discoveries or surface to underground transitions, with ownership outside of the existing mainstream cavers. The new projects do not typically have the benefit of deep in-house caving skills and rely on study teams that assemble a number of entities to investigate the various required study components.
A key challenge for project owners is initially the quantum of finance that is required to source all the required orebody knowledge and carry out suitable investigations. In most cases, this is a serious challenge and drives the observed behaviours and outcomes.
This paper focuses on the required workflow for natural caving projects from Scoping Study to about a Pre-feasibility Study level; in contrast to detailed design aspects that are discussed elsewhere in this conference.
