Shuttle Cars And Belt Conveyors Smooth Ore Flow At Denison

The Denison orebody, located on the north limb of a syncline, rests at depths of 800 ft in the northern end of the property to 3000 ft at the southern end, and has a composite dip of 19º, varying locally from 0º to 45º. It is composed essentially of two pyritized conglomerate beds separated by a varying thickness of quartzite. The thickness of the upper conglomerate reef of the main ore zone varies from 2 to 15 ft while the lower reef is from 2 to 12 ft. Mining, whether carried out over the entire section of the reefs and quartzite or by selective mining of the reefs, is accomplished by room and pillar methods, with an initial 67% extraction on the advance towards the property boundaries. The underground ore handling requirement in such an orebody has become one of the most challenging problems in mining.