A strip ratio, or stripping ratio, is a crucial measurement associated to the open-pit mining course of.
Put merely, the stripping ratio is the quantity of waste materials, also referred to as overburden, that have to be moved as a way to extract a given quantity of ore.
That stated, stripping ratios should not solely concerning the quantity of undesirable materials current at a website; additionally they bear in mind the sorts of materials that have to be eliminated to achieve the ore. In spite of everything, shifting light-weight materials like sand or grime is easier than shifting exhausting rock.
This is a have a look at how stripping ratios are calculated alongside some examples of mines and initiatives with low or excessive stripping ratios.
How you can calculate stripping ratios?
On the most simple stage, the strip ratio components entails dividing overburden thickness by ore thickness. For instance, an overburden thickness of 100 meters and an ore thickness of fifty meters would yield a strip ratio of two:1. Meaning mining 1 cubic meter of ore would require mining 3 cubic meters of overburden.
The stripping ratio of a deposit could also be used, partially, to gauge how worthwhile it might be. The decrease the strip ratio the higher, since a low strip ratio interprets into decrease mining prices and good prospects for profitability.
Conversely, a mission with a really excessive strip ratio probably is not going to be worthwhile. On this case, the undesirable materials is far higher than the quantity of ore that may doubtlessly be extracted, making it too costly to mine.
Ore high quality is one other consideration in stripping ratios in mining. That’s as a result of if a deposit incorporates low-quality ore, extra of it have to be mined as a way to obtain a return on funding.
It must be famous that each deposit is totally different, and a mission that advantages from one other issue — for instance, having excessive grades — can doubtlessly help a better strip ratio. Typically talking, there may be an inverse relationship between reserve grade and strip ratio.
With all of this in thoughts, mining firms calculate strip ratios for open-pit initiatives effectively earlier than they enter improvement and manufacturing, and have a tendency to hunt out initiatives with comparatively low strip ratios. Even so, given all of the components concerned in calculating a strip ratio, it’s troublesome to find out an total supreme determine. Within the case of a “typical” massive, low-grade copper porphyry deposit, a strip ratio beneath 3:1 is mostly thought-about good.
That is an up to date model of an article initially printed by the Investing Information Community in 2014.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Pistilli, maintain no direct funding curiosity in any firm talked about on this article.
Editorial Disclosure: Western Copper and Gold and World Copper are purchasers of the Investing Information Community. This text is just not paid-for content material.
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