Chapter 7: Mining and hydrocarbon recovery
Once a discovery has been made, properly assessed and determined to be economic, the next step is to mine the reserve to recover the valuable commodity. The method employed to get access to the resource will depend on its location and orientation relative to the surface and on the mineral characteristics and value of the commodity.
Surface mining
For orebodies located near the surface, access may be gained without the need to go underground. There are a number of advantages to mining from the surface, principally lower cost, but there are limitations and the type of surface mining applied can vary.
Open cut
Where an orebody is located near the surface and is vertical in nature, it may be economic to ...
