Surface Mining

Ore Deposit Grades

2011 Dr. B. C. Paul
Note- The information contained in these slides is considered
common knowledge to those schooled in the field and was not
collected from any one particular source. Acknowledgement is given
to SME for model P.E. exams that provided guidance on subjects that
required coverage for students to prepare to pass the P.E.

Ore Grade Realities

Very few ore deposits where the mineral or

element of interest is only a minor percentage of

the total mass have a uniform grade throughout
the orebody.
Example A gold deposit has the following ore
grade distribution

6% is 1 to 4 grams/tonne
12% is 4 to 6 grams/tonne
30% is 6 to 10 grams/tonne
36% is 10 to 12 grams/tonne
16% is 12 to 20 grams/tonne
What is the average grade?

Ore Grade Distributions

Most minor element grade

distributions are highly skewed with

a lot more low grade ore than high
grade ore
Histograms capture that skewness
Average grades can be computed
with a weighted average.

Lets Give it a Try

Midpoint of each grade category

6% is about 2.5 grams/tonne

12% is about 5 grams/tonne
30% is about 8 grams/tonne
36% is about 11 grams/tonne
16% is about 16 grams/tonne

Weighted Average
(6*2.5+12*5+30*8+36*11+16*16)/100 = 9.67
grams/tonne

Reality #2 Most Ore Deposits

are Polymetalic
Means there is more than 1 mineral
of interest

An orebody contains Cu, Zn, and Pb

How do I put a value on the ore

Best way is to sum the value of the
componants

Summing the Value of

Components
The ore contains 7% zinc, 1% Pb, 0.5% Cu in
sulfide -

The zinc will be floated, roasted, leached,

electrowon
Suppose you have 85% recovery in flotation and then 85%

recovery in the roast leach and 99% in electrowin

Suppose zinc sells for 80 cents/lb, lead for 60 cents/lb, and
copper for $3/lb
Electrowinning costs 5 cents/lb
The roast leach process is about $80/ton of concentrate
Flotation process runs about $4.75/ton of ore for 3 products

Working on the Value of the

Zinc
Take the electrowining cost off of the sale
price since they are in the same units

80 cents 5 cents = 75 cents

But only 99% of the zinc in solution will be
recovered for sale
75 * 0.99 = 0.7425 per lb of zinc in solution

To get the cost for the roast and leach on

a lb of zinc basis I will need to know the
zinc content of the concentrate

Zinc Concentrate Grade

In this deposit and most let us suppose the
zinc is in sphalerite ZnS.

Sphalerite is about 64% zinc

Since so stuff that should not float will get into the
zinc concentrate let us suppose that 2% of the
sulfides are chalcopyrite and 0.5% is pyrite and
there is about 4% gangue mineral carry over.
Thus 97.5% of the sulfides in the concentrate are
sphalerite.
And 96% of the concentrate is sulfide
64% * 0.975 *0.96 = 59.9% zinc

Now lets get the roast leach

cost on a recovered zinc basis
$80/ton of concentrate that is 59.9% zinc
2000 lbs * 0.599 = 1198 lbs of zinc
But only 85% of that will be recovered
1198 lbs * 0.85 = 1018 lbs
Cost per recovered lb of zinc = 80/1018 =
0.079 or 7.9 cents per lb

Value of zinc in concentrate

74.25 cents 7.9 cents = 66.35 cents/lb in

concentrate

Now Lets Get the Value of Zinc

in the Rock
Zinc in concentrate is worth 66.35 cents

per lb
85% of the zinc in the rock is recovered in
concentrate so
66.35 * 0.85 = 56.4 cents per lb

Rock is 7% zinc
2000 lbs/ton * 0.07 = 140 lbs of zinc
At 56.4 cents/lb
140 * 0.564 = $78.96 for the zinc

Now Lets Value the Lead

Lets assume the lead is in Galena
PbS is 86.6% lead
Galena will be floated into a concentrate
(96.5% recovery)
Smelted in a Blast Furnace $100/ton of
concentrate (95% recovery)
Electrorefined for about 10 cents/lb
(99% recovery)

Start by getting value of

unrefined lead
Lead is 60 cents per lb
It cost 10 cents per lb to refine
That leaves 50 cents per lb

But recovery is 99%

50 * .99 = 49.5 cents per lb of unrefined
lead bullion from the blast furnace

Lets get the Grade of the

Concentrate Going to the Blast
Furnace
Lets assume about 10% impurity in the concentrate
meaning 90% of the concentrate is Galena
Galena is 86.6% Lead
Thus the concentrate has 2000lbs/ton * .9 * 0.866
= 1559 lbs of lead
95% will be recovered in the blast furnace
1559 * 0.95 = 1481 lbs of recoverable lead

Concentrate Processing is $100/ton / 1481 lbs/ton =

0.068 or 6.8 cents per lb
Lead in concentrate is thus worth 49.5 cent/lb 6.8
cents/lb = 42.7 cents/lb

Finding the Value of Lead in

Rock
1 Ton of Rock is 1% Lead
2000 lbs * 0.01 = 20 lbs of lead

96.5% of that will be recovered in

floatation

20 lbs * 0.965 = 19.3 lbs of lead

At 42.7 cents/lb

19.3 * 0.427 = $8.24 for the lead in a

ton of Ore

Now Lets Get the Copper

0.5% Copper assumed in Chalcopyrite
CuFeS2, 34.6% Copper

Copper is Floated with about 87% recovery

The Concentrate is Smelted with 92%
recovery at a cost of $85/ton of
concentrate
Blister Copper is electrorefined for about
10 cents per lb with about 99% recovery

Get the value of Blister

Copper
$3/lb market 10 cents/lb to
electrorefine

$2.90/lb as blister
Adjust for 99% recovery
2.90*.99 = 2.87/lb

Getting the Concentrate Grade

so the Smelter cost can be
converted
to
a
cost/lb
Chalcopyrite is 34.6% Cu
Assume about 17% impurities
34.6% *.83 = 28.7% Cu

A ton of concentrate cost $85 to process to blister

copper in the smelter

2000 lbs *.287 = 574 lbs in concentrate

92% will be recovered

574 * .92 = 528 lbs recovered

Cost per lb

$85/ton / 528 lbs/ton = 0.161 or 16.1 cents per lb

$2.87/lb 0.161 = $2.71 per lb in concentrate

Working Back to the Rock

Rock is 0.5% Copper
2000 lbs *0.005 = 10 lbs of copper
But only 87% of that will be recovered in
the concentrator
10 * 0.87 = 8.7 lbs of copper

Getting the value

8.7 lbs/ton * $2.71/lb = $23.58 for the
copper

Totaling Things Up
Zinc $78.96
Lead $8.24
Copper $23.58
$110.78
But we still have not charged off the cost

of running a 3 product concentrator $4.75

$110.78 - $4.75 = $106.03/ton
Looks like a nice valuable chunk of ore

Thats a lot of Calculations

Why Are You Doing This to Us?
These types of calculations are on the P.E.

exam
But Wont Computer Programs do this for us?
In mine planning ore grades are kept in blocks and
calculations like this are done to get the value per
ton of the block
Most programs do not consider all recoveries and
costs you may have to adjust the market price
before you feed it to the program
If you dont know what went into the cost you wont be
able to do it.

What About Early Phase Ore

Body Evaluation Does it have
to be this hairy?
No
An approximation used for early
planning is to assign a polymetalic
deposit an equivalent grade

Our Zinc Lead Copper deposit might be

defined as if all the value came from
Zinc

Illustrating
What if the entire $106.03 came

from Zinc what grade would do

that?
7% zinc = $78.96/ton
Ratio off
($106.03/$78.96) * 7% = 9.4%
Equivalent Zinc Grade

Of Course to Do That I Had a

Bunch of Calculations
Equivalent Grades sometimes use very

crude data
Example of an Equivalent Grade based on
market price only
Lead was 1% but lead is 60 cents per lb
instead of 80 cents/lb
1%*60/80= 0.75% Zinc equivalent
Copper was 0.5% but copper is $3/lb
0.5% * 300/80 = 1.88% zinc equivalent
7%+.75%+1.88% = 9.63% zinc equivalent

Sometimes People include

Recovery in Equivalent Grade
Zinc 2000 lb/ton * 0.07 (insitu grade)
* 0.85 (floatation recovery) * 0.85
(roast leach recovery) * 0.99
(electrorefining recovery) = 100 lbs

Zinc price is 80 cents per lb

Minus 12.9 cents per lb for post
concentrate processing
100 *0.671 = $67.1

More Equivalent Grade with

Recovery
Lead 1%
2000 * 0.01 (lead grade) * 0.965
(floatation recovery) * 0.95 (blast
furnace recovery) * 0.99 (refining
recovery) = 18.15 lbs
60 cents/lb 16.8 cents/lb for post
concentrate processing
18.15 * (0.60-0.168) = $7.84

More Equivalent Grade with

Recovery
Copper
2000*.005 (grade) * 0.87 (floatation
recovery) * 0.92 (smelter recovery) *
0.99 (refining recovery) = 7.92 lbs
Copper value $3/lb 0.261/lb (for post
concentrate processing)
7.92 * (3-0.261) = $21.7

Get Ratios
Value of Lead compared to value of zinc
$8.74/67.1 = 0.1168

Value of copper compared to value of

zinc

$21.7/67.1 = 0.3235

Add up the ratios 1 + 0.1168 + 0.3235

= 1.44
7% * 1.44 = 10.08% zinc equivalent

Things to Note About

Equivalent Grade
People are not totally consistent as to

what is and is not included

Equivalent Grade hides a multitude of
calculations many parameters,
especially market prices change with
time
Thus equivalent grade is only good at one
point in time and for a specific set of
assumptions

Is It Any Good?
Yes
Early in the life of an orebody discovery

our knowledge of ore grades can easily be

plus or minus 25%

Differences in equivalent grade will usually be

well within 10% so the imprecision is within the
uncertainty of our orebody

The fact that equivalent grade values get

bad over time is not important

Early in the life we want to know whether the

orebody merits further attention now we are
not doing a long term plan

Now Its Your Turn

Do Assignment #2 on Orebody Sizes
and Grades