RE:the best and newest Coppermine in the USA Picture tells a thousand words...in this case a lot more than one thousand. The picture is actually right from the Nevada Copper website. The picture at the start of this article shows atrocious ground conditions.
- You can hardly identify the drift profile that they are trying to mine from the overbreak.
- They cannot control the ground with bolts and need to use shotcrete. This is a shallow mine, there should be no need for shotcrete. Shotcrete=bad ground. Shotcrete=higher mining cost. Shotcrete=much slower development rates.
- It looks like the shotcrete is wet. This means significant ground water. Ground water in base metals mines means serious corrosion problems, leading to longterm ground problems and higher mining cost due to rehabilitation.
I can't think of a more inappropriate picture to show for a rah-rah promotional article.
Shaking my head in disbelief. Best copper mine in the USA....not in your picture.