More mining considerations Lets say 10 stopes are available to production crews at any one time. Lets assume that at any one time two of those stopes are on temporary hold because of low grade or operational difficulties. Lets say one is in the proceess of being filled with paste fill and another is being prepped ready for fill. And lets say another is just in the process of being opened up with blasting the VR30 slot and can provide absolutely minimal tonnage for a while.
So we have 5 active production stopes, each providing 400 tpd, with another 700 tonnes coming from development muck. Five stopes should provide more than adequate ability to optimise the feed to the mill on a daily basis.
If we assume that 15% of the last 12 months milled tonnage came from development, it implies each stope provides about 35,000 tonnes. At 400 tonnes per day , this means a stope life of about 87 days which corresponds well with previously identified need to have eight new stopes prepared ready for production every quarter.
None of the estimates / projections will be 100% accurate but unless management provides some more details , they do provide a general indication of underground activities.