SCT Provide Best Practice solutions using hydraulic fracturing for preconditioning and cave inducement

SCT’s overcore technology using the ANZI strain cell and remote logging unit makes possible the measurement of in situ stresses at up to 1,000m from the borehole collar. Read more about in situ stress measurement and monitoring.

Hydraulic fractures open against the minimum principal stress and grow in the plane of the maximum and intermediate principal stresses. The in situ stress helps determine the expected orientation of the hydraulic fractures and the injection pressure needed, since the fracturing pressure must overcome the minimum principal stress magnitude. In naturally fracture rock, the fracture grows along some natural fractures and crosses others. These interactions result in higher injection pressures and significantly change the fracture growth rate.

Measuring the permeability of naturally fractured rock typically requires testing in a borehole or well to obtain results for a volume of rock representative of the rock mass. Well testing is used to measure the permeability before hydraulic fracturing is carried out.  Well testing commonly shows natural fractures are the primary flow path in naturally fractured rock.  
Read more about well testing methods here.

Armed with a positive feasibility study, the project owners have a decision to make: do they want to sell the project or their company, find a suitable JV partner, or build the mine themselves?

Since management’s first responsibility is to the majority of the shareholders, selling the company for the right price may be the most responsible course of action. Offloading the project and not the organisation is inevitably more complicated, since cash or shares remain in the business.

“The second option would be to find a JV partner with the financing and or experienced team to build the mine, which is not as desirable, as the original owner will have to give up a significant amount of ownership to attract the new partner,” Fred Sveinson, president at International Mine Builders, writes in Resource World.

“The third option is for the company to build the mine itself, whereby it will need to raise funds (financing) through equity (shares), debt such as loans, convertible debentures, royalty streams, smelter off-take agreements or some combination.”

On the question of whether it is ultimately cheaper to build a mine rather than buy the whole or part of one, Hough offers as examples two South African operators – Harmony Gold and Sibanye – that have built successful businesses on a similar model.

“Both companies identify mines that are fairly close to the end of their life cycles or are running on very small profit margins, strip out costs and run those as lean as possible,” he says. “Sibanye bought up marginal gold mines and then replicated that model in the platinum industry buying up a large proportion of Anglo Platinum’s operations – and then ran those assets extremely efficiently. These operations are priced accordingly; however, that model eventually becomes limiting, for the obvious reason that you can’t run old assets at a minimal cost forever and you need to replace reserves at some point.

“The large players spread their exploration expenditure and part-fund junior exploration companies via JVs as well as focus on developing their own concessions. The JVs allow them to have a foot in the door for a new discovery, at favourable prices.”

Fully owned by its staff, SCT is in a unique position to build and develop capability in house using a specialist team of geotechnical engineers, field personnel and instrumentation technicians.

SCT has worked in a wide range of coal, metal and civil operations globally where working in weak highly stress ground is the norm.

SCT uses a first principles approach to define the unique strata control hazards and design solutions for each project.

• Geotechnical Characterisation
• Numerical Modelling
• Mine Design
• Project Studies
• Caving Geomechanics
• Subsidence Engineering
• Specialist Site Roles
• Civil Works

SCT invest heavily in research and development and continue to refine and develop our capabilities to reflect the challenges faced in mining and civil operations.

SCT Operations Pty Ltd
Cnr Kembla & Beach Streets
Wollongong, NSW 2500
AUSTRALIA

Web: www.sct.gs

Email: contactus@sct.gs

Tel: +61 2 4222 2777

Fax: +61 2 4226 4884