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 An
engineering group was formed in January 1965 to provide the engineering
requirements of the tunnel; to make a study of alternative mining methods
and select the most suitable to the Granduc orebodies; to prepare the
necessary mine plans for the development to production; to design the
required mine facilities; and to work with Newmont's engineering
department and the design engineers to provide recommendations for
services regarding plant design.
Various consultants in design submitted estimates as to cost and plant
requirements until finally in August 1966 Granduc awarded an engineering
and construction management contract to McKee-Swan Wooster , a joint
venture of Arthur G. McKee & Company of Canada and Swan Wooster
Engineering Co. Ltd.
Terms of
reference for the design established a capacity of 10,000 tons per day
for the underground primary crushers and surface secondary crushers.
Grinding design sized at 9,000 t.p.d. dry-solids basis with moisture
assumed at 5% for 24-hour-per-day operations. This equated to a nominal
concentrator capacity of 8,600 t.p.d. at a utilization factor of 95.6%.
If the experience
of other mining and milling plants is taken as a criterion it is likely
that rated capacity will be exceeded when the Granduc operation is
settled down after the usual and nor- mal tuning-up difficulties.
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