Mount Isa Mines

Mount Isa Mines

Mount Isa Mines refers to a mining company that has been operating in northwest Queensland for over 80 years, and is the second-largest copper producer in Australia. The company produces approximately 6.5 million tonnes of ore per year, with significant amounts of zinc and lead, and has an estimated pre-mining total of 150 million tonnes of zinc and lead, and 255 million tonnes of copper. D.R. Grant is associated with the company as an employee.From: Ground Support in Mining and Underground Construction [2019], Foliation boudinage structures in the Mount Isa Cu system [2023], Prediction and Performance in Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering [2000]

Mining through filled stopes using shotcrete linings at Xstrata – Mount Isa Mines

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Purchase Book

Published in Erik Stefan Bernard, Shotcrete: More Engineering Developments, 2004

N. Slade, K. Kuganathan

Today, Xstrata – Mount Isa Mines operates three large underground base metals mines in Mount Isa, namely the Isa Copper Mine, Isa Lead Mine and the George Fisher Mine. The location of base metal operations is presented in Figure 1. The operations extract ore through sub-level open stoping and benching methods, producing 240 000 tpa of copper anode, 180 000 tpa of zinc concentrate, 160 000tpa of crude lead and 11 M oz of silver in crude lead.

Foliation boudinage structures in the Mount Isa Cu system

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Journal Information

Published in Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 2023

B. J. Williams, T. G. Blenkinsop, R. Lilly, M. P. Thompson, P. Ila’ava

The world-class Mount Isa Cu and Pb–Zn deposit is located in the Mount Isa Inlier of northwest Queensland (Figure 1). Mount Isa Mine is the second-largest copper producer in Australia, producing approximately 6.5 Mt of ore per year up to 3.3 wt% Cu, with an estimated pre-mining total comprising 150 Mt at 7 wt% Zn and 6 wt% Pb, and 255 Mt at 3.3 wt% Cu (Glencore, 2022; Large et al., 2002, 2005; Potgieter, 2015). The Pb–Zn orebodies are generally close to the surface (Figure 2), where stratiform galena and sphalerite are hosted within dolomitic layers (Bell et al., 1988; Cave et al., 2020). The breccia dominated Cu ore bodies are located within a silica-dolomite alteration halo and occupy a deeper level in the Mount Isa system (Bell et al., 1988; Perkins, 1984; Swager, 1985). The Cu orebodies are typically discordant to bedding and interdigitate with the Pb–Zn orebodies (Bell et al., 1988; Cave et al., 2020; Perkins, 1984; Swager, 1985; Swager et al., 1987).

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Mining through filled stopes using shotcrete linings at Xstrata – Mount Isa Mines

Foliation boudinage structures in the Mount Isa Cu system