Closed Loop Management in Mineral Resource Extraction Turning Online Geo-Data into Mining Intelligence

This book describes an innovative closed-loop concept that allows the feedback of online data from operational monitoring to create mining intelligence. The application of this concept promises significant improvements in economic and environmental key performance indicators for any mining operation.

Combining theory with industrial case studies, the book guides readers through this process by providing theoretical background, addressing practical issues related to operational implementation, and illustrating the impact on selected examples. This new concept is presented using the example of a bulk and gold mining application, but is applicable at any mine where grade control is important.

Dr. Jörg Benndorf is a mining professional with 10 years’ industry and 9 years’ academic experience. In industry, he worked as project leader and project manager for large investment projects, mine planning engineer, operational engineer and consultant in Germany, Australia, USA, and Jamaica. His interests include process optimization along the whole mining value chain from exploration to processing. From 2012 to 2016 he was Assistant Professor of Resource Engineering at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. His research focuses on methods of geomonitoring and real-time data integration, geostatistical modeling and geological risk assessment. Since 2016 he has held a full professorship in Geomonitoring and Mine Surveying at the University of Mining and Technology “Bergakademie” Freiberg in Germany. Dr. Benndorf graduated from the same university, and he holds a PhD in Mining Geostatistics from TU Clausthal in Germany and an MPhil in Mining Engineering from the University of Queensland in Australia.