query on haulage, page-26

Thanks GNB

I got a copy of the Gravity Recovery conference papers from AUSIMM

What is remarkable about the Morning Star ore is the free milling characteristics. Its probably not widely appreciated just how good this ore is for gravity recovery. It may be the best in the world

Not only that, Gekko are clearly the most innovative gravity systems builders around. This is no suprise as Australia developed commercially viable flotation which transformed the mining industry world wide. We have always been great innovators

Enviromental and cost considerations drive the gravity recovery industry. The biggest problem is scaling up the systems, its still cheaper to build a large conventional system than stuff around with a small gravity focused system and then scale it up

This is not an issue for MCO. This is exactly where we are at. Small scale low costs operating systems with minimal enviromental impact.

I have no doubt MCO will be the laboratory for much experimentation with milling/tailings options. This is driven by the wild mountainous forest enviroment which is home to MCO, so the mining concept most interesting long term for MCO is the Gekko Python underground system. This would allow ore to be processed underground and the waste packed back into the stopes so maybe only 5% volume of blasted ore might emerge at the surface

That would require a decline. MCO is the most obvious mine in Australia to use this innovation

There is still no real advance on stope clearing/dilution control in narrow flat reef mines. The conference covered a few areas such as split face firing, using high pressure hoses ( the CTO dream), powerful vaccum cleaners. Its always going to be hard work and sometimes you still have to get the shovel out, but the grade at MCO well and true covers the additional cost if you are shoveling 55gpt dirt.