Pulacayo Project Feasibility Study - Apogee Silver

Pulacayo 1 000 t/d Phase I Feasibility Study - NI 43-101 Technical Report
090644-3-0000-20-IFI-100
regulators, and small fans] will be used to ensure that the air circulates through the
production haulages on its way to the booster fans.
The ventilation design is to route intake air to the centre of the mine and to the various levels
via the production ramp and central shaft. Air will then flow out from the centre of the mine
towards the extremities of each level, then to a ‘gathering level’, proposed to be Level 25. On
the East side of the mine, a connection will be made to surface from Level 25, with four fans
located at the bottom. This exhaust shaft will handle 120 m 3 /s and will be approximately
10 m 2 in cross-sectional area. On the West side, return air will be routed to several existing
ramps that connect to the existing Candelaria 1 and Rothchild shafts. A further 120 m 3 /s will
be exhausted from the mine via these routes. Air will be routed from level to level via
dedicated ventilation passes, or through old mining connections, where they exist close to
where they are required. Figure 16.9 below, illustrates the tonnage and ventilation
requirement of the mine with time.
Figure 16.9: Stoping Tonnage versus Annual Ventilation Requirements with Time
Figure 16.10 below shows what the ultimate ventilation layout of Pulacayo mine will be. Light
blue airways denote main intake airways, with red denoting return airways. Dark blue are the
production levels. The black colored level denotes the workings on Level Zero, which will be
mined as conventional shrinkage stopes. The layout incorporates some risk – the routes to
the surface connections are small and possibly highly restricted. Existing plans and
documents have been scrutinized to estimate the size of these airways, and ventilation
modeling software [VUMA and Ventsim] were used to determine the required fan capacities.
Discussions with mine staff have indicated that there would be a willingness to re-raise some
connections if necessary.
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