System and method for activating deep raffinate injection based on ore placement

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12373743-B2
Application number	US-202318398613-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 28, 2023
Priority date	Jun 27, 2022
Publication date	Jul 29, 2025
Grant date	Jul 29, 2025

Abstract

The method may comprise receiving historical data (e.g., mineralogy data, irrigation data, raffinate data, heat data, lift height data, geographic data on ore placement and/or blower data); training a predictive model using the historical data to create a trained predictive model; adding future assumption data to the trained predictive model; running the forecast engine for a plurality of parameters to obtain forecast data for a mining production target; comparing the forecast data for the mining production target to the actual data for the mining production target; determining deviations between the forecast data and the actual data, based on the comparing; and changing each of the plurality of parameters from the forecast data to the actual data to determine a contribution to the deviations for each of the plurality of parameters.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a processor and from sensors, ore placement data for ore in a stockpile;
determining, by the processor, ore placement locations for the ore in the stockpile, based on the ore placement data,
reallocating ore from the ore placement locations to side slopes of the stockpile, wherein the side slopes are in neighboring sections to the ore placement locations,
wherein leaching operations are conducted on first areas of the ore placement locations in the stockpile to obtain historical leaching process data for the stockpile;
determining, by the processor, an amount of minerals extracted from the first areas of the ore placement locations in the stockpile, based on the historical leaching process data for the first areas of the ore placement locations in the stockpile,
determining, by the processor, recovery locations for remaining recoverable minerals in second areas of the ore placement locations in the stockpile, based on the historical leaching process data for the first areas of the ore placement locations in the stockpile, wherein the first areas are different from the second areas; and
activating, by the processor, deep raffinate injection in the second areas of the ore placement locations in the stockpile that are determined to have the recovery locations for the remaining recoverable minerals.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the activating the deep raffinate injection comprises sending a signal to a machine to drill holes at a depth to target the recovery locations for the remaining recoverable minerals in the second areas of the stockpile.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the activating the deep raffinate injection comprises tailoring leach solution chemistry to mineralogy of the remaining recoverable minerals to use for the deep raffinate injection.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the activating the deep raffinate injection comprises enhancing raffinate solutions over the remaining recoverable minerals with at least one of sulfuric acid, ferric ions, air bubbles, oxygen bubbles, heat, or microbes.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the activating the deep raffinate injection comprises enhancing raffinate solutions over the remaining recoverable minerals with at least one of an acid, oxidant or additive.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the activating the deep raffinate injection comprises pumping leaching solutions under pressure into a deep raffinate well within the remaining recoverable minerals.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the recovery locations for the remaining recoverable minerals in the second areas of the stockpile for the deep raffinate injection is based on the deep raffinate injection of the leach solutions channeling within the second areas of the stockpile.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the recovery locations for the remaining recoverable minerals in the second areas of the stockpile for the deep raffinate injection is based on the leach solutions not contacting ore particles uniformly.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ore placement data comprises dispatch data, haul truck sensor data, polygon data, assay data, mineralogy data from a block model or mineralogy data.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the amount of minerals extracted from the first areas of the ore placement locations in the stockpile is further based on a predictive model that is at least one of trained or tested using the historical leaching process data for the stockpile.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the ore placement locations for the stockpile includes determining mineralogy of remaining recoverable minerals for the stockpile.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the ore placement locations for the stockpile includes determining mineralogy for the stockpile by:
aggregating mineralogy details to a section level by combining mine material tracking (MMT) truckload data at a dump level, MMT imputation data at the dump level and MMT final section mapping data at the dump level and the section level;
obtaining maximum days under leach (DUL) for each section at the section level by using irrigation data over all stockpiles at the section level; and
determining an intermediate ore map for a stockpile by combining the aggregating mineralogy details, the maximum DUL for each section and a primary new section polygon.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the amount of minerals extracted from the stockpile comprises determining a primary ore map for the stockpile.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the determining the primary ore map for the stockpile comprises adding flow data, irrigation data and a remaining mineral prediction from a machine learning model to obtain information by section and by date for the stockpile.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ore placement locations relate to where the ore is located.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining at least one of x, y, z coordinates or time-series layering information for the recovery locations for the remaining recoverable minerals in the second areas of the stockpile.

17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising at least one of:
providing a visualization of section mineralogy populated on a map of the stockpile;
providing a visualization of the recovery locations for the remaining recoverable minerals in the second areas of the stockpile;
defining boundaries of the stockpile based on polygons recorded in a geographic information system (GIS); or
estimating the remaining recoverable minerals in the second areas of the stockpile based on a column test model.

18. A method comprising:
receiving, by a processor and from sensors, ore placement data for a stockpile;
determining, by the processor, ore placement locations for the stockpile, based on the ore placement data,
wherein the determining the ore placement locations for the stockpile includes determining mineralogy for the stockpile by:
aggregating mineralogy details to a section level by combining mine material tracking (MMT) truckload data at a dump level, MMT imputation data at the dump level and MMT final section mapping data at the dump level and the section level;
obtaining maximum days under leach (DUL) for each section at the section level by using irrigation data over all stockpiles at the section level; and
determining an intermediate ore map for a stockpile by combining the aggregating mineralogy details, the maximum DUL for each section and a primary new section polygon;

conducting, by the processor, leaching operations on the stockpile to obtain historical leaching process data for the stockpile;
determining, by the processor, an amount of minerals extracted from the stockpile, based on the historical leaching process data for the stockpile;
determining, by the processor, recovery locations for remaining recoverable minerals in areas of the stockpile, based on the historical leaching process data for the stockpile; and
activating, by the processor, deep raffinate injection in the areas of the stockpile that are determined to have the recovery locations for the remaining recoverable minerals.

19. A method comprising:
receiving, by a processor and from sensors, ore placement data for a stockpile;
determining, by the processor, ore placement locations for the stockpile, based on the ore placement data;
conducting, by the processor, leaching operations on the stockpile to obtain historical leaching process data for the stockpile;
determining, by

Assignees

• Freeport Minerals Corp

Inventors

• Geislinger Dana
• Gaddie Travis
• Tinsley Margaret Alden
• Alam Muneeb
• Richardson Steven Chad
• Sanyal Akaash
• Crossman Raquel
• Ni Tianfang
• Demieville Cory A
• Gerdes Luke
• Freeman Robyn
• Klesov Oleksandr
• Issoe Luciano Kiniti

Classifications

• G06Q10/0631

  Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations · CPC title

• C22B15/0067

  with acids or salts thereof · CPC title

• C22B3/06

  in inorganic acid solutions {, e.g. with acids generated in situ; in inorganic salt solutions other than ammonium salt solutions} · CPC title

• C22B15/0095

  Process control or regulation methods · CPC title

• G06Q50/02

  Agriculture; Fishing; Forestry; Mining · CPC title