Overview

The Stope Design submenu contains options that bring together many of the functions in other menus, that is, Model and Block.

Under the Stope Design submenu are reserves options specifically for working on rings. Also some specific options for displaying sections through a stope.

When a stope is designed, which is typically done on sections at say, 15m intervals, the stope can be designed from both ends underground. The designer may want information on grades, drillholes, contours through a block model, coloured blocks through a block model, to see what the ore grade may be at each point. At this point the model may be sliced into 'rings', which are the sections that will be blasted. They may also look at each ring to see what grade of ore it contains and maybe to revise the stope design.

The stope can be designed by ring if required, or it can be designed as an entire solid and then viewed ring by ring.

The preparatory work for stope design, is carried out through the Model and Block menus, where slices can be created. In block modelling a number of slices can be created or contours created through the block model at each point along a line.

Looking at block models for evaluation purposes, the main emphasis of the Stope Design submenu is to evaluate quickly between two ring faces or slices of a stope.