Geotest Projects Imerys Talc, Rabenwald, Austria

Project Information

The Rabenwald pit is located at 940 - 1190 m above sea level in SE Austria. Up to 100 kt of talc ore are produced each year at the expense of approximately 2 Mt of overburden. The drilling started in 2020 as part of a 3-year master agreement aiming to expand the LoM of the Rabenwald Talc operation.

Client :Imerys
Location :Austria
Year launched :2020
Status :Ongoing
Value :4M €
Drilled :>5,000 meters

Project Description

Drilling campaign aimed to increase the LoM by adding a significant amount of ore close to the southern edge of current operation. Two (2) surface drilling rigs deployed at the southern edge of the open pit by in a regular 40x40m grid. Vertical boreholes, verified by downhole survey, provided excellent results.

Project Challenge

It has been a mildly challenging project as the mine is very well organized.

Rig deployment in a crowded operating mine
Water transportation and handling through sumps

Maintain high recovery in the ore portion of the borehole
Occasionally bad geotechnical conditions in the overburden

RESULTS

The 2020 program successfully delineated another 5 years worth of mining. The 2022 program aims to infill the previous boreholes, to increase the geological confidence in the ore estimation, and further delineate more the southern extreme of the deposit.