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-- a _kt75 | reprint compilation     Tweet Shaun New berr y, AngloGold Ashanti vice-president of strategic project design and spokesman for collaborative research group the Technology Innovation Consortium (TIC), says all the gold miners are facing the same challenges that the TIC is addressing. These are how to mine deeper and particularly make advances in safety and productivity. At the moment, conventional SA deep-level mining uses hand-held drills to bore holes into the rock for the insertion of explosives. Also, the necessity of making tunnels wide enough to accommodate people and equipment causes significant dilution of grade, sometimes halving it, or worse. About 40% of an ore body has to be left behind as safety pillars to reduce seismic risks. The TIC is investigating mechanical rock-breaking techniques called continuous reef boring, which would be considerably safer and more efficient than hand-held drilling. It is looking at ways of improving extractio...