Fresh Insights – Pick the right selective mining unit (SMU)

Fresh Insights is a series of short, practical tips from our consultants – for those working in the mining industry.

They’re a way of sharing the knowledge and skills our team has built up over many years on site and behind the desk – offering ideas that can help improve decision-making, boost confidence, and support day-to-day work.

This Fresh Insight is from Danny Tolmer:

“Pick the right selective mining unit (SMU)

Working with the resource modeller to select a reasonable SMU size before analysing pit shells or stope shapes is just as critical as understanding the geotechnical constraints or other modifying factors. Resource models need to be built with the mining method in mind.”

Danny Tolmer – Managing Consultant, Mining Engineering
Based in Canada, Danny brings over 20 years of operational and consulting experience in both open pit and underground mine optimisation. His background includes project economic evaluation, drill and blast, short- and long-term mine planning, mine design, and site supervision.

Danny has specialist expertise in project management and has delivered studies across all stages, from conceptual to feasibility. His consulting work includes technical studies, audits, M&A due diligence, and operational support. He has also led numerous comparative studies on conventional truck-and-shovel operations versus alternative material handling technologies.

His commodity experience spans coal, copper, diamonds, gold, silver, nickel, lead, zinc, uranium, limestone, rare earths, and industrial materials such as Frac Sand.

Danny is a Qualified Person for open pit mining under NI 43-101 and SK 1300 Technical Reporting, covering a wide range of commodities including diamonds, coal (metallurgical and thermal), gold, copper, nickel, uranium, lithium, graphite, and industrial minerals such as limestone, phosphate, potash, silica, quartzite, and Frac Sand.

He is a registered professional mining engineer with EGBC, APEGA, APEY, NAPEG, and PEO.

If you’d like to contact Danny: contact@snowdenoptiro.com

We also share free technical insights through our Fresh Thinking podcast series.
You can find all episodes on our Snowden Optiro YouTube channel LINK

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