Mine design on mangrove block site of Indrabakti Mustika company in Lameruru, North Konawe regency, Southeast Sulawesi province

Abstract The increasing demand for nickel in Indonesia grows with the trend of electric vehicles, inspiring nickel mining companies to enhance their supplies. PT IBM, a company engaged in nickel mining, is operating laterite nickel resource mining activities in a 576-ha area of open-cut mining in the village of Lameruru, North Konawe Regency, Southeast Sulawesi province. The mining activities are divided into several blocks, including a mangrove block to meet the production target of 125,000 WMT ore per month in case other blocks fail to meet the cut-off grade (CoG) of 1.2% Ni. This study recommends a mining design to effectively determine the overburden and ore extracted in the mangrove block. This quantitative research collected data from literature studies and field studies. The results of the mine design revealed eight mining sequences with a total amount of mined overburden and mined ore volume of 1,584,589 BCM and 1,069,481 WMT, respectively. The stripping ratio obtained was 1:1.48, indicating that it takes 1.48 BCM overburden to obtain 1 WMT ore.