Block cave mines are often thought of as rock factories where high volumes of production are mined from a fixed area suggesting little requirement for geological input and control. Yet caving operations have peculiar and specific technical requirements from prefeasibility through to post-mining reconciliation. Whilst essential elements such as resource definition, geological interpretation and sampling strategies are common to all mining methods, planning for a block cave requires a different emphasis and philosophical approach in how we deal with these issues. We will examine why a geoscientist's input is critical towards the successful planning, design and monitoring of a caving operation._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION:Burgio, N, 2011. A toolbox of ideas for the geoscientist working on block cave mines, in Proceedings Eighth International Mining Geology Conference 2011, pp 3-10 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).