Optimum design of open pit mines

Abstract

An open-pit mining operation can be viewed as a process by which the open surface of a mine is continuosly deformed. The planning of a mining program involves the design of the final shape of this open surface. The aproach developed in this paper is based on the following assumptions: 1. the type of material, its mine value and its extraction cost is given for each point; 2. restrictions on the geometry of the pit are specified (surface boundaries and maximum allowable wall slopes); 3. the objective is to maximize total profit - total mine value of material extracted minus total extraction cost. Two numeric methods are proposed: A simple dynamic programming algorithm for the two-dimensional pit (or a single vertical section of a mine), and a more elaborate graph algorithm for the general three-dimensional pit.