Geometallurgy-oriented mine scheduling considering volume support and non-additivity

Abstract

In mine planning, metallurgical recovery is traditionally estimated in each block as a fixed value or a function of the block’s primary geological attributes. Nevertheless, this variable has two characteristics that are often neglected. First, it is non-additive, which means that estimation and scaling procedures of such properties cannot be done based on linear techniques. Second, it is a process response variable, which means this variable value represents the response of the volume processed at the plant. The combination of these two properties results that the metallurgical recovery of each block is dependent on the blocks that will be mined and processed together with it at the plant. This paper demonstrates the difference between how metallurgical recovery is traditionally considered in mine planning, and how it should be. There are impacts on mine scheduling/blending, global metallurgical recovery estimation (total quantity of metal recovered) and total economic value.