Optimum Design of Open-Pit Mines
Helmut Lerchs Manager of Scientific Services, Montreal Datacentre, International Business Machines Co. Ltd., lngo F. Grossmann Manager, Management Science Applications, International Business Machines Co. Ltd.
An open-pit mining operation can be viewed as a process by which the open surface of a mine is continuously deformed. The planning of a mining program involves the design of the final shape of this open surface. The approach 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-d1mens1onal pit.
Keywords:
Algorithm, Algorithms, Contour, Cost, Costs, directed graph, dynamic programming, graph algorithm, open-pit, vertices, mining, Ore, Ores, Pits
