Abstract
Open-pit mining plans include implementing operations throughout the entire life of the mine. In addition to geometric and geotechnical constraints, it is important to ensure an uninterrupted ore feed by optimizing production plan. In order to achieve this and at the same time maximize the net present value, the most well-known method is “Parametric Analysis Method”. However, this method is insufficient for determining the excavation direction in the transitions between production zones due to geological and economic constraints. It should be ensured that the change in the amount of excavation is applicable in the transitions between the excavation zones. In this study, cone extraction sequencing has been improved to determine the ultimate pit limit. Afterwards, a long-term production plan has been constituted by using the parametric analysis method and the cone extraction sequence of the improved floating cone algorithm. In this way, it is planned to extract ore blocks with an equal annual production amount in each period. The method is applied to a gold mine as a case study. The long-term production plan of the mine for a total of 10 periods, one period of which is 1 year, has been put forward by planning to excavate 470 thousand tons of ore in each period.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, G.T., upon reasonable request.
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The codes might be shared upon reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- BES:
-
Block extraction sequence
- BIV:
-
Importance value of a block
- BV:
-
Economic value of a block
- CB:
-
Common block
- CIV:
-
Sum of BIVs of blocks in an ore block cone
- CV:
-
Economic value of a cone
- EBM:
-
Economic block model
- FCA:
-
Floating cone algorithm
- FIV:
-
Final importance value of a cone
- IFCA:
-
Improved floating cone algorithm
- IOB:
-
Ineffective ore block
- NCB:
-
Non-common block
- NPV:
-
Net present value
- RF:
-
Revenue factor
- SBVNCB:
-
Sum of the economic values of blocks in the non-common zone of a cone
- UPL:
-
Ultimate pit limit
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The authors would like to thank three anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions that helped improve the paper.
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Both the authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by GT. GT wrote the first draft of the manuscript and both the authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Both the authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Turan, G., Onur, A.H. Optimization of open-pit mine design and production planning with an improved floating cone algorithm. Optim Eng 24, 1157–1181 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11081-022-09725-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11081-022-09725-4