Integrated optimization of underground mine design and scheduling
J Little, P Knights, E Topal
It is common practice for underground mine plans to be created
sequentially, where results from one planning process form the input
data for another. While this is practical for manual methods, computerized
optimization techniques should consider an integrated
approach to creating the global mine plan. This is because optimizing
an individual mine planning process, such as stope layouts,
introduces a likelihood of increasing costs or decreasing revenues
associated with other areas, such as production scheduling, as
harmful decisions must be balanced. Considering the interaction and
influence that individual underground mine planning processes have
on each other during optimization will provide more profitable results
than if these are ignored.
Optimization techniques for stope layouts and production
scheduling are reviewed. An integer programming model is proposed
that allows for either integrated or isolated optimization. Both
approaches are separately applied to a block model. The results
demonstrate the model’s ability to produce optimal long-term
sublevel stoping mine plans and the benefits of using an integrated
approach.
Keywords: underground mine optimization, stope layouts, underground
production scheduling, integer programming, mathematical
programming application.