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Abstract

The main optimized objects in underground mines include: stope layout, access layout and production scheduling. It is common to optimize each component sequentially, where optimal results from one phase are regarded as the input data for the next phase. Numerous methods have been developed and implemented to achieve the optimal solution for each component. In fact, the interaction between different phases is ignored in the tradition optimization models which only get the suboptimal solution compared to the integrated optimization model. This paper proposes a simultaneous integrated optimization model to optimize the three components at the same time. The model not only optimizes the mining layout to maximize the Net Present Value (NPV), but also considers the extension sequence of stope extraction and access excavation. The production capacity and ore quality requirement are also taken into account to keep the mining process stable in all mine life. The model is validated to a gold deposit in China. A two-dimensional block model is built to do the resource estimation due to the clear boundary of the hanging wall and footwall. The thickness and accumulation of each block is estimated by Ordinary Kriging (OK). In addition, the conditional simulation method is utilized to generate a series of orebodies with equal possibility. The optimal solution of optimization model is carried out on each simulated orebody to evaluate the influence of geological uncertainty on the optimal mining design and production scheduling. The risk of grade uncertainty is quantified by the possibility of obtaining the expected NPV. The results indicate that the optimization model has the ability to produce an optimal solution that has a good performance under the uncertainty of grade variability.

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Authors and Affiliations

Jie Hou
Guoqing Li
Nailian Hu
Hao Wang

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