Development of a mathematical programming model to support the planning of short-term

mining

Camilo I. Morales
Universidad de Chile
Enrique A. Rubio
Universidad de Chile

Abstract

At present, many open pit mines are designed to operate and feed a processing plant with ore
characteristics that were defined in the design of the mining business, which are not necessarily the same
as those found during the operation. This is the case of Spence Mine, whose design was conceived
considering the extraction of primary iron sulphides, however, with the extraction of such minerals, it was
necessary to mine and process minerals with secondary enrichment. Then it is necessary to work with a
greater selectivity degree in the operation, however the capacities of the mine and operational resources
were not designed for this. Thus, the changes in the general conditions of the operation should be
considered as a series of geometallurgical restrictions to achieve production schedules.

The above facts impacts directly in the short-term planning, whose task is to achieve the goals proposed in
productive long-term planning because the company does not have the tools necessary to plan with the
degree of selectivity required, so it should be done by hand, discretizating and scheduling the production
polygons. Naturally, this manual process in the short term planning deviate sharply from the areas in
operation, opening new fronts and benches that result in a significant increase in costs and a loss of the
value of the mineral resource to miss the exploitation sequence. The research presented in this paper is
related to the development of a mathematical programming model to support the short-term planning, so
as to integrate the challenge of selective mining with geometallurgy restrictions, to provide the planner a
guide to construction of the polygon of exploitation, guiding the fines production to achieve the goals of
the proposed production plan.

1. Introduction

Actually, mine planning is done considering different time horizons to conduct a project from its
conception to operation. In the first stages of final pit definition, sequencing and production schedule
construction, usually are considered mineral resources models that only reflect some basic characteristics
of the deposit, like grades and rock types. This information is the basis to generate the mine planning
model. Once the mine starts its operation, appear several metallurgical issues that force to complement the
original mine planning model with additional variables like mineralogies, pollutants, fragmentation among
others whose force ore blending in order to deliver an acceptable product for the metallurgical process. In
this way, to conciliate long term production schedules is a task that consumes important amounts of time
and effort, generating solution which are not optimal.

In many cases, open pit mines are designed to support a massive extraction (because of the consideration
of basic characteristics of the deposit) in a deposit that during its extraction must consider a high grade of
selectivity to fulfill geometallurgical constraints, due to its high mineralogical variablibity. This generates
big differences between long term and short term planning, due to long term never considered the
imperative blending requirements that short term has to face. This differences normally are translated in
higher costs and important deviations between the required and the produced metal, at the end of the year.
Actually, there is no software tools that allows to build short term schedules considering a dynamic
blending inside the pit in order to face the intrinsic mineralogic variability, considering operative
geometric constraints that short term must considering in its productive programs. So the industry
normally considered a trial an error methodology that do not ensure the fulfillment of geometallurgical
constraints in all periods of the schedule nor the commitment of the productive goals (in terms of
produced metal) that were defined in the long term.

This paper present a mathematical programming model to support open pit short term planning,
considering ore blending and geometric constraints that could guide the mine planner in the generation of
a production schedule.

2. Mine planning

Mine planning is defined as the process of Mining Engineering which transforms the ore resource in the
best productive business (Rubio, 2006), defining a productive promise and to become in a bankable
document for investors, so as to maximize income mining business, enabling each of its sources and
incorporating the constraints imposed by the ore resource, market, and environment. Mine planning must
be done because:

 The mining business is one that involves the largest amount of capital and has highest levels of
uncertainty.
 Mining is one of the businesses that led to the bankruptcy of the largest investors.
 Typically mining projects instead of paying the capital, use it in conjunction with the utilities.

The existing literature about the construction of the mine planning model focuses on the long term, which
is responsible for defining the size and life of mine, and the reserves of her. To this end, in this horizon is
defined the economic envelop, the method, rate and sequence of production, and the profile of cut off
grade, so as to deliver as much information as possible to investors, including projects with different risk
levels. Thus the ultimate pit limits, and the provision of sequencing are using as a guide for short-term
planning, resulting in a discrepancy between both, in the design of the mine, in the long-term planning,
was never considered the mixture is necessary for the crusher feeding. The resolution of this problem has
been focused in two ways: the first is the ultimate pit limits based approaches to block sequencing, and the
second is a comprehensive approaches to block sequencing.

Using the ultimate pit limits based approaches to block sequencing, Gershon (1982) use a mathematical
model to determine the most profitable mine operation scheme from pit to plant to market. By accounting
for pit-plant-market interfaces and optimizing operations over the entire life of the mine, this model es
able to calculate long, intermediate, and short-range mine plans. Gershon (1987) develops a mine
scheduling heuristic based on a block's positional weight to determine when a block should be mined. The
positional weight of a block determines the desirability of removing that block at a particular point in
time; higher positional weights are more desirable. Dowd y Onur (1992) use dynamic programming to
schedule the extraction sequence of blocks in the ultimate pit. Tolwinski y Underwood (1992) use
dynamic programming to determine the optimal production schedule for an open pit mine that satisfies
both physical and economic constraint. Dagdelen (2005) shows how the block sequencing problem
involves the determination of a cutoff grade, which in turn is used to decide whether or not a given block
should be mined and when it should be mined, and then lastly, once mined, how the ore should be
processed.

Using the comprehensive approaches to block sequencing, Denby y Schofield (1994) use genetic
algorithms to simultaneously solve for the ultimate pit limits and the orebody's extraction schedule. Sevim
y Lei (1998) describes the simultaneous nature of open pit mine scheduling. They show that long term
production planning in open pit mines involves the simultaneous resolution of four issues: the production
rate (number of blocks to be mined each year), the specific group of blocks that should be mined in a
given year, the cutoff grade to be used to determine ore and waste blocks, and the ultimate pit limits.
Hoerger, Bachmann, Criss y Shortridge (1999) Their tool employs linear programming to maximize NPV
by matching grade and metallurgical type increments to optimum processing plants or stockpiles subject
to production and processing capacity constraints and blending requirements, for the Newmont’s Nevada
Operations. Lagrangian relaxation is a tactic used to remove complicating side constraints from a mixed
integer program and transform the problem into a more tractable formulation. Akaike y Dagdelen (1999).
Cai (2001) also uses Lagrangian relaxation by incorporating schedule constraints into the block's net value
calculation via multipliers to penalize violations of these constraints. Caccetta y Hill (2003) developed a
mixed integer programming for mine planning through a model with Branch & Cut strategy. Ramazan y
Dimitrakipoulos (2004) present a general description of an efficient mixed integer programming problem
formulation for the open pit mine scheduling problem. In another paper Ramazan y Dimitrakipoulos
(2004) show that mixed integer programming formulations are limited by the feasibility in generating
optimal solutions with practical mining schedules and an inability to deal with in-situ variability of
orebodies. Finally, Esfandiari et al. (2004) amke an attempt using a model with multiple criteria decision
making and a binary nonlinear programming model, whose goal was to get the production Schedule for
long and short term.

From the above, there is a shortage of short-term planning tolos that consider mixtures of ores with
different mineralogical properties. For the development of this research, we used techniques similar to
those of Johnson (1969) adds constraints as orderly removal of blocks, the mining equipment capacities,
crushing plant capacity, grades of plant feeding, and physical, operationals, laws, and policies constraints.

3. Mathematical programming model

3.1. Considerations

 Material types: there are 5 types of material, defined by its geologic and mineralogic characteristics
(sulphides, oxides, mixed, ROM and waste).
 Campaigns: materials are processed in 2 different campaigns: oxides and sulphides. Oxides cannot be
processed in sulphides campaign and viceversa.
 Mixed material: Mixed material is processed as oxide.
 Stocks utilization: there are 2 stocks: oxides and sulphides, with known initial attributes.
 Vertical geometry extraction: for the extraction of one block, the immediately 9 above blocks must be
extracted.
 Geometallurgical constraints: there were considered from case study.
 Time scale: 3 month time horizon, 2 weeks periods.
 ROM material is always processed as ocide but not considered as plant feeding material since is not
crushed.
 Problem was solved in a 4 processors machine (1 x Intel®Xeon® cuadcore CPU 1,86 GHz, 4 GB RAM.
 Maximum aceptable gap for solution is 5%.

3.2. General description

The objective function of the model is to maximize the produced copper fines (from sulphide, oxide and
mixed material) in the considered time horizon.
The main constraints for the model are the mine capacity, processing plant capacity and the geometry of
the extraction. Also there are considered extraction campaigns and a set of geometallurgical constraints
from case study.

3.3. Block parameters

 Xi,j,k: east coordinate of the centroid of each block.

 Yi,j,k: north coordinate of the centroid of each block.
 Zi,j,k: level of the centroid of each block..
 Xacci,j,k: east coordiante of the centroid of the block which is the access to bench Z.
 Yacci,j,k: north coordiante of the centroid of the block which is the access to bench Z.
 Desti,j,k: type of material of each block (1: sulphide, 2: oxide, 3: mixed, 4: waste, 5: ROM).
 Toni,j,k: tonnage of each block.
 Fgeoi,j,k: proportion of fine particulated material in each.
 CO3i,j,k: carbonate concentration in each block (%).
 Clacidi,j,k: cholrine conent in each block (kg/t).
 Mezi,j,k: precense of argilic aletration in each block (binary).
 Cuti,j,k: copper grade in each block (%).
 Finosi,j,k: copper fines in each block (t).
 Dist_max_acci,j,k: distance between each block and the access to the bench.

3.4. Operative parameters

 CapPlant: plant capacity in period t.

 CapMinat: mine capacity in period t.
 Campt: extraction campaign in period t (1: sulphides o 2: oxides).
 Max_Fgeot: fine particulated material upper limit in period t (for material sent to processing plant).
 Max_Clacidt: chlorine upper limit in period t (for material sent to processing plant).
 Max_CO3t: carbonate upper limit in period t (for material sent to processing plant).
 Max_Mezt: argilic upper limit in period t (for material sent to processing plant).
 %MinPlan: mínimum number of blocks that must be processed in the same period.
 TACUMt: cumulative time in weeks.

3.5. Stocks parameters

 TSO: tonnage of the oxide stock.

 TSS: tonnage of the suphide stock.
 CuSO: average copper grade in each block of oxide stock.
 CuSS: average copper grade in each block of sulphide stock.
 BSO: number of block in oxide stock.
 BSS: number of block in sulphide stock.
 Fgeo_SO: proportion of fine particulated material in each block of oxide stock.
 Fgeo_SS: proportion of fine particulated material in each block of sulphide stock.
 CO3_SO: carbonate average grade for each block of oxide stock.
 CO3_SS: carbonate average grade for each block of sulphide stock.
 Clacid_SO: chlorine average grade for each block of oxide stock.
 Clacid _SS: chlorine average grade for each block of sulphide stock.
 Mez_SO: argilic content in oxide stock.
 Mez _SS: argilic content in sulphide stock.
 TBSO: tonnage of each block of the oxide stock.
 TBSS: tonnage of each block of the suphide stock.

3.6. Geometric parameters

 RPP: searching radius from the Access to benches, for first period.
 MAR: radial progress for searching radius for each period.

3.7. Decision variables

 Minari,j,k,t: binary variable, 1 if block i,j,k is mined in period t, 0 otherwise.

 Proci,j,k,t: variable, 1 if block i,j,k is processed in period t, 0 otherwise.
 NOt: integer variable, number of blocks processed from oxide stock.
 NSt: integer variable, number of blocks processed from sulfide stock.

3.8. Constraints

 Blocks can be mined only once (for t ≥ 1)

[1]

 Blocks can be processed only once (for t ≥ 1)

[2]

 Plant capacity (for t ≥ 1 if Desti,j,k ≠ 5)

[3]

 Mine capacity (for t ≥ 1)

[4]

 Stocks are limited

[5]

[6]

 A block from sulfide stock cannot be processed in oxides campaign and viceversa (for t ≥ 1)

[7]

[8]
 Blocks must be mined before processed (for t ≥ 1)

[9]

 Vertical precedences (9 upper blocks, for t ≥ 1)

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

 A sulfide block cannot be processed in oxides campaign and vice versa (for t ≥ 1)

[19]

[20]

 Waste blocks are not processed (for t ≥ 1)

[21]

 Bloques de ROM siempre se procesan (para t ≥ 1)

[22]

 Geometallurgical constraints (for t ≥ 1 if Desti,j,k ≠ 5)

[23
]

[24
]
 [25
]

[26
]

 Relation between processed and mined blocks in the same period (for t ≥ 1)

[27]

Considering only sulfide, oxide and mixed blocks.

 Radial progress from benches access (for t ≥ 1)

[28]

3.7. Objective function

 For t ≥1 and Desti,j,k ≠ 5:

[29]

4. Case study

For the realization of this Project, we used data from Spence mine (BHP Billiton). This mine is located
about 50 km. southwest of Calama in the Antofagasta region, Chile. Corresponds to an enriched supergene
deposit and partially oxidized of copper porphyritic of Paleocene age (57 million years) covered by gravel.
The depth of mineralization ranges from 80 to 100 meters and is composed of atacamite in the case of
oxides ore y calcosine in the case of sulphide ore. The mined of the deposit is made by an open pit mine
with a production of 200,000 tonnes of copper cathodes per year. In this way, has an ability to move
material from the mine (waste + ore) of 22,000 tpd., and a crushing plant capacity of 50,000 tpd.

From the mine are mined 5 kinds of materials which are: sulphides, oxides, mixed, ROM, and waste. To
give these categories to each block of the model using a geological feature called minty, in addition to the
grade of copper and the solubility. Thus as in the following table shows the criteria necessary to define the
kind of material that has each of the blocks:

Table 1: Criteria for definition of the kind of material for each block of the model
Rock Type Minty Grade Cu [%] Solubility Indicator
Sulphide 20, 30, 40 ≥ 0.3 ≤ 0.2 1
Oxide 20 ≥ 0.3 ≥ 0.72 2
Mixed 20 ≥ 0.3 >0.2 & < 0.72 3
10, 50 ≥ 0.1 -
ROM 5
20, 30, 40 ≥ 0.1 & < 0.3 -
Waste - < 0.1 - 4
It should be noted that in conjunction with the above was necessary to take the following considerations:

 Blocks with attribute minty = 60 were regarded as waste because it is hypogene mineralization whit
primary material that cannot be processed.
 All blocks with attribute minty = 30 and with grade of copper >= 0.3 were considered as sulphides
regardless of their solubility.
 Blocks with attribute minty = -99 were regarded as waste because are overload material.
 Finally, blocks with attribute minty = 24 were assigned considering the grade of copper and solubility.

Due to the number of the blocks of the model is very large, and the horizon time to consider is only 3
months (July to September 2008), took the decision to use only those blocks of the benches that will be
mined in this period according to the long-term planning. Planning is shown in the following table:

Table 2: Benches to be mined according long-term planning

F02 F03 F04 F05
July_08 1580 - 1670 1685
August_a_08 1565 - 1655 1670
August_b_08 1550 - - 1670
September_08 - 1625 - 1670

Thus, the blocks to be used are the corresponding to the benches: 1550, 1565, 1580, 1625, 1655, 1670 y
1685 of the phases 2, 3, 4 and 5.

After the previous task, there is a block model representative of the study period of 9,976 blocks of size 10
x 10 x 15 meters. Here are the basic statistics for this new block model:

Table 3: Basic statistics of block model from July to September 2008

Rock Type # blocks Tonnage Tonnage Cu Grade Cu Density Clacid CO3 F_geomet Mix
[t] [t] [%] [t/m3] [kg/t] [%] [%] [%]
Sulphide 1497 5,628,335 120,118 2.13 2.51 0.45 0.19 19.88 11.5
Oxide 953 3,441,893 37,479 1.09 2.41 2.66 0.27 17.47 14.9
Mixed 376 1,371,891 15,795 1.15 2.43 1.24 0.27 18.09 11.0
ROM 560 1,999,032 8,051 0.40 2.39 0.72 0.17 19.76 8.3
Waste 6590 19,733,088 4,715 0.02 2.02 0.49 0.15 22.49 0.4
Total 9976 32,174,238 186,157 0.58 2.19 0.76 0.17 21.14 4.9

It should also be noted that in the production of Spence mine, there are 2 campaigns of plant feeding, one
of sulphides another of oxides which defined in production Schedule. In this way, the model will be bradly
divided into periods of 2 weeks, with certain exceptions, such as when there is change of campaign or in
the last period the days are less. Here are the weeks involved, their respective campaign, the periods
defined for solve the model, and operational constraints:

Table 4: Definition of periods and their characteristics

Limits
Period Days Campaign Mine Plant Clacid CO3 F_geomet Mix
[t] [t] [kg/t] [%] [%] [%]
1 14 Sulphides 3,080,000 700,000 0.8 1.2 20 25
2 14 Sulphides 3,080,000 700,000 0.8 1.2 20 25
3 14 Sulphides 3,080,000 700,000 0.8 1.2 20 25
 4 14 Sulphides 3,080,000 700,000 0.8 1.2 20 25
5 14 Sulphides 3,080,000 700,000 0.8 1.2 20 25
6 7 Sulphides 1,540,000 350,000 0.8 1.2 20 25
7 14 Oxides 3,080,000 700,000 - 1.2 20 25
8 1 Oxides 220,000 50,000 - 1.2 20 25

Also the mathematical programming model considered the use of 2 initial stocks, one of sulphides and
another of oxides respectively, whose characteristics are described below:

Table 5: Initial stocks characteristics

Stock # blocks Tonnage Grade Cu Clacid CO3 F_geomet Mix
[t] [%] [kg/t] [%] [%] [%]
Sulphide 438 1,668,112 1.06 1.00 1.00 20 20
Oxide 2,300 8,349,565 1.03 1.10 1.50 20 20

Finally, we must deliver to the model the block coordinates that represents access to each benches
involved, which are shown in the following table:

Table 6: Blocks coordinates that represent the access to each bench

Phases Bench X [m] Y [m] Z [m]
2 1,550 74,955 480,095 1,557.5
2 1,565 74,775 480,115 1,572.5
2 1,580 74,645 480,045 1,587.5
3 1,625 74,365 479,395 1,632.5
4 1,655 73,575 479,255 1,662.5
4 1,670 73,565 479,405 1,677.5
5 1,670 74,015 479,935 1,677.5
5 1,685 73,845 479,985 1,692.5

It should also be noted that was considered a first period radius (RPP) of 60 meters, for afurther radial
progress (MAR) of 30 meters, plus a minimum percentage processing (%MinPlan) of the blocks mined in
a given period of 80%. Thus, as in the following table shows the searching radius from the access to the
bench for each period:

Table 7: Searching radius from the access to the benches for each period.
Period Duration Duration Acum Radius
[Weeks] [Weeks] [m]
1 2 2 120
2 2 4 180
3 2 6 240
4 2 8 300
5 2 10 360
6 1 11 390
7 2 13 450
8 1 14 480

5. Results
The results of the mathematical programming model are divided into two types: numeric, which outlines
the results of the objective function and compliance of constraints. The second are the geometric results,
which show how to exploit each of the benches in the study.

5.1. Numeric results

Below is a chart which shows the tonnage of fines of copper from the process. This tonnage corresponds
to the copper content of the plan feeding:
25,000

Tonnage [t] 20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Period

Figure 1: Tonnage of fines of copper as a result of the mathematical programming model.

A total of 113,123 [ton] of copper fine was obtained, which corresponds to approximately 65% of the total
copper fine available in the benches under study (considering only the copper fine from sulphide, oxide
and mixed ore type). You can see also that there are considerable lows in periods 6 and 8, which can be
explained by the duration of these periods (14 and 1 days respectively).

In this way, the operation of the benches under study of the mine, and the plant feeding are shown in the
figure below:

3.5 800,000

3.0 700,000

600,000
2.5
Tonnage [Mt]

500,000
Tonnage [t]

2.0
400,000
1.5
300,000
1.0
200,000
0.5 100,000

0.0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Period Period

Model Mine Capacity Model Plant Capacity

F
igure 2: Movement of material from the mine (left), and plant feeding (right).

It can be seen that the tonnage of material mined is well below to the mine capacity (around 30% of the
limit). Also the charts show the same low tonnage in periods 6 and 8, which is explained in the same way.
Also, one can see that the processing plant remains satured during the time horizon under consideration,
which is satisfactory from the standpoint of solving the model and the search for the optimization of the
objective function. In this way, falls tonnage during periods 6 and 8 due to the same reasons given above.

Another important aspect in solving the model is compliance of geometallurgical constraints in plant
feeding. The following figure show the graphs of these constraints, which can be seen that they are fully
met for each type of constraint and in all periods covered by this study:
 21.00 1.40

1.20
20.00
1.00
F_geomet [%]

19.00 0.80

CO3 [%]
18.00 0.60

0.40
17.00
0.20

16.00 0.00
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Period Period

Model F_geomet Limit Model CO3 Limit

2.50 30%

25%
2.00

20%
Clacid [kg/t]

1.50

Mix [%]
15%
1.00
10%

0.50
5%

0.00 0%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Period Period

Model Clacid Limit Model Mix Limit

F
igure 3: Geometalurgycal constraints. F_geomet (top-left), CO3 (top-right), Clacid (bottom-left), Mix (bottom-right)

Finally, it is important to appreciate the use the initial stocks for plant feeding in each of the periods under
study. Thus, the following is a chart which shows the contribution of the stocks in each period:

400,000

350,000

300,000

250,000
Tonnage [t]

200,000

150,000

100,000

50,000

-
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Period

Oxide stock Sulphide Stock

Figure 4: Use of the initial stocks for plant feeding.

Shows that using only blocks of sulphide stocks during periods 1 and 2, which explains that these are teh
periods in which the searching radius are the smallest, so the stock was used to saturate the plant feeding,
and thus achieve a greater production of copper fines.

5.2. Geometric results

It is extremely important to see the geometrical results for the mined of blocks in each of the benches so as
to assess whether the result can be used as a guide for short-term planning.
Below are plan views of block sequencing from each the benches which are presented in a gray scale color
where the lighter correspond to the first periods, the darker represent to the last periods, and the unfilled
blocks should not be mined according to the model. Importantly, the model only mined the benches 1580,
1565, and 1550 of the phase 02, and the bench 1625 of the phase 03. In addition to a better understanding
of the block sequencing, is attached a table which shows the period involved in the operation of each
bench:
Table 8: Benches mined in each period according to the model
F02_1580 F02_1565 F02_1550 F03_1625
1
2
3
Period

4
5
6
7
8
100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142
136 100 100 6 100 100 135
135 6 5 7 6 6 6 100 136 100 7 6
134 100 100 100 5 7 5 6 6 100 137 100 100 100
133 6 6 5 5 5 6 6 6 100 100 138 6 6 5 100 100 100
132 100 100 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 100 6 139 7 6 6 6 100 100 100 100
131 100 100 7 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 100 100 100
140 100 100 7 100 100 6 6 5 100 100 100
130 100 3 5 6 6 6 4 6 4 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 100
141 7 100 100 7 100 100 6 6 6 100 6 6
129 3 4 3 4 6 6 7 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 100
128 100 100 4 3 3 3 6 5 5 5 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 6 5 6
142 5 100 7 100 100 100 100 100 6 5 5 100 100 100
127 100 100 100 4 7 3 3 3 5 4 6 4 5 5 4 5 5 5 5 5 100 100 143 3 100 6 100 7 100 100 100 7 100 6 100 100 100
126 100 100 4 6 6 8 3 3 3 3 3 6 4 4 4 5 4 6 5 5 5 5 100 100 144 100 100 100 100 3 5 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 6 6 100 100
125 100 100 6 6 6 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 6 5 5 5 100 5 5 5 5 5 100 100 145 7 100 100 100 3 3 6 100 100 100 100 5 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
124 100 100 7 7 7 6 6 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 100 100 146 100 100 100 100 100 3 3 3 100 100 100 100 7 100 100 100 100 7 100 100 100
123 1 1 1 7 7 7 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 100 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 100 147 100 100 100 100 100 100 3 3 3 3 100 100 100 100 100 4 4 4 7 100 7 100 100
122 1 1 1 1 100 7 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 100 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 6 100 148 1 100 100 100 100 100 6 3 3 3 3 3 100 100 100 100 100 4 4 4 6 100 100 5 100
121 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 6 5 149 1 1 100 100 100 100 2 2 2 3 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 4 4 4 4 100 100 7 5 6
120 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 100 150 1 1 7 7 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 100 4 100 100 100 4 4 4 4 4 5 6 5 6 6
119 2 1 100 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 100
151 6 1 2 100 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 100 100 4 5 4 4 5 6 5 5 100 100
118 100 100 100 100 100 4 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 100
152 1 1 100 2 2 7 100 2 3 3 3 100 100 7 100 5 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5
117 100 100 100 8 100 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 100
116 100 100 100 100 100 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5
153 1 1 1 7 2 2 2 100 7 3 3 3 7 100 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5
115 100 100 100 100 100 100 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 100 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 100 154 2 1 1 1 1 2 100 100 100 100 100 3 3 6 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5
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5: Block sequencing. Bench F02_1580 (top-left), bench F02_1565 (top-right), bench F02_1550 (bottom –left), bench F03-
1625 (bottom-right).

In the figures presented above can be seen that the model is solving as expected and is delivering a
solution that allows to be used primarily as a guide for short-term mine planning. You can see that the
benches of phase 02 which have mainly sulphide ore are mined from the earliest periods, and the bench
1580, as the top is almost completely mined to be having access to benches below. The blocks that are not
mined, that are in central areas of the benches, are the result of the need to maximize fines and the limited
horizon time. In this way, the bench 1625 of phase 03, is a bench primarily of oxides that are mined in
latest periods, and their sequencing is more dispersed, because in these periods has enough searching
radius from access to bench it allows us as the best laws with the ultimate goal of maximizing the total
copper fine mined.

Following is a chart which sets out the maximum effective searching radius that were reached in each
period by the benches on the model:
 500
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Radius [m]
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0
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Period

F02_1580 F02_1565 F02_1550 F03_1625

Figure 6: Effective searching radius in each period and bench according to the model.

I can be seen that in general the maximum distance between the access to each bench and the farther mined block is
growing over time. The only exception is reflected in the latest periods because this is a smaller number of blocks mined,
and having a searching radius from zero for each period, the model decided to remove these blocks that are not so far
away from access. It is also important to note that the radius used as input parameters of the model are appropiate,
because allow access to all the blocks available in the bench 1580, where starts operating, and appears to be the largest in
terms of area of the phase 02, which can be seen in
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Figure 5.

6. Conclusions

Naturally, a completely operative short term schedule must consider several conditions that this model
does not take into account, as ramps generation to access benches and drilling patterns, among others.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that the solution of the model could be used as a guide to support the
short term planning in a open pit mine, since the shape of the generated cuts for each period are smooth
enough, ensuring a better approach to an optimal solution than trial and error planning methodologies.

Geometallurgical constraints are satisfied in each period of the schedule ensuring a maximum copper fines
throughput. In this sence, it is relevant to note that plant saturation is a consequence of objective function
and geometallurgical constraints and not a requirement, since the available materials have certain
characteristics, it is important to consider the economic tradeoff between to saturate the plant and the
effect on recovery of overpass certain constraints, when no feasible solutions can be found.

Part of future works associated to this research, in order to look for better and more applicable solutions
are the following:
 To improve the conexity of the solution in periods different tan first, reducing the “randomness” of the
extraction.
 Solve the model considering a larger time horizon (1 year), to support annual budgets. Solution times
become relevant when the total available block for one year are considered.
 To include economic parameters for extraction and processing.

7. Aknowledgments

To the University of Chile and Delphos Mine Planning Laboratory, to support the publication of the
results associated to the research presented in this paper.

To Compañía Minera Spence S.A. and BHP Billiton Base Metals, to contribute with their production data
and expertise to implement the mathematical programming model.

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