Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 7617–7623

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Expert Systems with Applications

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa

Theory and method of genetic-neural optimizing cut-off grade

and grade of crude ore
Yong He *, Kejun Zhu, Siwei Gao, Ting Liu, Yue Li
School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan Hubei 430074, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: Cut-off grade for ore drawing is a kind of technological method used to control the process of drawing in
Genetic-neural optimization sublevel caving with no sill pillar. The cut-off grade for ore drawing means the grade of ore in the last
Cut-off grade time (current time) of ore drawing. Grade of crude ore is the grade of ore entering the milling workshop
Grade of crude ore after ore mixing. Cut-off grade and grade of crude ore are key parameters of production and management
in mine system. Genetic algorithm and neural networks nesting method are used in this research to sim-
ulate the highly complexity and highly non-linear relationship between variables in mining system, to
optimize the cut-off grade and grade of crude ore. The idea is detailed as follows. Cut-off grade and grade
of crude ore are joined as chromosome of population for evolution computation; Self-adaptive neural
network is used to obtain the local connection between the revenue (fitness function) and chromosome;
Genetic algorithm is performed to search the optimal cut-off grade and grade of crude ore globally. The
inner layer of nesting is neural networks, which is used to compute loss rate, amount of tailing ore and
total cost; the outer layer is evolutionary computation, which is used to get the revenue. The inner layer
carries out local approximation, and the outer carries out global search. These two layers carry out the
optimization of cut-off grade and grade of crude ore jointly. Take Daye Iron Mine as an example, and
the result shows that, the present scheme (cut-off grade is 18%, grade of crude ore is 41–43%) should
be improved. During the period of August to November in the year 2007, the optimal cut-off grade is
15.8%, and optimal grade of crude ore is 43.7762–44.1387%, the optimized scheme can improve the pres-
ent value by 9.01–9.44 million yuan.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction zation of resource, and has important theoretical and practical

Cut-off grade is the grade of ore in the last time of ore drawing
during sublevel caving with no sill pillar. The loss rate and dilution
rate in mining are two significant indexes in mine system, and they
have much influence on the benefit of mine. Actually the loss rate
and dilution rate of ore directly depend on the cut-off grade. If the
cut-off grade is low, the dilution rate of ore will be high. This will
increase the cost of ore processing, and will decrease the amount of
the concentrate in the condition of a certain mineral processing
ability. Contrarily, high cut-off grade will not only lead to waste
of mine resource, but also increase the cost of fundamental con-
struction. Grade of crude ore plays a role as a link between mining
and milling. It is determined by the average grade of ore bodies,
cut-off grade and dilution rate. And it affects the concentrate grade
and milling recovery. The optimum grade of crude ore can improve
the benefit of mine and make use of mine resource. Therefore, rea-
sonable determination of cut-off grade and grade of crude ore is
crucial to the economic benefit of enterprise and sustainable utili-
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jiabeisheng@sina.com (Y. He).
meaning.
Rongfu (1995) proposed a new method to get the cut-off grade
based on break-even point at current time, and calculated the cut-
off grade according to the average recovery in milling and the
grade of tailing ore separately; Guangqiu and Zhongyue (1996)
proposed the principle of the maximizing total revenue, and the
expression of determining the best cut-off grade was decided by
production time of mining; Keqing and Baoshun (1997) gave a sys-
temic method to get the reasonable grade of crude ore; Yingliang
(1998) studied on the variety of the dilution rate in mining, mixing
and milling ore, and set up a model of grade computing which can
realize the maximal NPV; Congan and Tiangui (1998, 1999) con-
structed a model in which ore grade varied with time based on
the theory of exhaustion, and discussed two different methods to
get the cut-off grade when annual output is invariable and exploi-
tation cost is lowest; Changhai (2002) proposed the method of
optimizing grade of crude ore, cut-off grade and boundary grade,
and gave a case study on Erfengshan iron ore; Osanloo and Ataei
(2002) pointed out that the cut-off grade was decided by the
exploitation of laneway. They calculated the cut-off grade consid-
ering mining and milling; Annan and Dexiao (2003) developed a

0957-4174/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2008.09.018
7618 Y. He et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 7617–7623
dynamic muti-objective support decision system to optimize grade
of crude ore. Brijes (2006) considered that the grade of ore varied
continuously in mining and milling stage, and dynamic program-
ming was used to optimize the grade of ore. But this model lied
on the reserves and the distribution of metal resource; Bascetin
(2007) determined optimal cut-off grade policy to optimize NPV
using a new approach with optimization factor; Asad (2007) set
up a model on the relationship of gold price, metal recovery, cut-
off grade and NPV.
Above scholars proposed the concepts and calculate methods
of the cut-off grade and grade of crude ore from different aspects.
They studied on computation method from the aspects of mining
and milling, these computations include the multi-factor analysis,
the linear and non-linear regression, the dynamic optimization
analysis, etc. They can guide mine production and management.
Regrettably, because of the particularity of production environ-
ment, multiplicity of ore drawing and extension of mine manage-
ment, until now, cut-off grade and grade of crude ore are
determined by experiment data or worker’s experience. Moreover,
because these theories and methods aim at the specific ore depos-
it and production technique, they cannot be used widely. Along
with the production development, increase of resources’ scarcity,
enhancement of technical and management level, experts and
managers gradually realize that, the determining method based
on workers’ experience, easy and feasible though, greatly in-
creases the mining and milling cost, and wastes resource
seriously.
Obviously, cut-off grade and grade of crude ore are two con-
cepts related with income, cost, geological grade, loss rate and
dilution rate. The mapping function among them are highly-com-
plex and highly-nonlinear, and it is difficult to acquire the mathe-
matics expression. In this paper, we use genetic algorithms and
neural networks nesting method to simulate the highly complex
and non-linear relationship of variables in mine system, to opti-
mize the cut-off grade and grade of crude ore. The idea is detailed
as follows. Join cut-off grade and grade of crude ore together as
chromosome of population for evolution computation; make self-
adaptive neural network to get the local connection between the
revenue (fitness function) and chromosome; use genetic algorithm
to globally search the optimal cut-off grade and grade of crude ore
to maximize the fitness function. The inner layer of nesting is neu-
ral networks, which is used to compute loss rate, amount of tailing
ore and total cost; the outer layer is evolutionary computation,
which is used to get the revenue. The inner layer carries out local
approach, and the outer layer carries out global search, to realize
the optimization of cut-off grade and grade of crude ore together.
This paper gave a case study on Daye Iron mine.
2. Genetic-neural optimization of cut-off grade and grade of
crude ore
Optimal cut-off grade and grade of crude ore is based on maxi-
mizing the net present value (NPV). Considering the relationship
among profit, cost, geological reserves, tailing ore and all kinds of
grades, we establish a model as follows.
8 with the variables, K is the number of fuzzy rules. We attend to find
> P
n
Rt Cðat ;qt ;aj ;ar Þ
< Max NPV ¼
ð1þiÞt
t¼1
>
: at qt ð1/ðaj ÞÞaw Q w ðat ;qt ;aj ;ar Þ
s:t: Rt ¼ b
J 0 6 aj 6 ar 6 1
where, NPV denotes net present value, Rt denotes revenue of the ore
body in the tth month, at denotes geological grade in the tth month,
aj denotes cut-off grade, ar denotes grade of crude ore, qt denotes
geological reserves in the tth month, Cðat ; qt ; aj ; ar Þ denotes the
function of cost including mining and milling, /ðaj Þ denotes the
function of loss rate related to cut-off grade, aw denotes tailing
ore grade, Q w ðat ; qt ; aj ; ar Þ denotes the function of tailing ore
amount, b denotes the concentrate grade, J denotes the current
price of the concentrate and i denotes rate of discount.
The process of resolving Eq. (1) is searching for a combination
among several grades (geological grade, cut-off grade and crude
ore grade) to maximize the NPV, including four key problems as
follows.
Problem 1: Determining relationship between cut-off grade aj
and loss rate /.
The cut-off grade for ore drawing means the grade of ore in the
last time of ore drawing. The higher cut-off grade leads to the lar-
ger amount of waste ore, which makes higher loss rate. The loss
rate / depends on the cut-off grade aj directly, which shows as
/ ¼ /ðaj Þ ð2Þ
From Eq. (2), we could obtain cut-off grade aj corresponding to a
certain loss rate /. However, we cannot acquire /ðaj Þ, due to the
lack of record data of cut-off grade aj in practical production. We
plan to use process simulation to acquire the cut-off grade of each
month, and then construct the linear regression model (REG) be-
tween the cut-off grade and loss rate.
Problem 2: Determining relationship between the amount of
tailing ore Qw and cut-off grade aj, crude ore grade ar, geological
grade at, geological reserves qt.
In the tailing ore management, how to accurately forecast the
amount of tailing ore is significant for improving the management
level of tailing ore. With present studies, it shows that the related
factors that influence the tailings ore Qw are cut-off grade aj, the
crude ore grade ar, geological grade at, geological reserves qt. In
the practical production, the relationship between above men-
tioned four factors and the amount of tailing ore is highly complex
and nonlinear. We need to establish the following function
Q w ¼ Q w ðat ; qt ; aj ; ar Þ ð3Þ
There exist following characteristics of the mapping from cut-
off grade, crude ore grade to amount of tailing ore. (1) The data
from geological and production reports is lack of integrity and
accuracy; (2) Regarding the production process, the cut-off grade
occurs in the mining stage, crude ore grade occurs in mixing phase,
the tailing ore takes place in the milling period, so there are indi-
rectness and backwardness; (3) The function relation is highly
nonlinear and complex. Therefore, we plan to construct the model
with BP network (BPNN).
Problem 3: Determining relationship between the cost of min-
ing & milling C and cut-off grade aj, crude ore grade ar, geological
grade at, geological reserves qt
Mining and milling cost can be showed as
C ¼ Cðat ; qt ; aj ; ar Þ ð4Þ
Which is actually a mapping from the input fuzzy sets (Gauss-
ian function) to the output fuzzy sets, namely,
if at 2 Ak01 and qt 2 Ak02 and aj 2 Ak03 and ar 2 Ak04 then c 2 Bk
ð5Þ
here, k ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; K; A0i ði ¼ 1; 2; 3; 4Þ are fuzzy sets corresponding
the parameters (center and variance) of fuzzy set. Here, the fuzzy
ð1Þ system represented by Eq. (5) is equivalent to a radical base func-
tion networks (RBFNN), the structure is showed as Fig. 1, the in-
put–output mapping R4 ! R can be expressed as
X
K
f ðxÞ ¼ wj /ðkx  cj k; qj Þ ð6Þ
j¼1
where, K is the number of nodes for the hidden layer, wj is the trans-
fer weights from the jth hidden layer node to the output layer, input
 Y. He et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 7617–7623
Fig. 1. RBF network structure.
vector is X ¼ ½x1 ; x2 ; . . . ; x4 T ; cj is the center of the hidden layer node,
k . . . k is the Euclidean Norm that denotes the Euclidean distance be-
tween input vector X and the jth hidden layer node qj is the normal-
ized parameters.
Problem 4: Genetic-neural optimization integration.
Genetic algorithm and neural networks are integrated to be a
genetic-neural model, and use it to optimize the cut-off grade aj
and crude ore grade ar. The details are as follows. Join cut-off
grade and grade of crude ore together as chromosome of popula-
tion for evolution computation. Then make self-adaptive neural
network to get the local connection between the income value
(fitness function) and chromosome. Finally, use genetic algo-
rithms globally to search the optimal cut-off grade and grade of
crude ore to maximize fitness function. The steps of algorithm
are as follows (Flowchart is shown in Fig. 2).
(1) Define coding type and the length of individual strings.
(2) Define GA operation parameters.
(3) Generate initial population with population size N.
(4) Decoding individual strings to get different groups of grade
values.
(5) Input the individual to REG regression, BP network and RBF
network models to calculate loss rate, the amount of tailing
ore and the cost respectively.
(6) Calculate the NPV and convert it into fitness.
(7) Carry out selection operation according to the fitness.
Fig. 2. Algorithm flowchart.
7619
(8) Carry out crossover and mutation operation to obtain a new
generation.
(9) Return to step (4) until the group of grades meets the termi-
nation conditions.
(10) Calculate and output the NPV with the optimized grades.
3. Case study
Daye iron mine is the main supply base of the Wuhan steel and
iron (Group) Corp., which is a very famous large enterprise in
China. Daye iron mine locates at the Tieshan county in the city of
Huangshi, Hubei Province, about 90 km far from Wuhan city, with
the national highway No 206 passes through the mine. Daye iron
mine has six big ore bodies from west to east, which are divided
in two mining workshops. Now it faces the following problems.
First, the cut-off grade scheme was established according to the
mining technique, milling technology and price of the concentrate
in 1990s, but now whether the scheme is reasonable need to be
studied. Second, the geological condition, mining and milling tech-
nology have changed greatly. Along with reconstruction of milling
process, it is necessary to find out the optimum grade of crude ore.
Therefore, it is urgent to optimize cut-off grade and grade of crude
ore, in order to guide mining and milling production.
3.1. Loss rate computation model: / ¼ /ðaj Þ
Now the cut-off grade scheme for ore drawing in Daye mine is
18%, but the ore drawing is carried out by the experience of mining
worker, the practical value of cut-off grade is around 18%, not 18%
accurately. We could not acquire the exact data of cut-off grade
every month, so we use process simulation to obtain the data of
every month in the following.
3.1.1. Cut-off grade data simulation
We know from the a priori information: (1) Cut-off grade value
is normally distributed in certain universe of discourse; (2) The
greater cut-off grade is, the greater loss rate will be, and vice versa.
The operation of process simulation is as follows.
Step 1. Theoretical cut-off grade is 18%, and practical value
range is 15–21%, we can conclude that the distribution function
of cut-off grade value is
1 ðaj 18Þ2
f ðaj Þ ¼ e 2 ð7Þ
2p
here, the mean is u = 18,variance is r = 1.
Step 2. Generate n group (n is big enough), length is m = 35(time
span is 35 months) numeric series according to Eq. (7), every group
of series is sorted ascending, and is averaged to eliminate random
errors, so one numeric series can be obtained, which is recognized
to be the simulation data of cut-off grade in 35 months.
Step 3. Repeat step (2), validate the stabilization of the simula-
tion data, if not stable, increase n value, go to step (2); if stable, the
simulation is over.
Step 4. Also arrange the loss rate values (35 months) ascending,
and match with simulation data of cut-off grade according to the
order, so we obtain cut-off grade value corresponding with the loss
rate every month.
The simulation flowchart is showed in Fig. 3.
From January 2005 to November 2007, the simulation data of
cut-off grade is shown as Table 1.
3.1.2. Model establishment
According to the data in Table 1, use the command ‘‘postreg” in
the matlab language, and obtain the regression diagram in Fig. 4,
7620 Y. He et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 7617–7623

Fig. 4. Regression diagram.

nodes, 1output node. The transfer functions of hidden and output

layer are ‘‘tansig” and ‘‘purelin” respectively; learning algorithm
Fig. 3. Simulation flowchart.
is ‘‘traingdm”, precision is 0.0001, and maximal iteration step is
2000. The sample simulation diagram is as shown in Fig. 5.
The connection weights and thresholds of constructed neural
network are shown as A, B, C, D, where aij represents the weight
Table 1 from jth input node to ith hidden node, bj represents the threshold
The simulation data of cut-off grade of jth hidden node, cj denotes weight from jth hidden node to out-
Time Loss rate Cut-off grade Time Loss rate Cut-off grade put layer node, and D is the threshold of output layer.
(%) (%) (%) (%)
2 3
200501 17.17 17.64 200607 18.81 18.44 1:8918 1:6298 2:1685 1:3744
200502 15.76 16.73 200608 18.35 17.93 6 7
6 33:3414 23:1741 20:5410 12:2724 7
200503 15.84 16.88 200609 17.16 17.56 6 7
6
A ¼ ðaij Þ ¼ 6 1:8515 1:6920 2:1410 1:3630 7
200504 14.68 15.89 200610 17.95 17.78 7
6 7
200505 15.13 16.31 200611 18.64 18.29 4 71:9774 43:1033 88:2104 12:8676 5
200506 15.53 16.55 200612 18.51 18.14
200507 16.12 17.21 200701 18.42 18.07 2:1072 6:1390 0:0159 0:2121
200508 16.02 17.11 200702 18.67 18.36
2 3T
2:7941
200509 16.52 17.48 200703 19.19 18.60 6 7
200510 16.45 17.31 200704 19.54 18.69 6 26:4908 7
6 7
200511 17.30 17.71 200705 19.63 18.79 B ¼ ðbj Þ ¼ 6 2:7663 7
6
7
200512 15.88 17.00 200706 20.00 19.00 6 7
200601 16.48 17.39 200707 20.38 20.10 4 24:7565 5
200602 18.42 18.07 200708 0.2010 19.12 1:8909
200603 18.62 18.22 200709 0.2025 19.69
200604 19.02 18.52 200710 0.2021 19.45
200605 19.75 18.89 200711 0.2016 19.27 C ¼ ðcj Þ ¼ ½ 53:7245 0:4377 53:6684 0:2385 0:8794 
200606 18.23 17.85
D ¼ 0:0407

the correlation coefficient is 0.97493, the function of loss rate and
cut-off grade can be expressed as / ¼ 1:7aj  12.
Through simulation, we get cut-off grade values. According to
geology, production and cost report forms from January 2005 to
November 2007, we acquire the data in Table 2.
3.2. Tailing ore computation model Q w ¼ Q w ðat ; qt ; aj ; ar Þ
In this section, we establish the BP network mapping from cut-
off grade aj, grade of crude ore ar, geological reserves qt and geolog-
ical grade at to the amount of tailing ore Qw. According to Table 2,
use data from January 2005 to September 2007 as learning sam-
ples, October to November 2007 as forecast samples.
Use function newff() in matlab6.5 to establish BP neural net-
work, which contains a 4 input nodes, 1 hidden layer, 5 hidden
In Fig. 5, the 34th, 35th samples are the forecast value of Octo-
ber and November 2007. It shows that the constructed BP network
has prefect simulation performance.
3.3. Cost computation model C ¼ Cðat ; qt ; aj ; ar Þ
Take the data from January 2005 to September 2007 as training
data, October and November 2007 as forecast data (see Table 2),
we establish the RBF network mapping from cut-off grade aj, grade
of crude ore ar, geological reserves qt and geological grade at to the
total cost C. We use ‘‘newrb()” in matlab6.5 to initialize a 4 input
nodes RBF network, with the maximal hidden layer node being
25, the precision being 0.01. After learning, the sample simulation
diagram is shown in Fig. 6.
In Fig. 6, the 34th, 35th samples are the forecast values of cost in
October and November 2007, we can see that the constructed RBF
network has good forecast precision.
 Y. He et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 7617–7623 7621

Table 2
Relative data

Time Geological reserves (ton) Geological grade (%) Cut-off grade (%) Grade of crude ore (%) Amount of tailing ore (ton) Total cost (yaun)
200501 87400 52.73 17.64 45.63 47299 51969140.92
200502 79758 52.2 16.73 43 60344 30421078.19
200503 112487 52.59 16.88 46.31 74302 37663021.34
200504 117389 52.98 15.89 44.77 87190 49383806.44
200505 117081 52.79 16.31 41.64 101758 60046792.19
200506 118176 52.89 16.55 44.37 78505 42586489.95
200507 116850 52.88 17.21 44.86 72354 42228814.65
200508 124078 52.99 17.11 45.67 68959 46430495.55
200509 119443 52.77 17.48 44.15 83394 44219589.67
200510 129305 53.33 17.31 45.11 81743 47221159.74
200511 104938 53.58 17.71 45.63 40706 37331937.82
200512 62308 54 17.00 42.22 95032 101971898.7
200601 115203 53.23 17.39 42.42 93362 49121101.69
200602 117173 52.95 18.07 42.59 105851 52054970.97
200603 111742 52.74 18.22 42.61 91744 58698868.63
200604 133607 52.71 18.52 41.93 114842 58583073.5
200605 142315 52.74 18.89 43.01 104178 58072854.25
200606 146743 52.78 17.85 42.72 126846 53291936.81
200607 129853 52.88 18.44 42.64 82580 58243517.63
200608 132260 52.81 17.93 42.36 86322 63300578.67
200609 127694 52.3 17.56 43.99 68134 56670778.9
200610 132909 52.52 17.78 42.04 115963 63199414.97
200611 125422 53.14 18.29 42.42 80805 65103638.03
200612 80204 53.19 18.14 40.72 84238 69797345.18
200701 124660 52.84 18.07 42.2 88788 50225534.13
200702 124799 52.78 18.36 41.84 93393 45275479.3
200703 112212 52.95 18.60 41.37 80268 55596916.76
200704 143936 52.87 18.69 41.56 111703 56837103.48
200705 144099 53.25 18.79 43.31 68243 45897483.47
200706 135334 53.13 19.00 43.05 72476 58657262
200707 146158 53.18 20.10 42.57 92208 66311636.41
200708 149207 52.81 19.12 41.52 108548 61599380.07
200709 149160 52.87 19.69 41.45 107641 57460610.6
200710 146189 52.59 19.45 41.75 86418 58864580.83
200711 143134 53.05 19.27 41.05 107789 79516914.73

x 104
amount of tailing ore (ton)

x 107
total cost (yuan)

13 11
target value
target value
12 simuation
simulation
10
11 9
10
8
9
7
8
6
7
5
6
4
5
3
4 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 sample number
sample number
Fig. 6. Cost simulation.
Fig. 5. Tailing ore simulation.

3.4. Genetic-neural optimization integration
Fig. 7 is the technical diagram, which is adopted to optimize cut-
off grade (COG) and grade of crude ore (GCO) to maximize the net
present value (NPV). The system is constituted with a main module
and three sub-modules. The main module realizes the optimization
of two grades, which is used for ore drawing and ore mixing, and
then transmits two grades information and the relative geological
data to three sub-modules. Once the sub-modules receive the input
information, they calculate the loss rate, the amount of tailing ore
and the cost respectively. These are used for ore drawing manage-
ment (ODM), tailing ore management (TOM) and cost control (CC),
and compute income (CI) simultaneously, together with market
parameters (MP) and cost, finally get the NPV.
The population structure of genetic algorithm is shown in Fig. 8.
The population contains 80 chromosomes. We use the binary
encoding method, with the value range of cut-off grade being
15.8–20.1%, the value range of crude ore grade being 40.7–46.4%,
the crossover probability being 0.7, and the mutation probability
being 0.008. The fitness function is NPV, as shown in Eq. (1). Here,
aw = 0.977%, b = 64%, J = 517.12, i = 0.05.
7622 Y. He et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 7617–7623

Fig. 7. Grade optimization system.

Fig. 8. Population structure.

From Table 2, the geological reserves and geological grade of Table 4

Optimization result and comparison
Daye iron ore from August to November 2007 are shown as Table
3. In the following we optimize cut-off grade and grade of crude Scheme Cut-off grade (%) Grade of crude ore (%) NPV (108 yuan)
ore grade of these four months. 1* 15.8 43.9571 1.8811
Table 4 shows the result and comparison with other schemes 2* 15.8 43.8667 1.8811
(No. 1–5 are optimum schemes, n1 and n2 are present schemes). 3* 15.8 44.0476 1.8811
4* 15.8 43.7762 1.8811
From Table 4, we can see that, if Daye mine adopts the opti-
5* 15.8 44.1387 1.8811
mized scheme (cut-off grade is 15.8%, grade of crude ore is 6 15.8683 44.3190 1.8786
43.7762–44.1387%), the NPV from August to November 2007 is 7 15.9365 45.6762 1.8754
188.11 million yuan, and the NPV of present scheme (cut-off grade 8 16.2778 43.9571 1.8639
9 19.2810 45.6762 1.7523
10 18.8032 43.7762 1.7625
n1 18 41 1.7867
Table 3 n2 18 43 1.7910
Geological data

Time Geological reserves (ton) Geological grade (%)

200708 149207 52.81
200709 149160 52.87 is 18%, grade of crude ore is 41–43%) is 178.67–179.10 million
200710 146189 52.59
yuan. Therefore, the optimized scheme can improve the NPV by
200711 143134 53.05
9.01–9.44 million yuan.
 Y. He et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 7617–7623
4. Conclusions
This paper introduces the soft computing technology into the
field of production and management of mine system, which uses
genetic algorithm and neural networks nesting method to optimize
the cut-off grade and grade of crude ore. This method overcomes
the subjectivity and limitation of conventional methods, and the
innovation mainly includes as follows.
(1) Use process simulation to acquire the value of cut-off grade,
construct the function of loss rate and cut-off grade, and use
the neural network to construct mapping relationship from
cut-off grade, grade of crude ore, geological reserves and
geological grade to the amount of tailing ore and total cost.
The constructed models have good performance, and could
be conveniently used for ore drawing management, tailing
ore management and cost control.
(2) Combine genetic algorithm with neural networks to reach
dynamic optimization of cut-off grade and grade of crude
ore, with NPV as fitness function to evaluate the two
grades. The parameters in NPV can be adjusted in differ-
ent periods, and two optimum grades changes
correspondingly.
(3) The proposed theory and method of optimizing grades pro-
vide a brand-new idea to the metal mine system, and could
be used widely. Following this data-information-knowledge
chain, we can extract corresponding information, and obtain
required knowledge, to assist decision-making and manage-
ment, considering data of different mine.
7623
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by National Natural Science Founda-
tion Grant No. 70573101 of the People’s Republic of China and Re-
search fund Grant No. 070429 of Wuhan Steel and Iron (Group) Corp.
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