Abstract

This paper presents an approach to optimize room and pillar coal recovery and production rate as a function of panel dimensions. We propose a dual objective optimization problem that determines optimal panel dimensions for maximizing recovery and production rate. We conceptualize the problem as a one-dimensional cutting stock problem with the coal resource as a series of “strips.” We model the problem as an integer optimization problem and solve it using the branch and cut algorithm. We illustrate the approach with a real case study. We recommend that future work investigate more efficient solution algorithms