Abstract

In the design of open pit mines, the region to be mined is partitioned into pushbacks, subregions that allow the mining to be divided into distinct phases. Practical pushbacks are connected, satisfy a minimum width for mining equipment and include a haulage ramp. Current pushback models typically relax some or all of these mineability conditions; consequently, the outputs from those models require significant intervention by mining engineers. We present a formulation to generate maximum value practical pushbacks. A closeness factor is introduced to quantify the design's mineability. Finally, a case study of a real mine shows that our model can produce pushbacks with more practical designs and better value than traditional approaches.