Waste disposal during pit mining method that maximises the net value of a joint extraction and waste movement schedule

摘要

A method, apparatus and computer program for pit mining with waste dumping is disclosed, in which material is extracted from an open pit and some of that material is sent to waste. The method optimises a joint extraction and waste refill schedule. The method defines a road network (14) having a plurality of nodes (16) with at least some of the nodes (16a) defining entry points to a plurality of waste dumps. The waste dumps are either in pit waste dumps or external waste dumps. Waste material is moved along the road network from a location in the pit to an entry node relating to one of the waste dumps and deposited at the waste dump. Material can be moved from external waste dumps to in pit waste dumps. The in pit waste dumps are determined from a block model providing a joint extraction and refill schedule, and refill aggregate spaces are determined which comprise aggregates of blocks which have already been mined so that material is removed from those blocks to define a refill aggregate space which is then available to act as a waste dump for return of waste material to the pit.