Stochastic Mine Design

Purpose and goal

Orebody geological uncertainty has a significant impact on the real value of a mining project. A stochastic mine optimization approach was used for designing open pit mines based on geological uncertainty in association with stochastically simulated geological models and traditional optimization. The stochastic approach allowed to develop open pit mine designs that capture maximum upside potential whilst minimizing geological risk.

Expected results and effects

Integrating geological uncertainty into life-of-mine pit optimization resulted in higher values in the mine schedule production planning and lower geological risk over the life-of-mine. The pre-study confirmed that it is possible to achieve a higher value life-of-mine plan using stochastic optimization approach versus the conventional scheduling methods.

Planned approach and implementation

During the project some challenges were encountered during the simulated orebody models using sGems software generation phase. After the simulated orebody models were validated then it was fairly straightforward to import in the stochastic optimizer software and undertake stochastic mine scheduling. A lot of attention was put onto guiding the stochastic optimizer to creating feasible life-of-mine production sequences. Analyzing and visualizing the simulated orebody models risk profiles and mine scheduling increased the understanding of how geological risk is accounted for.