Surface mine design is a process of translating the outputs of planning decisions into tangible form of execution. Mine planning decisions are normally based on the available information to fulfill the objective of optimal techno-economic extraction of a mineral deposit. It involves with the evaluation of various alternative of possible extraction strategies through a reiterative process and finally decides one that fetches optimal financial output of certain investment outlay to the mining project. This course enables the students to apply the principles of mine planning to develop mine plans based on given design inputs. Students are also exposed to mine planning software so that they can take up details mine planning works.
OBJECTIVESThis course is for enabling the students to take up a mine planning job and covers the review of principles of mine planning and conducts exercises on use of bore hole data to develop a mine plan using mine planning software Minex or Surpac. Analysis of mining work for scheduling of mining activities are also included.
The main objective of this course is to enable the students to design a surface mine. It is expected that a student undergoing this course will be able to –
- explain the basic principles of planning and design,
- state or define the critical inputs, requirements and constraints,
- determine the design parameters like ultimate pit limit and stripping ratio for a given deposit
- select method of surface mining for a given deposit and determine machinery requirements
- design face layouts and prepare bench plans and calendar plans,
- evaluate the economics of the surface mining projects,
- production planning and scheduling for surface mines
- use mine planning software