Mine Planning – Its relationship to Risk Management

Mine planning is a typical engineering design function which integrate the disciplines of geology, metallurgy, geotechnics, mining and economics. The numerous uncertainties associated with geological understanding, the exposure of people to potential hazards in the work place and the need to provide a specific dollar outcome, requires a proper assessment of the risk. This paper identifies the sources of risk and suggests a rigorous methodology that can be followed to include risk management into the mine planning discipline. Techniques used in other engineering disciplines have been incorporated in this application to open pit mining. The responsibility of risk tolerance needs to be clearly defined by the directors of the mining company to allow the planning engineers to deliver an acceptable design.