A new algorithm for optimum open pit design: Floating cone method III

Ultimate limits of an open pit, which define its size and shape at the end of the mine’s life, is the pit with the highest profit value. A number of algorithms such as floating or moving cone method, floating cone method II and the corrected forms of this method, the Korobov algorithm and the corrected form of this method, dynamic programming and the Lerchs and Grossmann algorithm based on graph theory have been developed to find out the optimum final pit limits. Each of these methods has special advantages and disadvantages. Among these methods, the floating cone method is the simplest and fastest technique to determine optimum ultimate pit limits to which variable slope angle can be easily applied. In contrast, this method fails to find out optimum final pit limits for all the cases. Therefore, other techniques such as floating cone method II and the corrected forms of this method have been developed to overcome this shortcoming. Nevertheless, these methods are not always able to yield the true optimum pit. To overcome this problem, in this paper a new algorithm called floating cone method III has been introduced to determine optimum ultimate pit limits. The results show that this method is able to produce good outcome.