Robust production scheduling in open-pit mining under uncertainty: a box counterpart approach

Open-Pit Production Scheduling (OPPS) problem focuses on determining a block sequencing and scheduling to maximize Net Present Value (NPV) of the venture under constraints. The scheduling model is critically sensitive to the economic value volatility of block, block weight, and operational capacity. In order to deal with the OPPS uncertainties, various approaches can be recommended. Robust optimization is one of the most applicable methods in this area used in this study. Robust optimization based on the box counterpart formulation is applied to deal with the OPPS problem. To have a comparison between the solutions of the box counterpart optimization model and the deterministic model, a Two-Dimensional (2D) numerical study of a hypothetical open-pit mine is conducted followed by additional computations on the actual large-scale instances (Marvin orebody). This investigation shows that the different features of the robust planning under uncertainty can be scheduled. Also the price of robustness is obtained in different levels of conservatism.