In mining projects, all uncertainties associated with a project must be considered to determine the feasibility study. Grade uncertainty is one of the major components of technical uncertainty that affects the variability of the project. Geostatistical simulation, as a reliable approach, is the most widely used method to quantify risk analysis to overcome the drawbacks of the estimation methods...

Open pit mine design and production scheduling deals with the quest for the most profitable mining sequence over the life of a mine. The dynamics of mining ore and waste and the spatial grade uncertainty make predictions of the optimal mining sequence a challenging task. A new optimization approach to production scheduling based on the effective management of waste mining and orebody grade unce...

During early phases of open-pit mining production planning many parameters are uncertain, and since the mining operation is performed only once, any evaluations based only on on average outcomes neglects the very real chance of obtaining an outcome that is below average. Taking into account also that operation costs are considerable and the mining horizon usually extends over several decades it...

The Sungun copper deposit is located in about 40km north west of Ahar city in the east Azarbaigan province of Iran. The total geological ore deposit is estimated to be 740 million tons. In this study using all information from exploration and geotechnical studies of the area, final pit limits of Sungun copper deposit is designed by the 2-D Lerchs & Grossmann Algorithm. By this method, from 740 ...

Recent research on BIF-related high-grade iron ore mineralization has resulted in new genetic models that emphasize the structurally controlled hypogene alteration and upgrade of BIF to high-grade (>65% Fe) iron ore. Conventional structural and stratigraphic mapping and reconstructions of the tectonic history of iron districts, in combination with high-tech geochemical analyses such as laser IC...

The processes responsible for the transformation of banded iron formations to hard high-grade hematite ore, and their timing, remain poorly understood despite many recent advances. The paleomagnetic method allows for the estimation of ore genesis timing as a complement to other techniques. The effectiveness of the paleomagnetic method at dating, and testing proposed models for, the genesis of h...

Three quarters of the world’s phosphate deposits are of sedimentary origin and 75%–80% of those include carbonate gangue. In this study, carbonate sedimentary phosphate deposits of the Lar Mountains of southwest Iran are studied. These deposits consist mainly of calcite, fluorapatite, quartz, kaolinite and illite, with an average P2O5 grade of 9%–10% (low-grade). Various pre-processing and proc...

Short-term production plans are the basis for operational mine production schedules. They concentrate on making long-term mine plans operationally feasible. Furthermore, some variables such as ore grade and tonnage govern mine production systems and cause uncertainty in the supply of raw materials to the mills. Due to the quality variation of material, short-term production optimization is an u...