This localized area gathers various elements:
- A surface such as a terrain
- An underground content that can be a geology model.
- Civil infrastructure elements such as roads, railways, bridges, dams.
- The surface mine.
The above picture shows an example of a surface
mine layout. A typical mine surface contains:
- A road network (for trucks used for moving excavated earth volumes).
- Various buildings, for example a factory.
- Civil engineering components, such as tunnels, dams, bridges
- Stockpiles
- Pits that can contain:
- Road hauls to enable truck access.
- Ramps or ramp networks arranged spirally along the
perimeter wall of the pit. These give access to trucks going from the surface to the
pit’s bottom.
- A switchback system zigzag pattern on one side of the pit.
- A collection of bench features .
An open pit undergoes various phases. To each pit phase corresponds a specific shape for the
pit at a specific stage of the mine operation. Excavated material between pit phases is
referred to as
pushback.