Pit and Phase Control

About Pit and Phases Generation

Open pit mines are often mined in a number of phases with intermediate pits for the phases or pushbacks. The phases must be carefully planned since they provide a long-term strategic guide for the sequential development of a mine and for a detailed production scheduling.

Three key elements must be determined when designing the phases: the number of phases, the pit phases, and the ultimate pit. These elements are interrelated and should be simultaneously optimized to maximize the net present value (NPV) of an open pit project.

In Pit Optimization, generating the pit skeleton and pit phases —also referred to as pushbacks is an iterative process that involves the following operations:

  • Create a scenario of various parameters.
  • Run the pit optimization.
  • Review the results.
  • Modify the scenarios as per the results.
  • Repeat the sequence to update the scenarios.
  • Choose the most suitable case and results.
  • Publish the results of the pit optimization, which are the 3D shape of phases for downstream works including mine design and tactical mine planning.

 

See Also
Configuring Phases
Creating a Scenario