Optimal production scale of open pit mining operations with uncertain metal supply and long-term stockpiles

Mohammad Waqar Ali Asad and Roussos Dimitrakopoulos

Resources Policy, 2012, vol. 37, issue 1, 81-89

Abstract: An open pit mining operation consists of various stages, and the calculation of the production capacities of these stages depends upon the available supply of ore (mineralized material of economic value) and waste material. Cutoff grade is the criterion that specifies the amount of ore and waste. The material with grade equal to or higher than the cutoff grade is classified as ore. The material with grade less than the cutoff grade is considered waste. While this explains the link between cutoff grade theory and the calculation of production capacities, the majority of optimization models for finding production capacities not only disregards this relationship but also ignores expected variations and uncertainty in metal content or the available supply of ore and waste material.

Keywords: Optimization; Cutoff grade; Net present value maximization; Production capacities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420711000778
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:37:y:2012:i:1:p:81-89

DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2011.12.002

Access Statistics for this article

Resources Policy is currently edited by R. G. Eggert

More articles in Resources Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().