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Strategic mine planning of surface mining projects incorporating

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6th International Conference on Sustainable Development in the 645
Minerals Industry, 30 June – 3 July 2013, Milos island, Greece

Strategic mine planning of surface mining projects incorporating

sustainability concepts

C. Roumpos and E. Papacosta

Public Power Corporation of Greece S.A., Mines Division, Greece

ABSTRACT pos and Spanidis, 2003; Roumpos et al., 2006).

Long-term strategic mining planning and sched-
uling is a critical stage for the design and devel-
opment of surface mining projects. It requires
an integrated approach and optimization based
on all available technical (mineral deposit char-
acteristics, geological, geotechnical and hydro-
geological data), economic, environmental or
social parameters. Many of these parameters are
crucial for the viability and sustainability of the
mining project. Within this context, the quanti-
fication of the main parameters effect on mine
design and scheduling incorporating sustainabil-
ity concepts is very important for a successful
mine planning. The objective of this paper is the
development of a framework for the strategic
mine planning of surface mining projects con-
sidering parameters of sustainability, their inter-
relationships and their influence on the optimi-
zation model as well as on mine development. A
case study with a description of the proposed
model in a surface lignite mine development is
presented.
1. INTRODUCTION
Mining projects are dynamic complex systems,
with a long-term horizon, affected by many un-
certainty and risk sources. Project uncertainties
may relate to geological-mineral deposit charac-
teristics, technical, environmental, social, eco-
nomic or other factors. Especially in surface
mines, which extend over very large areas and
usually have a long life the long-term strategic
mine planning should take into account these
uncertainties.
The planning stage is critical for the success-
ful development of the mining projects (Roum-
Strategic open pit mine planning, incorporating
stochastic optimization techniques in mine de-
sign and production scheduling, allows model-
ing and direct integration of the project uncer-
tainties and provides a framework for the opti-
mization of life-of-mine planning (Dimi-
trakopoulos, 2011).
Public acceptance of surface mining opera-
tions in relation to sustainable development may
also affect the viability of the corresponding
projects (Pavloudakis et al., 2012). Modeling
and evaluation of the exploitation strategy of
such projects in the strategic mine planning and
scheduling phase should incorporate sustainabil-
ity issues connected with activities that take
place throughout the whole mine life cycle,
from the first exploratory stages to the post min-
ing period (Roumpos et al., 2005).
A holistic approach model for the mine plan-
ning of surface mining projects should be based
on an integrated approach to the long-term stra-
tegic mining planning and development, taking
into account the latest technical, environmental,
economic and social data with regards to the
operation of surface mines (Roumpos et al.,
2011). Within this context, the critical role of
sustainability parameters on the strategic mine
planning of surface mining projects can be de-
scribed by dividing the mine planning model in-
to the following interrelated sub-models:
- Mineral deposit – geologic – hydrogeologic -
geotechnical model.
- Mine development and scheduling model.
- Environmental impact assessment model.
- Financial - mining economics - market mod-
el.
646 6th International Conference on Sustainable Development in the
Minerals Industry, 30 June – 3 July 2013, Milos island, Greece
In this paper the effect of sustainability pa-
rameters on the mine planning sub-models is
described. A case study, clarifying some critical
issues of the analysis, is presented concerning
the mine planning of Mavropigi Mine.
2. SUSTAINABLE MINE PLANING OF
SURFACE MINING PROJECTS
The critical effect of sustainability parameters
on the strategic mine planning of surface mining
projects is presented, examining every sub-
model of the mine planning model.
2.1 Mineral deposit - geologic- geotechnical -
hydrogeological model
The mineable ore reserves estimation process is
a very important subject for the mine planning
and design phase of the mining project. It is a
core component of any surface mining project,
affecting the life of the project, the annual pro-
duction rate of the mine, the life of the corre-
sponding mineral processing or other facilities
and the viability of the overall project (Roum-
pos et al., 2009). The role of reserve estimation
is also crucial in setting sustainable targets in
the context of managing the mining industry’s
greatest asset (Weatherstone, 2005).
Quality parameters of run-off-mine ore are
also very important in strategic mine planning.
They also affect the economic viability of the
project, the efficiency of the processing facili-
ties, the environmental performance of the pro-
ject or the decision for the mining sequence.
Mine planning activities should take into ac-
count the efficient use of mineral resources. It
is, therefore, essential a reliable mineral deposit
model, based on the geologic and fault model of
the deposit and on exploration drill holes data.
This model should be based on conventional
and geostatistical grade and tonnage assessment
techniques, incorporating errors and uncertain-
ties related to the exploration data or other un-
certainties concerning the spatial tonnage or
grade distribution variability. It should also be
revised periodically, adding the new knowledge
acquired during the mining project. The model
can be used for the optimization of final pit lim-
its as well as for the optimization of long and
short-term of mine development.
Geotechnical analysis is also a very im-
portant issue of the mine planning process. Ge-
otechnical model affects the overall mining ratio
(volume of waste per ton of ore) and therefore
the cost and the economics of the project. It also
plays a critical role in strategic mine develop-
ment. Geotechnical investigations should start
in the early exploration phase of the deposit and
a geotechnical model should be available in the
mine planning phase in order to be used into the
mine planning optimization processes, ensuring
geotechnical stability of the excavation and
dumping process and safe mining operations.
The geotechnical parameters of surface mining
projects contribute to sustainable mine planning
design of the projects.
Hydrogeological analysis is also an essential
issue for the mine planning process. Hydrogeo-
logical investigations referring to groundwater
and surface water problems that will be encoun-
tered during the mining project should also start
from the early exploration phase and continue to
after mining closure phase. In surface mining
projects the hydrogeological model is an inte-
gral part of mine planning process as it is related
to geotechnical model and also affects the de-
watering planning of the mine, the environmen-
tal impact of the project, the water balance of
the mining area and the environmental reclama-
tion of the mine. It is clear that the hydrogeolog-
ical parameters are also critical in the sustaina-
bility of mine development parameters and in
the viability of the project.
2.2 Mine development and scheduling model
Strategic mine development and scheduling
model is the most important part of mine plan-
ning activities. It is a complex, multi-objective
optimization problem incorporating technical,
environmental, economic, social or other con-
straints.
The main optimization model includes the
selection of the mining method or the combina-
tion of mining methods, the location of the
opening phase of the surface mine and the se-
quence of the excavations and the waste dump-
ing and waste management, the optimization of
bench design, the optimization of the production
6th International Conference on Sustainable Development in the
Minerals Industry, 30 June – 3 July 2013, Milos island, Greece
rate meeting short and long-term tonnage and
grade targets, the optimization of mining
equipment reliability and utilization and the
stockpile management and blending procedures.
The model should be optimized taking into ac-
count the operation of a number of mines of a
mining center and incorporating the interlinking
ore and waste handling systems.
Mine development flexibility is a very im-
portant issue concerning the complexity and un-
certainties that a surface mining project faces
through mine lifetime. Strategic long term plan-
ning requires a cyclical reassessment of exploi-
tation options, in the context of anticipated
changes in the near- and long-term business op-
erating environment (Smith, 2012).
It is obvious that in the optimization process
of a surface mine development and scheduling
problem sustainability parameters should be in-
corporated in all stages of the project, through-
out the whole mine life cycle, from the first ex-
ploratory stages to the post mining period.
These parameters, which are also related with
the parameters of the other three mine planning
sub-models, may include:
- The recovery and efficient utilization of the
mineral resource.
- The optimal environmental and ecological
planning of the mining operation as well as
the landscape and environmental reclamation
of the mine, minimizing the volumes of
waste outside dumps.
- The economic performance of the mining
project.
- The social acceptance of the project and the
contribution to long-term viability of the lo-
cal and regional economies.
- The minimization of risk in all stages of min-
ing operation.
The above-mentioned parameters should be
taken into account into integrated optimization
of mine development and scheduling model.
2.3 Environmental impact assessment model
Surface mines are complex operations that can
affect numerous environmental constituents in
various ways. The environmental impact as-
sessment model aims at the sustainable envi-
647
ronmental planning and development of the
mining project throughout the entire mine life
cycle. The type and magnitude of environmental
impacts of surface mining projects are closely
related to various site-specific physical, chemi-
cal, ecological, socioeconomic and cultural
characteristics, which must be thoroughly iden-
tified, analyzed and modeled. The correspond-
ing model requires the identification of inflows
and outflows of the mining system defining ap-
propriately the boundaries of the system, the de-
termination of the best available environmental
management practices as well as the definition
of environmental monitoring and sustainable
development indicators.
Environmental and social issues often have a
direct impact on the economics of the mining
project. They may be related to the following
parameters:
- Land acquisition requirements essential for
mining excavations and waste dumping de-
velopment. One of the main parameters in
the optimization of mine development is the
minimization of the waste outside dumping
areas, minimizing the land acquisition re-
quirements and consequently the correspond-
ing cost as well as the environmental impact
of the surface mining project. Land acquisi-
tion processes may be crucial in mine opera-
tion causing delays in mine development or
changes in the direction of mining operation.
Therefore, a land acquisition planning should
be incorporated into the mine planning pro-
cedures.
- Relocation of infrastructures affected by the
project. An appropriate management model
for large technical projects is also required
from the initial phase of mine planning activ-
ities (Roumpos et al., 2011). The large tech-
nical projects may necessitate significant
modifications-revisions of the mine limits
and of its development schedule. They are al-
so related to the environmental and sustaina-
bility planning of the mining project and
have a direct effect on the economics of the
project.
- Environmental protection and land reclama-
tion planning of the mined out and waste
648 6th International Conference on Sustainable Development in the
Minerals Industry, 30 June – 3 July 2013, Milos island, Greece

dumping areas. These activities are closely 3. CASE STUDY

connected with mine planning procedures, An analysis of the described mine planning
with the land uses prior to mining operation model concerning the strategic mine planning of
and the planned land uses of the reclaimed the Mavropigi surface lignite mine is presented
areas. They should also take into account the in this section.
transportation and deposition of the by-
products of the mining project. They start 3.1 Mine location - Description of the
from the early stages of deposit exploration Mavropigi lignite deposit
and expand many years after the mine clo-
The Mavropigi mining field is located in the
sure and affect directly the social acceptance northern part of the west boundary of the Ptol-
as well as the economic performance of the emais mining area (Fig. 1). The area of the mine
mining project. covers approx. 11 km2. In the NW-SE direction,
- Archaeological investigations in the mining it extends over approx. 5 km from the Ptolemais
area. Surface mining projects offer an oppor- power station to the Komanos village and in the
tunity to conduct Archaeological fieldwork NE-SW direction from the former opencast
by funding the Archaeological research prior mines of North Field and Komanos, to the
to mining operations and thus to contribute to mountain front where pre-Tertiary slates and
sustainable mining operation concerning the limestone layers occur near the surface. The
Archaeological findings. On the other hand mining field includes administrative buildings
inappropriate planning of Archaeological in- of the opencast mines, industrial facilities and
vestigation taking place in the region surface parts of the Ptolemais power station. Inside the
mine may cause significant delays or changes planned mining area, the Mavropigi village is
in the mine development. located in the southwest of the field. From the
beginning of the mining operations at the end of
2002 until the end of 2012, 51.8 Mt of lignite
2.4 Financial - mining economics - market was produced. The remaining exploitable lignite
model reserves amount to 146.4 Mt. The main mine
This model is related with the financial, mining equipment consists of 8 bucket wheel excava-
economics and market parameters that are usu-
ally taken into account in the mine optimization
model. They may refer to objective function, to
the criteria and economic analysis for invest-
ment decision - making or to the constraints of
the model. The basic economic parameters of
the mining project are directly connected with
the parameters of the other mine planning sub-
models. They mainly include the escalation of
capital and operating mining cost through all
phases of mining project, from the exploration
to post mining activities, the commodity prices,
the interest rates and the financial engineering
and risk analysis model. The economic analysis
model could also be integrated by incorporating
the evaluation technique of real options or the
game theory analysis taking into account the
competition of other mining projects.

Figure 1: Ptolemais lignite basin and the Mavropigi Mine.

6th International Conference on Sustainable Development in the
Minerals Industry, 30 June – 3 July 2013, Milos island, Greece
Figure 2: Fault system - initial and final pit limits of the
Mavropigi mine.
tors and 3 spreaders, transferred from the ex-
hausted mines of North Field and Komanos as
appropriate for the Moavropigi deposit (Ko-
lovos, 2006) and the annual lignite production
of the mine is approximately 8 Mt (Pagonis
et al., 2009).
After a zone of very small thicknesses of the
lignite-bearing series in the south, the thickness
grows towards the northwest where it mainly
ranges between 50 and 150 m, while it rises up
to approximately 200 m towards the south-
western mountain boundary. The increase in
thickness of the lignite-bearing layers is accom-
panied by a division into a multitude of split
seams. In a graben settling down to the north
and opening towards the Proastio field, the lig-
nite-bearing series reaches a thickness of 200 to
250m in the planned mining area. The overlying
strata thicknesses mainly range between 10 and
50m.
The mining field is separated by NW-SE
striking faults into individual fault blocks
(Fig. 2).
Towards the mountain front it is limited by
one or several faults with dips towards the mine.
Furthermore, sandy-gravelly layers of the over-
burden strata locally incorporate consolidated
layers.
649
3.2 Strategic mine planning of Mavropigi mine
The main issues concerning the strategic mine
planning of Mavropigi mine include the follow-
ing:
Excavation pit limits
Strategic mine planning and scheduling of
Mavropigi mine has been modified since the ini-
tial phases of the mining project. The pit limits
in the initial mining study of Mavropigi mine
(Rheinbraun Engineering & Public Power Cor-
poration of Greece, 2006) did not include
Mavropigi Village (Fig. 2). Figure 3 shows the
mine development sequence (A-B-C-D-E)
mainly by the use of continuous mining equip-
ment and the areas of exhausted mines North
Field and Komanos mine planned for waste ma-
terial outside dumping (areas of outside dump 1
(2 spreaders) and 2 (1 spreader) respectively).
In a revision of mine planning, based on the
decision for a new power plant construction,
and on the new exploration, geotechnical, envi-
ronmental, social and economic data, the pit
limits in the area of Mavropigi village were ex-
tended, increasing the mineable lignite reserves
of the deposit and consequently the increasing
the contribution to the sustainability of the min-
ing project concerning the efficient utilization of
the lignite deposit and to the to long-term viabil-
ity of the local and regional economies.
Also, the need for covering part of the pro-
duction needs of the adjacent Kardia surface
lignite mine, the exploitation of low depth de-
posit of Komanos village, which initially was
part of the lignite deposit of Mavropigi mine,
was assigned to Kardia mine (Fig. 2). This part
of the deposit was planned to be excavated by
non-continuous mining equipment.
Lignite production rate-excavations sequence
In the initial mining study the annual production
rate of the mine was ~ 6 Mt, covering the feed-
ing needs of Ptolemais Power Plant. The de-
mand for higher annual production rates (8-10
Mt) covering the needs of other power plants of
the lignite center, necessitated the application of
a rapid mine development plan with significant
modifications in the excavations sequence of the
mining sectors (Fig. 4), introducing the applica-
650 6th International Conference on Sustainable Development in the
Minerals Industry, 30 June – 3 July 2013, Milos island, Greece
Figure 3: Mine development sequence in the initial strate-
gic planning of the Mavropigi mine.
tion of non-continuous mining equipment to a
large extent in various areas and incorporating
the production flexibility of the project. As a
consequence, there was a need for a new area
for dumping the waste material excavated by
non-continuous equipment (outside dump 3).
The site that was selected for the construction of
the new power plant had been planned for the
outside dump 2 of waste material (Fig. 3). Be-
cause of this selection, the area of outside dump
2 was changed (Fig. 4).
Further changes of mining sectors’ sequence
due to land acquisition and the consequent ge-
otechnical problems
Land acquisition of a small area (L) (Fig. 5) in
front of excavation face became a crucial issue
in excavation development of the Mavropigi
mine. The delays in the acquisition of that area
caused production problems and imposed signif-
icant changes in the direction of excavations. A
flexible planning of the mine included the
changes of the mining direction shown in Fig-
ure 5. The new excavations sequence formulat-
ed excavations face geometry with adverse ge-
otechnical effects.
Figure 4: Mine development sequence after the modifica-
tions of pit limits and production targets.
A new geotechnical investigation of the
south-west final perimeter slope of the excava-
tions revealed the movement model, identified
the risk factors, improved the geological and
fault model and suggested a safe slope inclina-
tion in for excavating the deep lignite seams in
that area with safe mine operations.
The occurrence of the limestone in the upper
benches of the mine also imposed the use of
continuous mining equipment in the west
boundaries of the mine.
In that area, hard rock conglomerate material
also exists, so the planning of the excavations
with the combination of continuous and non-
continuous mining equipment in different min-
ing areas is a critical issue for the efficient use
of the main mine equipment and the appropriate
mine development. Hydrogeological problems
in the western mine perimeter require a water
management planning.
As a result of these changes in mine excava-
tion planning and based on the outcome of the
new geotechnical investigations, the estimation
of the volume of waste material that will be
dumped to the outside dump area 1 increased.
An increase is also anticipated for the final lev-
els of the outside dump area 1 (avoiding new
dumping areas) as well as the delay of the in-
stallation of spreaders in the inside dump of the
mine.
 6th International Conference on Sustainable Development in the
Minerals Industry, 30 June – 3 July 2013, Milos island, Greece
Figure 5: Further changes in mine development sequence
after land acquisition problems and geotechnical investi-
gation of south-west final perimeter slope.
Concerning the areas of archaeological inter-
est at the south part of the Mavropigi mine
(Fig. 5), a major archaeological fieldwork was
funded and started in 2008, prior to mining op-
erations that identified a number of areas of ar-
chaeological interest, contributing to sustaina-
bility of mining operations. The appropriate
planning of archaeological investigations did
not cause any delays in mine development.
4. CONCLUSIONS
Strategic mine planning surface mining projects
is a complex, multi-objective optimization prob-
lem that requires an integrated approach with
the incorporation of technical, environmental,
economic, social or other issues.
In the optimization process of a surface mine
development and scheduling problem sustaina-
bility parameters should be incorporated in all
stages of the mining project, throughout the
whole mine life cycle, from the first exploratory
stages to the post mining period.
In this paper, the critical role of sustainability
parameters on the strategic mine planning of
surface mining projects was described by divid-
ing the mine planning model into interrelated
sub-models, with a discussion of some critical
View publication stats
651
issues concerning the development of
Mavropigi mine.
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