Title: Large-scale open pit production scheduling using Mixed Integer Linear Programming

Authors: Hooman Askari-Nasab, Kwame Awuah-Offei, Hesameddin Eivazy

Addresses: Mining Optimization Laboratory (MOL), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, University of Alberta, 3-133 Markin/CNRL Natural Resources Engineering Facility, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2W2, Canada. ' Department of Mining and Nuclear Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, 226 McNutt Hall, Rolla, MO 65401, USA. ' Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mining Optimization Laboratory (MOL), School of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, University of Alberta, 3-133 Markin/CNRL Natural Resources Engineering Facility, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2W2, Canada

Abstract: One of the main obstacles in using Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulations for open pit production scheduling is the size of the problem. The main objective of this paper is to present and implement a practical MILP formulation for open pit production scheduling problem. To reduce the number of binary integer variables in the formulation, we aggregate blocks into larger units referred to as mining-cuts. We also present the numerical modelling approach to setup the optimisation problem. Finally, we verify and validate the MILP production scheduler by a comparative case study against Whittle strategic mine planning software.

Keywords: MILP; mixed integer linear programming; production scheduling; blending; aggregation; CPLEX; open pit mining; strategic mine planning; numerical modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMME.2010.037624

International Journal of Mining and Mineral Engineering, 2010 Vol.2 No.3, pp.185 - 214

Published online: 20 Dec 2010 *

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