Accounting for operational dilution by incorporating geological uncertainties in short-term mine planning

• Autor(a) principal: Câmara, Taís Renata
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Leal, Ronald Scheffer, Peroni, Rodrigo de Lemos
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRGS
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10183/218174
• topic: Mineração a céu aberto; Diluição do minério; Operational dilution; Short-term planning; Uncertainties; Dilución operativa; Planificación corto plazo; Incertidumbres

Operational dilution in open-pit mining can influence short-term mine planning and affect the adherence between designed and executed plans, impacting the reconciliation results. This type of dilution may occur due to several reasons, such as erroneous assumptions regarding contacts, inefficient mining performance and uncertainties associated with the planned grades. The use of uncertainties enables better predictability and achievement of planned targets. Using the mine planning polygons and grade models, a methodology is proposed to measure the dilution ranges in each region. The methodology considers the uncertainty associated with the ore grades to verify the probability of occurrence of dilution in the short-term mine plan. The results demonstrated that the use of uncertainties enabled identification of the areas with a higher potential of incurring operational dilution. Using this information, the plans can be adjusted to minimize dilution, or the result can be used as a factor to correct the planned data.