A Block Aggregation Method for Short-Term Planning of Open Pit Mining with Multiple Processing Destinations

Clustering approaches are widely used to group similar objects and facilitate problem analysis and decision-making in many fields. During short-term planning of open-pit mines, clustering aims to aggregate similar blocks based on their attributes (e.g., geochemical grades, rock types, geometallurgical parameters) while honoring various constraints: i.e., cluster shapes, size, alignment with mining direction, destination, and rock type homogeneity. This approach helps to reduce the computational cost of optimizing short-term mine plans. Previous studies have presented ways to perform clustering without honoring constraints specific to mining. This paper presents a novel block clustering heuristic capable of considering and honoring a set of mining block aggregation requirements and constraints. Constraints can relate to the clustering adjacent blocks, achieving higher destination homogeneities, controlled cluster size, consistency with mining direction, and achieving clusters with mineable shapes and rock types’ homogeneity. The proposed algorithm’s application on two different datasets demonstrates its efficiency and capability in generating reasonable block clusters while meeting different predefined aggregation requirements and constraints.