Course name: Mine Planning and Design

Course Code: MN 4113

Course Weight: 7.5 Credits)

Instructors:
Dr Ombeni John Mdee
Eng. Emanuel Mdika

University of Dodoma
College of Earth Sciences and Engineering
Department of Mining and Mineral Processing
Engineering
Chapter One: Introduction
• Mine Planning involves the correct selection
and coordinated operation of all subsystems,
e.g., mine production capacity, equipment
selection, budgeting and scheduling.
• Mine Design refers to the engineering design of
subsystems in the mine structure, eg, drilling,
blasting, haulage, transportation of workforce
and supplies, electric power, water, ventilation,
pumping, fill systems, ground support and
reinforcement, stope and pillar dimensions.
 Process of Mine Planning and Design

• The process of mine planning and design is an

integral part of any successful mining operation.
• The mine planning and design process is
carefully considered, updated, and documented
throughout the mine’s life.
• A number of skills are required to complete a
successful design and in practice, the process
involves many engineering disciplines, as well as
economic and financial specialists, and
environmental and social specialists, among
others.
 Process of Mine Planning and Design, cont.,
• The process begins with the gathering and
processing of data and progresses through
many steps of planning, to produce a mine
plan.
• The mine plan should cover any additional
exploration, through construction and mine
operation to mine closure.
• At all steps any risks which might affect the
operation must be identified and assessed.
Process of Mine Planning and Design, cont.,
 Process of Mine Planning and Design, cont.,
• You will notice that there are two overarching steps to the process –
project criteria and an iterative feedback loop.
• These are the critical elements of mine planning and design.
• Before you begin any development plans or gather data, each
undertaking’s project criteria must be evaluated.
• Ask what the company, its board of directors or financiers require.
• These criteria govern the project’s future planning.
• Each project in this course has a set of guiding criteria identifying its
primary focus.
• Your team will need to determine from the project brief exactly what
these criteria are.
• The following are typical, but not exclusive, items of possible project
criteria:
i. NPV
ii. Cut-off grades
iii. $/tonne mining costs (ore, $ waste processing).
iv. Financing requirements.
v. Mine life.
vi. Company environmental/community policies.
Mine Design includes
 Assignment One
• Prepare a typical mine layout including all
infrastructures. Taking into consideration you
have been in the industry three times, i.e.,
PT1, PT2 and PT3.
 Chapter Two:
Mine Life and Production Rate
• What is a Rule of Thumb?
A definition is necessary that offers good
application in the Hard Rock Mining Industry.
Webster’s defines a "Rule of Thumb" as follows:
1. "A general or approximate principal, procedure
or rule based on experience or practice, as
opposed to a specific, scientific calculation or
estimate;"
2. "A rough practical method of procedure."
Rules of Thumb – Mining Industry Definition

• For the mining industry, a Rule of Thumb is an

empirical standard. It can be further defined
as a pragmatic/realistic guideline or "norm"
related more to the art than the science of
mining.
• A Rule’s main roles are to provide the
perspective required to ensure practical
concepts and designs, and to facilitate finding
realistic solutions for operating problems
Equation for Mine Life and Production Rate
• The empirical equation for mine life that Taylor developed is:

• The equation can be used to find the production rate by

• Assuming a mine operating 350 days a year, Taylor's rule gives

the equation

• Taylor's rule was originally developed for metric tonnes, but it

can be applied to short tons. This is because the difference
between metric tonnes and short tons is lessened by the 4th
root, so the resulting error in mine life would only be +2.5%.
 Limitations
• Old mines far into the stages of operation (can work
faster)
• Unusually large deposits (>200Mt as suggested mining
rate would be unobtainable)
• Very deep, flat ore bodies (production limited by hoisting
limits of shaft)
• Steeply dipping tabular or massive deposits that are
worked in steps towards great depths (limited to rate of
deepening of the working)
• Erratically mineralized multi-vein systems (production rate
limited to discovery rate)
• Taylor's Rule of Thumb for Mine Life
 Modification of Taylor's rule
• D.A. Singer, W.D. Menzie and K.R. Long revised
Taylor's rule in 1998, based on a data set of 41
open pit gold-silver mines
The data used for this calibration included
mines using mining methods such
as room and pillar, cut and fill, crater
retreat, shrinkage slope, or sublevel
longhole mining methods. The resulting
equation for underground massive sulfide
deposits is:
• Long and Singer further studied Taylor's rule in
2001 and calibrated it to 45 open pit copper
mines. The open pit copper model proved to
have a curve halfway between the 1998 gold-
silver curve and Taylor's Rule. This is due to
base metal mines having less aggressive
production rates than precious metal mines.
• The latest study on Taylor's rule was completed by
Long in 2009. Long's study is the most extensive of
all studies looking at the relationship between
production rate capacity and reserves. The study
looked at 342 open pit and 197 underground
mines located in the Americas and Australia. Long
found that there was a significant difference
between the production rate of underground vs.
open pit and block caving. The equation found for
underground deposits was found to be:
• The equation for open pit and block caving
deposits was found to be:

For this scenario, a theoretical block caving iron mine

will be considered. This mine has an expected reserve
of 50 million tonnes. (11.7 years)
• The half vertical tonnage rule of thumb is used
in steeply dipping mechanized vertical deposits.
The rule is similar to Taylor's rule as it is based of
tonnage, however it uses the average tonnage
divided by depth instead. The rule is as follows:

• Alternatively a factor of 1/3 may be used instead

of 1/2.
 Modifications of Taylor's Rule
Given, production rate, it is possible to estimate mine life production
 Assignment Two
• Prepare a monthly production report for the
typical mine including all equipment and
operations. Taking into consideration you have
been in the industry three times, i.e., PT1, PT2
and PT3.
Chapter Three: Open Pit Design

• The end-purpose of your pit design will likely

be:
» Determining Ore Reserves
» Input into a schedule for Life-of-Mine planning
» To provide the guidance for the excavation of the pit to
be detailed and laid out by the short-term design
engineers.

More Details: For underground, refers Mine Development and Underground Mine Courses
For Surface Mining, refers Surface Mining course
• As such your design needs to focus on
» Operational Efficiency (trucking and digging,
andmaybe drilling)
» Cost Minimization / Value Maximization (less
waste, more ore).
» Schedule flexibility (is it practical to schedule
and maintain productivity)
» Safety (don’t build hazards and risks into the
design!)
Design for Ultimate Pit Limit
 PIT DESIGN PARAMETERS
• Before starting a pit design, you will need to know the
general expected pit design parameters by material
type and/or geotechnical domain, specifically the
following:
• » Safety Berm width and placement intervals (if
requested or required)
• » Batter angle (bench face angle)
• » Bench Height
• » Inter-ramp angle (IRA) limits
• » Overall slope angle (OSA) limits
• » Ramp width
• » Ramp gradient
• » Switchback width and gradient
• » Minimum Radius for Curves
• » Truck Stopping Distances (Loaded & Unloaded – at
• maximum allowable or achievable speeds)
• » Drainage planning needs, including drainage gradients
• for benches and berms
• » Minimum mining width – pit bottom, bench ends, stage
• cut-back widths
• » Preferred effective bench mining width.
• » Safety Features required (e.g. safety ramp run-offs; etc.)
• » Geotechnical zones to avoid for ramp placement.
 Some things to think about up-front and to think
about
through-out the design process:
• Generally, design will start from bottom and work its way up.
• » Sometimes you may have to do some of design from top
down and work out how to join the two designs. This will
almost certainly happen where you have a preferred pit exit
point for a ramp.
• » Look at previous designs to see what previous designers
have come up with
• » Think about where ramp should exit bottom to access
• areas higher up with minimal waste stripping.
• » Where should ramp(s) exit at top of pit?
• » Should I have multiple ramps for productivity and safety
• (but at what extra stripping cost)?
• » Can I backfill an area with waste to avoid haulage to a
surface dump?
• » Can I use backfill to access an area?
• » Slice pit optimisation shells to have as a guide
contour for each bench
• » Similarly, be able to have a block model slice of ore
– colour coded for value or grade – for each bench
• » Slice significant geology wireframes (shears, faults,
dykes) by bench for use in design process.
• » Potentially may want to design a “good-bye” cut at
bottom (an excavation “trench” of ore by a backhoe
excavator without an access ramp, dug retreating
from the excavation with trucks backed up to
excavator).
• » Design pit and ramp to minimize loaded truck travel
time and minimize trucking costs from a maintenance
perspective as well as an operating perspective (and
accept that this is a compromise for unloaded truck
return hauls).
• Can I place a ramp in an area/wall that will be long
life and used for multiple stages/cut-backs (e.g.
the footwall of a stratiform deposit) for which it
will then be worthwhile building good quality
roads (e.g. good road base and sub-base)?
• » Some ramps may be temporary (e.g. providing
access for drill rigs and blast trucks or access to
pumps and infrastructure – not just for haulage)
• » Think about scheduling implications if cutting off
access to an area with a later stage design (first
area must be completely mined before being cut-
off, which may result in scheduling problems).
Width and Height of Open Pit
Powder Factor
 Assignment Three
• Design drilling and blasting parameters for the
typical mine. Taking into consideration you
have been in the industry three times, i.e.,
PT1, PT2 and PT3.
• Prepare a report for the Blast Design and
Simulation using Blasting software, i.e.,
SHOTPlus
Chapter Four
 CYCLE TIME MODEL
The cycle time for a haul unit can be expressed as (
Suboleski, 1975):

where:
LCT = cycle time of a haul unit, min
STL = spot time at the loader, min
LT = load time of the haul unit, min
TL = travel time (loaded), min
STD = spot time at the dump, min
DT = dump time, min
TE = travel time (empty), min
AD = average delay on the haul cycle,
min (wait at dump, wait at the loader, or slow down on the
haul road).
 Also;
• TCP = capacity of the haul unit, short tons and
LR = loading rate of the loader, st/min

With shovel-truck systems,

• where:
BCP = bucket capacity of the loader, st
(adjusted for fill factor, etc.)
CTL = cycle time of the loader, min
(adjusted for loading efficiency, etc.)

where:
HD = haul distance from the loader to the dump, ft
SL = speed of a loaded haul unit, ft/min.
SE = speed of an empty haul unit, ft/min.
• If there is no delay at the dump or the haul
road, the number of haul units required to keep
the loading unit busy is given by:

where [ N] implies that the value is rounded up to the next higher

integer.
 Example 1
• Consider the following case:
BCP = 5 st
CTL = 0.5 min
STL = 0.20 min
STD = 0.15 min
DT = 0.35 min
TCP = 27.5 st
HD = 5,000 ft
SL = 2,000 ft/min (22.73 mph)
SE = 2,500 ft/min (28.41 mph)
 For the two haul unit cases, the total wait
time (TW) for n haul cycles is:

These equations can be generalized for N haul units as follows:

• By increasing N, W can be decreased. If N is
sufficiently large, then W can become
negative. A negative W implies that the first
haul unit completes its cycle before all other
haul units have been loaded.
Example 2:
In the above problem, the one-way haul distance
increases to a maximum of 4,572 m (15,000 ft). Calculate
the number of hauling units required as a function of the
haul distance such that the shovel waiting time is zero.
Let N = number of haul units
W = [TL + STD + DT + TE] – [N – 1][STL + LT]

Condition for loader wait time to be zero or lower is given by

 TRUCK FLEET SIZING
One of the important criteria in surface mine equipment
selection is the determination of the truck fleet size. It is
common to establish the total fleet size as:

For example, if 16 trucks are required to meet the production, and

the availability of a truck is 0.8, then the total fleet size is calculated
as (16/0.8) = 20.
Twenty trucks in the fleet are inadequate to meet the operational
requirements of 16 trucks?.
• A better way to calculate the truck fleet size
using a binomial distribution is presented by
Connel (1969, 1973). Defining:
Pn = probability that exactly n units are
available
Pa = probability that a single unit is
available
Pna = probability that a single unit is not
available = (1 – Pa)
N = total number of units in the system
Ncn = combination of N things, taken n at a time (n &8804; N).

where P1n = probability at least n units will be available. As N and

n increase, it is preferable to use a computer program to calculate
these probabilities.
Given that the availability of a single truck is 0.8, and that the
truck fleet size is 20, calculate (1) the probability that exactly 16
trucks will be available, and (2) probability that at least 16
trucks will be available.
 Note: N = 20, n = 16, Pa = 0.8, Pna = 0.2
P16 = (0.8)16 (0.2)20–16 = 0.2182
P116 = P (n ≥ 16) = P16 + P17 + P18 + P19 + P20 = 0.2182 +
0.2054 + 0.1369 + 0.0576 + 0.0115 = 0.6296.
There are three types of trucks with availabilities of 0.8, 0.85, and
0.90, respectively. Calculate the fleet size required for each truck
type to ensure that there are 90, 95, and 99% chances of having 16
trucks in operation.
 There are nine cases to be evaluated:
three truck types × three different probabilities for
16-truck operation.

Number of trucks needed in the fleet for 16-truck operation

Truck Availability 90% of the time 95% of the time 99% of the time
0.8 23 24 26
0.85 21 22 24
0.90 19 20 21
• The pulling force to overcome the resistance to
motion is provided by a locomotive. The
pulling force or the tractive effort generated by
a locomotive is a function of its horsepower
and its speed:

TE = tractive effort or pulling force, lb

hPe = horsepower of the locomotive engine shaft
hPa = horsepower to the auxiliaries
V = speed of the locomotive, mph
η = transmission efficiency, usually between 0.80 to
0.85
Another way is to raise the outside rail as much as 4 in. over the
inside rail around the curve.
This height of the outside rail above the inside rail is called
superelevation.
The superelevation of the outside rail can be calculated from the
formula,

where
h = superelevation, ft
a = the rail gage, ft
v = velocity, ft/sec
g = acceleration due to gravity, ft/sec2
R = radius of the curve, ft.
Cycle Time of a Train:
The cycle time is the sum of the loading, travel loaded, dump,
travel empty times, and delay time per trip.
loading time, 7 cars = 35.00 min
@ 5 min/car
travel loaded time:
1,000 ft @ 5 mph =
2.27 min
26,640 ft @ 10 mph
= 30.27 min
6,000 ft @ 25 mph =
2.73 min
2,000 ft @ 5 mph = = 39.82 min
4.55 min
dumping time @ 1 = 7.00 min
min per car
travel empty time:
2,000 ft @ 5 mph =
4.55 min
6,000 ft @ 35 mph =
1.95 min
26,640 ft @ 20 mph
= 15.14 min
1,000 ft @ 5 mph = = 23.91 min
2.27 min
delay time per trip = 5.00 min
cycle time per trip = 110.73 min
 Haul Truck Cost Estimation

• Price = aXb, US Dollars

• Where X is the weight of the rated load

in tons. Price covers complete standard
machine.
• Electric drive range in X, tons 115 to 255
a = 72710, b = 0.6513
• Mechancial Drive Range in X, tons: 34 to
240 a = 19570 b = 0.8862
 Truck Tire Cost Estimation

• Price = aXb, US Dollars

• Where X is the tire width (ft) times the rim

diameter (ft) times the square root of the
number of plies. Price includes tubes if
applicable.

• Bias Ply Tires range in X, ft2(plies)0.5 14 to 69

a = 582.2, b = 0.8599
 Mine Road Classification

• There are several basic matters that influence requirements for a

mine road. The planning must consider the expected lifetime of a
road, the types of vehicles that will traverse it and the expected
frequency of traffic along the roadway. According to these factors, the
roads are grouped into four different categories.
Permanent haul roads
• Permanent haul roads are major arterial roads on the mine site used
by all traffic.
• The basic criteria for permanent haul roads are:
• long term roads with a life expectancy of greater than six months
used by all mine vehicles including haul trucks
• high frequency traffic
• delineated
 Temporary haul roads
• Temporary haul roads are major haul roads used by all mine traffic but are
planned only for use only in the short term.
• These may include pit ramps in early stages of the mine and short term waste
dump ramps. The basic criteria for temporary haul roads are:
• short term haul roads with a life expectancy of less than six months
• used by all mine vehicles including haul trucks
• high frequency traffic
• Delineated
On-bench roads
• On-bench roads are short-term roads used by all traffic. They are typically roads
that extend from pit ramps to working faces. The basic criteria for on-bench
roads are:
• short term roads with a life expectancy of less than one month
• in pit
• used by all vehicles including haul trucks
• high frequency traffic
• Straight Single-Lane Roads
• This type of road is required to be a minimum of twice the width of the
largest vehicle (830E) using the road.
•
• ie. 2 x 7.3m = 14.6 m
•
• This does not include standard windrows on either side of the road (2 x 5m).
This width is intended to prevent incapacitated vehicles that may be stopped
on the side of the road from hindering the movements of other vehicles
 Straight Double-Lane Roads

• This type of road is required to be a minimum width

of 3.5 times the width of the largest vehicle (830E)
using the road.

• ie. 3.5 x 7.3m = 25.6m

•
• This does not include standard windrows on either
side of the road (2 x 5m). This width allows vehicles
to comfortably pass one another or to pass stopped
or incapacitated vehicles on the roadside.
 Crossfall

• Crossfall is the difference in elevation between the crest (crown) and the
road edge. It is a widely used technique that effectively drains water from
road surfaces and is to be incorporated in all road designs.
• Crossfall helps protect the road pavement from damage by water by reducing
pooling of water, mud and potholing. If water is allowed to accumulate on
the running surface, deterioration of the sub-base due to water saturation
may occur. If the sub-base becomes exposed, tyre damage may also occur
•
• The rate of crossfall depends on a number of factors including the road
gradient, the road surface and the expected weather conditions. From an
operator’s point of view, a level driving surface is most preferred because this
requires the least steering effort.
• However, to allow adequate drainage, crossfall must be applied and so the
rate must accommodate both a rapid removal of surface water and
steerability.
 Super elevation
• Super elevation is a technique employed at Mine XYZ to assist
vehicles in manoeuvring safely around corners.
• Super elevation is the banking of the road surface at curves. It
allows the vehicle taking the corner to counteract centrifugal
forces towards the outside of the curve, by directing the
vehicle weight towards the centre of radius of the curve.
• The amount of super elevation on a corner is directly related
to the radius of the corner and the desired vehicle speed
through the corner.
• The following table is a guide for providing the super elevation
necessary to reduce lateral forces. 5% should be regarded as
the maximum super elevation.
• Curves super elevated between 5% and 10% should be used
with caution. Curves super elevated over 10% should not be
used.
• Super elevation is a particularly important design consideration
for switchbacks on pit ramps at Mine XYZ. On such corners,
which typically have a small turn radius, superelevation is
extremely important.
• On switchbacks that have the centre of the curve located on the
up-side of the ramp, a well-chosen superelevation rate prevents
material being spilled from laden trucks and also improves the
vehicular control.
 Rule of Thumb
• A 10% gradient is a typical safe haul road gradient in
open pit mines for rigid body haul trucks
• The running surface of a two lane haul road should be
3.5 ties the width of the largest truck operating on
that road.
• A single lane road should be twice the width of the
largest truck.
• The height of the windrow on the side of a haul road
should be at least one-half the tire diameter of the
largest truck using the road.
 Light vehicle roads
• Light vehicle roads may be permanent or
temporary. They can be access roads around the
perimeter of the pit and roads that give access to
remote or rarely used areas of the pit or mine
site. The basic criteria for light vehicle roads are:
• typically long term roads but can be short term
• used by light vehicles and service vehicles only
• access remote areas of the mine
• low frequency traffic
 Assignment Four
• GPSSH Application