摘要
Pit optimisation is the earliest and most established application of its kind in the minerals industry, but this has been primarily driven by metal, not coal. Coal has the same financial drivers for resource optimisation as does the metalliferous industry, yet pit optimisation is not common practice. Why？ The following discussion presents the basics of pit optimisation as they relate to coal and illustrates how a technology developed for massive deposits is not suitable for thin, multi-seam deposits where mine planning is often driven more by product quality than by value drivers such as Net Present Value. An alternative methodology is presented that takes advantage of the data structure of bedded deposits to optimise resource recovery in terms of a production schedule that meets constraints on coal quality.
