PIT PLANNING AND LAYOUT

4.1-1Introduction

Open pit mine planning must be correlated to all phases of a mining operation. That factors
that must be considerated in planning an open pite mine are númerous and must reflect the
characteristics outline of the subject can be presented here to aid the planning engineer in
pointing out procedures that are generally applicable to pit design. The presentation is
directed toward the planning of an open pit copper mine, but the procedures discussed should
apply in most cases to any type of metallie or nonmetallic orebody.

ln planning an open pit mine the pertinent elements that must be included are: assays,
geology, tonnage and areal extent of ore reserves, topography, mining equipment, economic
factors of operating costs, capital expenditures, profit, types of ore, pit limits, cut-off grade,
stripping ratio, rate of production, pit slopes, bench heights, road grades, ore. Metallurgical
characteristics, hydrological conditions, property lines, and marketing considerations.

4.1-2. Sampling.

Sampling must be adequate to classify the various materiasl to be removed from an open pit
mine. Drillhole assays are plotted on sections and plans map with ore and waste blocked oat
by selected bench intervals. These maps are prepared to depiet the geological and other
conditions existing on each mine level.

The confidence factor to be applied to sampling and the resultant assays values must be given
careful consideration. In uniformly desseminated deposits, the confidence factor will aproach
unity. For widely fluctuating values, the average assay values should be descounted somewhat,
the degree depending upon such factors as drillhole spacing. Such samples, at best, represent
a very few pounts for hundreds two thousands fo tons of ore in place. A 50-ft drillhole simple
from a drilling grid of, say, 200 ft *200ft represents about 150,000 tons.

Many operators apply descounts from 5 to 10% to the indicated assay values obtained from
drill hole samples. Undergraund drifts and crousscuts are often driven from which assay of
bulk samples can be compared with the drillhole samples. Precautions should be taken by the
application of confidence factors.

4.1-3

open pit vs underground methods.

The controlling factors that determine the choice of mining method between open pit
operation and underground methods are mining cost and ore recovery and dilution. In an open
pit operation, minning cost includes the cost of removing the weste overburden and waste in
the slopes of the pit. the ratio of waste to ore is therefore the controlling factor in the
comparative cost of mining and orebody by open pit vs. Underground methods.

Example-4.1-1 assume an underground mining cost of $2.00 per ton of ore for a particular
arebody. Assume open pit mining costs at $0.30 per ton for one removal and $0.35 per ton for
waste removal. The indicated stripping ratio for an open pit operation that result in a break-
even cost differential between the two mining methods is determined as follows:
Only that part of the orebody where the stripping ratio does not exceed 4.86 waste: 1 ore
should mined by open pit methods. This ratio, however, must not be an average resulting from
inclusión of ores recoverable at lower ratios from one section of the open pit and higher
ratios from another section. In all cases it most be the lighest allowable ratio. It is the ratio of
tha final pit at the final pit limit, i.e., the last cut from top to bottom of the final pit face.

In most pit desing, the overall stripping ratio is much lower tan the allowable maximun limiting
ratio. Accordingly, the limiting ratio is never apparent in the year-to-year operating stripping
ratios. Higher ratios than the overalll stripping ratio usually obtain in the carly year of
operation and lower stripping ratios in the last year of operation. This result from operating at
pit slopes that are generally much faltter tan the slopes at the ultimate pit limits. The lower
slopes permit wider benches and resulting operating economies.

The purpuse of this section is to describe the steps necessary to properly desing open pit
operations to optimum pit limits.

The key element of open-pit desing fixing the ultimate pit limits are stripping ratio, pit slope
angle, and grate cutoff. The economic stripping ratio is the break-even stripping ratio at the
final pit limits. The pit slope angle is the overall slope from the toe of the lowest pit bench to
the Surface interceot of the pit limits. Grade cutoff is the break-even poin between the cost of
mining (excluding the cost of stripping), beneficiating and marketing, and the marked Price of
the recoverable values in the ore. To optmize the interrelationships of thes elements is the
objetive of designing and open pit operation.

compilation of basic data

to effect an efficient method for designing and open pit operation,the results of the
exploratory and development drilling should be reduced to horizontal sections corresponding
to the designed level or bench spacing. the conventional method of placing the ore values on
vertical sections is not conducive to efficient pit desing technique excep in every long opening.
in plan, most open pits must close in circular configuration, which cannot be properly
visualized nor computed form a series of parallel vertical sections. the use of vertical sections
located radially around the pit improves the visualization of a proper pir design but, again,
such section cannot be used to design the pit limits to prodetermined limiting stripping ratios.
vertical sections can be and are use to approximate the fixing of pit limits, but horizontal
sections must be used to optimize a pit design.

an obvious exception is an open pit operation of a long orebody outcropping along a ridge,
such as the phosphate deposits in the rocky mountain areas or the taconites on the mesabi
range. these pits are, if effeect, long trenches. cross sections provide the best method for
designing optimum pit limits for these types of deposits

to facilitate the use of horizontal sections,it is advisable to interpolate the actual drillhole
values to a uniformly spaced grid system. if the development drillhole program has been
drilled on a 200-ft grid pattern, this pattern could be further subdivided into a 50-ft grit pattern
with interpolated values assigned to cach 50-ft grid block. if a horizontal level spacing of 50 ft
has been adopted, each grid block represents the value of a 50 ft cube..

figure 4.1-1 is a sample horizontal level section showing the drill values for tahe vertical
height of the level. for interpolation, the drillholes are connected as nearly as possible into
equilateral triangles.the interpolation values progress in straight-line increments
corresponding to the interpolative grid. the center grid of each triangle is the average of the
three drillhole values of each trangle. note the triangle of holes, A,B,C. the values between A
and B are interpolated on a straight line progression from 0.7 at A on 0.75, 0.80 to 0.9 at B. the
center grid block X is the average of A,B and C,giving