SME Annual Meeting

Feb. 24 - 27, 2018, Denver, CO

Preprint 19-010

DEFINING BLENDING CLASSES TO SOLVE OPEN PIT SCHEDULING PROBLEMS

J. Gonzales, Minero Inc., Aurora, CO

ABSTRACT Where:
For this paper, blending is conceived as a linear process that 𝑥𝑖 i-th blending class with n grades or attributes
takes a proportion from one stockpile or location and mixes it with 𝜆𝑖 Proportion of i-th class to blend
another proportion from another stockpile or location, with the aim of 𝑈 Feasible region satisfying all constraints imposed to the n
obtaining a set of attributes in the final combination that satisfies a grades
given quality standard. A blending class is the combination of ore 𝑎𝑖 i-th grade lower limit
attributes and grade limits that should be stockpiled in order to achieve 𝑏𝑖 i-th grade upper limit
the target quality for the process Plant. Current literature considers the
number of blending classes in the Open Pit Scheduling Problem as Note that in this formulation, a blending class is an n-dimensional
fixed; however, this paper shows how to define specific blending region.
classes for a given deposit so that the schedule can be solved with Example in 2 variables
Sequential Linear Programming. Finally, a practical application in a In order to illustrate the problem formulation, consider the
Peruvian copper mine is shown, involving four ore attributes: alteration following case:
code, arsenic, oxide content and copper grade.
• Ore grade 1 “x” cannot exceed a units
INTRODUCTION
• Ore grade 2 “y” cannot exceed b units
In copper ore deposits, blending for quality has not been a typical • Ore grades are non-negative
issue as it was for coal and iron ore; however, current copper deposits
in the world are becoming geologically and chemically more complex The condition for blending becomes:
than in the past and is not uncommon to have quality standards
involving up to four attributes, introducing an additional complexity to
the mine scheduling process [1].
In order to solve the Open Pit Scheduling Problem with multiple
ore quality constraints, two assumptions are necessary [2]: Where:

- Grade constraints are defined only by specifying an upper A, B blending classes to determine
and lower limit; λ1, λ2 Proportion of each class to blend
- Ore attributes in stockpiles are pre-determined, i.e., the
It is possible to find an upper bound for regions A and B by
upper and/or lower grade limits defining each stockpile are
decomposing the extreme point of region U along the X and Y axis:
already known at the time of setting the schedule.
Assuming each ore attribute is classified as high, medium or low,
and there are four attributes to be controlled in the target ore quality,
the number of possible blending classes would be 3^4 = 81. This
number is impractical to manage in Operations, and increases the
𝑎 𝑏
complexity at the time of running the schedule; therefore, a more The points ( , 0) and (0, ) determine a line that together with
𝜆1 𝜆2
efficient way of classifying ore is required.
the condition of non-negativity for x and y, represents an upper bound
Note that in practice, one blending class can be split into more for the feasible region.
than one stockpile location due to physical capacity constraints.
The fact that no point above the line will lie within the feasible
Therefore, the number of stockpiles could even be more than 81.
region results from the linear nature of the blending, guaranteeing that
BLENDING CLASSES DETERMINATION only these points will be mapped onto the feasible region.

For a given set of ore grades with lower and upper limits to be The line equation can be determined as follows:
achieved, one has to find all feasible ore classes such that when
blended, their grades will lie within those limits.
In formal terms:

(1)
□

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 SME Annual Meeting
Feb. 24 - 27, 2018, Denver, CO

Graphically, for a = 3, b = 2, and blending ratios of 1/3 and 2/3, is simply the linking condition imposed by the blending, which is
these regions are triangles B1 and B2 located below the line and next characterized by a linear equation.
to the rectangle U (Figure 1).
CASE STUDY
This case study was developed from the Toromocho copper mine,
located 142 km east of Lima, Peru at 4250 m.a.s.l., currently owned by
Minera Chinalco Peru S.A., the local branch of Chinese-owned
Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. (Chinalco). Process plant will ramp up to
170 kt per day, and there are four constraints on ore quality: hornfels,
oxide content, arsenic and copper grade.
- Hornfels < 30%
- Oxide ratio < 10%
- Arsenic < 1%
- Total copper < 0.85%
Figure 1. Blending classes for 2-variable blending problem.
The blending currently is manual and it takes multiple steps to get
Indeed, let’s take any pair of points (x, y) such that 𝑥 + 3𝑦 > 9,
the right results. The number of active stockpiles is four, classified
and apply the first ratio (1/3) to one point and the second ratio (2/3) to
based on their use for short, medium or long term.
the other point and the result will be a point outside U, as shown in
Table 1. The first step is to determine the set of multipliers that provide the
maximum value from the ore deposit. For Toromocho case, this was
The mapping equations are:
performed with the help of Block Model Creator® of Minero Suite®,
1 2 which allowed to quickly read the set of ore attributes for the entire
𝑥= 𝑥 + 𝑥
� 3 1 3 2 block model and classified each block as blending class 1, 2, 3 or 4
1 2 (Figure 2).
𝑦 = 𝑦1 + 𝑦
3 3 2
Table 1. Verification of points outside upper bound.
x1 y1 x2 y2 x y
9 1 1 3 11/3 7/3
3 3 2 3 7/3 3
1 3 9 1 19/3 5/3
2 3 3 3 8/3 3

Solution for 4 variables

For a blending involving 4 variables the hyperplane equation
would be:

Then blending classes will be limited by the above hyperplane

and the following conditions:
Blending class Conditions Figure 2. Blending Class Script in Minero Suite®
The optimal combination for this deposit and the specific plant
1 requirements was achieved with the vector of values (0.11, 0.39, 0.39,
0.11), as shown in Figure 3.
SCENARIO LAMBDA 1 LAMBDA 2 LAMBDA 3 LAMBDA 4 Total Value
1 0.250 0.250 0.250 0.250 10,863,958,269
2 0.167 0.333 0.333 0.167 17,148,737,835
3 0.125 0.375 0.375 0.125 18,349,913,312
2 4 0.200 0.300 0.300 0.200 15,205,302,365
5 0.167 0.167 0.500 0.167 16,204,444,192
6 0.167 0.5 0.167 0.167 17,070,118,689
7 0.100 0.333 0.333 0.233 15,078,469,751
8 0.100 0.400 0.400 0.100 19,322,986,414
9 0.167 0.167 0.167 0.500 15,126,577,087
3 10 0.095 0.405 0.405 0.095 19,003,297,567
11 0.105 0.395 0.395 0.105 19,598,129,769
12 0.110 0.390 0.390 0.110 19,670,303,115
13 0.234 0.333 0.333 0.100 14,172,535,692
14 0.115 0.385 0.385 0.115 19,433,579,738
Figure 3. Selecting optimal set of multipliers.
4 Next step is to run the Sequential Linear Programming using as a
seed the unconstrained mine schedule, i.e., a mine schedule that only
honors mining capacity constraints such as mining rate and vertical
advance. This step is done with the help of Visual Basic for
In practical terms, each blending class is defined as containing all Applications (VBA) in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, using a
ore blocks which contain only one grade above its limit but with all proprietary code of Minero Inc.
other grades within their limits. The upper limit for that “violating” grade
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 SME Annual Meeting
Feb. 24 - 27, 2018, Denver, CO

The final treatment schedule obtained achieved the right blend

quality through all mining periods, and the final Net Present Value
(NPV) was 22% lower than the unconstrained NPV. This important
difference must be considered for similar projects that underestimate
the impact of blending constraints in the strategic planning process.
CONCLUSIONS
Defining blending classes for an open pit mine allows
simplifying the ore control management and the mine planning
process. The traditional classification based on high, medium and low
values of a particular grade or attribute is not efficient when dealing
with multiple ore quality constraints.
The approach developed in this paper also helps mining
practitioners to understand stockpile capacity requirements at a
strategic level, instead of leaving the stockpile management as a sub-
product of the scheduling process.
Finally, the execution time of a life-of-mine plan is greatly reduced
with the use of blending classes because the searching trees are
reduced to the minimum, by excluding a priori all the unfeasible points
from the space of solutions, i.e., all the ore blocks lying above the
hyperplane.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author wishes to acknowledge Raul Castro of Minera
Chinalco S.A. for the data provided for this paper.
REFERENCES
1. Financial Times website, “Copper mines grapple with arsenic
problem” Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/30eee87e-
d041-11e3-af2b-00144feabdc0
2. Jamshidi, M and Osanloo, M. (2018) “Optimizing mine production
scheduling for multiple destinations of ore blocks”. Bangladesh
Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research 53(2), 99-110.2018.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjsir.v53i2.36670

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