Surface Mining

Open pits, strip mines and quarries. Designing and running mines open to the sky: open-pit geometry and stripping ratios, bench and haul-ramp design, strip mining and quarrying with draglines, pit optimisation with the Lerchs–Grossmann algorithm, and production scheduling and blending.

• Open-Pit Design — An open pit is a stepped excavation whose walls must be steep enough to limit waste but safe from failure. Learn pit terminology (bench, berm, face, inter-ramp and overall slope angles), stripping ratios, breakeven stripping ratio, how ramps flatten the overall slope, and the pit design process.
• Benches & Haul Roads — Benches and haul roads are where the mining happens. Learn how bench height is matched to equipment, berm width rules (modified Ritchie criterion), haul-road width for one- and two-way traffic, safety berms, ramp grades and lengths, road construction layers and drainage.
• Strip Mining & Quarrying — Strip mining removes overburden in long panels to expose flat coal or mineral seams, casting it into the previous void; quarrying extracts aggregate or dimension stone. Learn dragline and truck-shovel stripping, volumetric stripping ratios, dragline productivity, swell factors, and quarry operations.
• Pit Optimisation — Which blocks should be mined to maximise profit? Learn block economic values, slope precedence, the Lerchs–Grossmann algorithm and pseudoflow, revenue-factor nested pits, pit-by-pit graphs, and how optimised shells become practical pushbacks — with a Python dynamic-programming pit optimiser.
• Mine Planning & Scheduling — Planning turns designs into a timeline: life-of-mine, annual, monthly and weekly plans. Learn pushback sequencing, production scheduling to meet mill capacity and grade targets, stockpiling and blending, grade control and reconciliation, and schedule optimisation software.