A Decision Support System for Underground Mining Method Selection

Abstract

Underground mining method selection (UMMS) is one of the most important decisions that should be made by mining engineers. Choosing a suitable underground mining method to carry out extraction from a mineral deposit is very important in terms of the economics, safety and the productivity of mining operations. In reality, UMMS is one of the Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problems and decision makers have some difficulties in making the right decision in the multiple criteria environment. In this paper, a decision support system for underground mining method selection (UMMSDSS) has been designed and developed in order to take into account the whole related problem criteria, research the entire effects of different scenarios of all available criteria and carry out sensitive analysis when needed. UMMS-DSS was designed as to use Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), one of the MCDM methods, to manage those tasks and to produce acceptable solution alternatives.