Determination of the most appropriate tools of multi-criteria decision analysis for underground mining method selection—a case study

Abstract

Selecting the optimal mining method is one of the most critical issues in mining design. It entirely depends on different parameters, such as geotechnical, geological, economic, and geographic factors. Although many researchers have tried to apply a various multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) technique to select the most appropriate mining method, there are no clear reasons for choosing a specific decision method. For this purpose, a new methodology has been presented in this research work to find the most appropriate MCDA techniques for selecting the optimal underground mining method in the Anguran zinc deposit, north-west of Iran. At the first step, a list of fifty parameters, including geomechanical, geometrical, technical, economic, environmental, and social parameters, has been made for selecting the optimal underground mining method. Then, the most influential parameters, including thickness, RMR of the hanging wall, and production rate, were chosen the most crucial parameters according to the experts’ opinions in this matter. Also, among all conventional MCDA methods, including ELECTRE, MAUT, ANP, MACBETH, AHP, TOPSIS, PROMETHEE, VIKOR, TODIM, Grey, MULTIMOORA, and MAHP, the TODIM has been selected as the best MCDA method for further studies on the case. Applying this technique, the cut and fill mining was chosen as the best method for the Anguran zinc mine while the square set mining was the worst method in this case. The results also revealed that the proposed method could be extensively applied to find the most appropriate MCDA in mining engineering.