Method for optimizing the shell of open pit mines based on parallel computing

Abstract

One of the main stages in design of mineral development process is solution of finding optimal open pit problem. It is necessary to take into account the spatial distribution of mineral components and the allowable slope angles of the sides during solving this problem. The basis for performing calculations to optimize the extraction of reserves is a digital block model of the mineral deposit. The larger and more accurate block model of the ore deposit requires more computationally complex calculation process. In this regard, using of parallel computing in this area is very relevant. The importance of solving this problem determined by the need to have an accurate model of the open pit at various stages of its development. This model depends from current cost of useful components and the costs of their extraction. This task formulated as the Ultimate Pit Problem (UPIT). Existing approaches for solving this problem does not use modern high-performance computing approaches. This complicates analysis of large models using existing methods. The long data processing time makes it difficult to increase the accuracy of the constructed quarry models, which in turn negatively affects decision-making on the field development plan and entails lost profit. In this paper analysed the methods of computer modelling open pits from the position of parallelizing computations during profit optimization and proposes a mathematical formulation of the problem of searching for open pit limits based on block extraction order graph.