Fundamentals of Open Pit Mine Planning

This text is divided into two parts. Part 1 consists of six chapters in which the basic planning and design principles are presented including mine planning, mine revenues and costs, orebody description, geometrical considerations, pit limits, and production planning. Much of the actual calculation involved in the design of an open pit mine is done by computer. Two professional computer programs -CSMine and VarioC- have been specifically developed with the university undergraduate learning environment in mind. These programs, their related tutorials and user manuals, together with a data-set for the CSMine Property, are covered in Part 2 of this book which includes a CSMine property description, CSMine tutorial, CSMine user's manual, VarioC tutorial and user's guide, and the VarioC reference manual.