Int. J. Mining and Mineral Engineering, Vol. 8, No.

1, 2017 1

Heuristic stope layout optimisation accounting for

variable stope dimensions and dilution management

Martha E. Villalba Matamoros*

and Mustafa Kumral
Department of Mining and Materials Engineering,
McGill University,
3450 University Street, H3A 0E8,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Email: martha.villalbamatamoros@mail.mcgill.ca
Email: mustafa.kumral@mcgill.ca
*Corresponding author

Abstract: Underground mining operations are managed in an environment that

is surrounded by a series of complex geotechnical, operational and economic
restrictions; and operation costs increase mainly because underground mining
goes deeper. As a response to this increase, mine planning has potential to
improve operation performance, profitability and productivity. Stope layout is a
decision-making problem based on determining stopes to be produced under
economic, geotechnical and operational constraints. In this paper, a further
step is taken and optimisation approach considers minimisation of inherent
internal dilution in addition to conventional profit maximisation. This proposed
approach can also deal with multiple sectors and variable stope dimensions.
The application in gold deposit showed that a profitable stope layout with
minimum internal dilution could be generated while respecting geotechnical
and operational requirements. In addition, the formulation presented herein can
be extended to evaluate multi-metal cases, the mine production scheduling and
incorporate ore body uncertainty into optimisation.

Keywords: stope layout; heuristic optimisation; internal dilution; underground

mining; mine planning; grade spatial variability.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Villalba Matamoros, M.E.

and Kumral, M. (2017) ‘Heuristic stope layout optimisation accounting
for variable stope dimensions and dilution management’, Int. J. Mining and
Mineral Engineering, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp.1–18.

Biographical notes: Martha E. Villalba Matamoros is a Mining Engineering

PhD candidate at McGill University. She holds a MEng from McGill,
MSc from the University of Alberta and BEng from National University
San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Peru, in Mining Engineering. Her research
interests include stochastic mine planning and geostatistics. She has worked in
the mining industry for more than eight years and is a Member of the Society of
Mining, and Metallurgy and Explorations (SME).

Mustafa Kumral is an Associate Professor of Mining and Material Engineering.

He holds a PhD from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom (UK).
His current research interests include mine risk management areas in mine
planning and optimisation, mineral economics, bed-blending operations

Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

2 M.E. Villalba Matamoros and M. Kumral

and reliability analysis and maintenance optimisation of mining systems.

He has over 20 years of experience in mine research and teaching in Canada,
UK and Turkey.

1 Introduction

Open pit mine planning practices are well-developed and have widely used in the mining
industry to optimise various processes through the chain of mining. These processes are
ultimate pit limit definition, cut-off grade strategy, blending processes, fleet allocation
and mine production schedules. However, equivalent planning tools for underground
mining operations are very limited (Ataee-pour, 2005; Topal and Sens, 2010). Three
main reasons discourage optimisation model formulation in underground mining.
Firstly, unlike open pit mining, many underground mining methods are available and a
generalised planning tool is not realistic. Secondly, size and complexity of underground
mine planning are larger than those of open-pit mining. Thirdly, underground mining
operations are governed by very strict geotechnical restrictions. As a result, there is a
limited maneuvering room for planning and optimisation.
Mine planning in underground can be classified into two groups: stope layout and
production scheduling. The layout of the stopes is defined at the beginning of the
mine planning in underground. The stope layout optimisation determines the dimension
and the locations of the stopes. It directly impacts the net present value of the mine
project at the mine production schedule. In practice, the assessment of the stope layout
was frequently carried out without the use of optimisation tools because commercial
mining softwaredid not provide enough tools to find the optimal stope layout for
underground mining. Many factors such as ore-body model, geotechnical and operations
considerations may influence the decision of location each stope. Finding the optimum
solution that satisfies all the constraints could become a cumbersome and time-
consuming task without using a proper optimisation tool. Natural extension of stope
optimisation is production scheduling, which focuses on extraction timing of stopes.
(Trout, 1995) and the net present value is maximised. This optimisation account
for development requirements, stoping operations, resource allocation and production
constraints.
The optimal layout of the stopes should ensure the maximum mining recovery of the
material with a maximum economic value which implies a minimum ore dilution, lower
costs, and minimum ore loss. Because the complexity and the unique behaviour of each
ore deposit, geotechnical and operational considerations, a generic tool in underground
mining may deliver unfeasible mining stopes that need to be adjusted. These arbitrary
modifications of optimal stope layout solution after the optimisation is solved do not
guarantee optimality or near optimal stope layout. In addition to the previous limitations
mentioned, the minimisation of inherent internal dilution within stopes has not been
formulated explicitly as part of the decision-making problem in existing stope layout
formulations. This paper aims to address mainly this limitation.
Ovanic and Young (1995) proposed to optimise the starting and ending mining
locations within each row of blocks to provide the optimal economic stoping boundary.
Two-piece linear cumulative distribution is used to define locations where start and end
mining in each row, the first function sums blocks values along the row evaluated and the
 Heuristic stope layout optimisation accounting for variable stope dimensions 3

second function sums the blocks for exclusion. The sum of block values lying between
the starting and the ending locations is given by the difference of both previous functions.
Their positions are modelled by the boundary location variables.
Ataee-pour (2004) developed a heuristic algorithm to optimise the stope boundary
called the maximum value neighbourhood. The minimum stope size combines several
mining blocks which defined a neighbourhood. Many neighbourhoods are available
for each block, and the one with maximum net value is selected for the final stope.
Neighbourhoods and order of the neighbourhood define the stope geometry constraints.
This algorithm can be applied to any mining method and provide non-overlapping stopes;
however, the dilution is not controlled, varying the starting point for the algorithm can
provide various sets of stopes for the ore-body and a constant mining cost is used over the
whole ore-body.
Grieco and Dimitrakopoulos (2007) used a mixed integer programming (MIP) model
to solve the stope layout problem. The solution provides the location, and the number
of stopes under a single input level of risk given by ore-body model fluctuations.
The ore-body is regularised in minable rings (blasted rings) instead of blocks. Thus, the
blocks that define a ring is decided before starting the optimisation which may limit the
internal dilution management. These rings address the geotechnical and production
concern, and geometric constraints consider rings as units through the formulation where
minimum and maximum of rings assist to define the stopes and pillars. The MIP stope
layout formulation maximises the metal content times the probability of the rings being
greater than a specific cut-off.
Alford and Hall (2009) also presented a stope optimisation tool. The project value is
maximised in the optimisation based on block value and cut-off grade. A stope shape
annealing optimisation procedure is used to define the final non-overlapping stope shape
to follow the geological control and mineralisation given some stopes shape which was
calculated using their earlier proposed procedure base on floating stope.
Sameera Sandanayake et al. (2015) proposed a heuristic algorithm accounting for
predefined stope sizes, satisfies the geotechnical and physical constraints, avoid
overlapping stopes and maximise the economic value. During the implementation, it is
analysed two size stope scenarios independently to choose the ideal one based on their
values; however, this algorithm is limited to analyse one predefined stope sizes at the
time which ignore stope shape variations and may limit the control of internal dilution.
For the production scheduling, Trout (1995) suggested a MIP model to generate
optimal production schedules for underground stoping operations. The net present value
is maximised while satisfying production constraints, hoisting capacity constraints,
stop geometry constraints and backfilling demands. Binary decision variables are used for
stopes that will be extracted or backfill in a particular time and continuous decision
variables for ore quantity or backfilling quantity for each stop in a given period; however,
predetermined stoping sequence includes early and latest extraction and backfill start
dates are required as input parameters.
The underground mining operations have limited flexibility because of their
geotechnical, equipment and space constraints. More constraints and binary variables are
required to generate the schedule model which increases the complexity of the problem.
The number of integer variables at MIP could be over hundred thousand in underground
mining applications (Little and Topal, 2011). Topal (2008) recommended two algorithms
to reduce the number of variables related to LHD machine placement before its early start
date and after its late start date by assigning earliest and latest possible start dates for
4 M.E. Villalba Matamoros and M. Kumral

each machine allocation. Additional vertical sequencing between levels and horizontal
sequencing to prevent undermining and blast damage to adjacent locations, and machine
limitations are considered in the definition of constraints; however, less flexibility could
help to reduce the space of solutions without violating optimality.
Manchuk and Deutsch (2008) addressed to use simulated annealing approach to
optimise the design of the stopes and the stope mining sequence sequentially. For the first
optimisation, an initial design stope is iterated to find the stope layout that maximises the
profitability of a project. This initial stope design is an input parameter and is considered
suboptimal in terms of their expected profit. Then, the result of the first optimisation is
used as input data in the production schedule optimisation. The implementation showed
that the solutions of both problems converged and the profit was improved 25% for stop
design optimisation and 3% NPV for the sequence of mining optimisation.
The evaluation and definition of the cut-off grade assist to define the shape and size
of the ore block. The mining method and precedence structure are selected based on
this ore block. O’Sullivan and Newman (2015) presented an integer programming
formulation for the scheduling problem at a weekly period where is maximised the
discounted quantity of extracted metal subject to packing, knapsack, and sequencing
constraints.
The stope layout is a computational complex problem which may require the heuristic
algorithm to have solutions in reasonable computing time than exact methods. In addition
to the new heuristic, internal dilution management, and formulation with multi-metal and
variable stope dimensions will be contributions of this paper. Thus, this research proposes
a stope layout optimisation addressing the maximisation of profit with minimum dilution
using the heuristic algorithm. This also accounts for multi-metal and variable stope
dimensions by sectors respecting the rock quality at mining deposits.

2 Model formulation

Determination of the stope layout as part of underground mine planning is an

optimisation problem which objective function is profit maximisation subject to
operational, geotechnical, and ore-body quality and quantity constraints. The formulation
requires input parameters including the ore-body model, economic and geotechnical
considerations.
The mining cost of underground mining is generally high. In addition, ore
selectivity is low and dilution is high because of geotechnical, infrastructure and safety
requirements. Dilution is the contamination of ore with waste or low-grade waste.
The location of waste within the ore-body could define the type of dilution. Internal
dilution is the waste located within the ore whereas external dilution is the waste located
on the border of the ore owing to incorrect border definition between ore and waste
(Tatman, 2001). Another classification of dilution is based on the mining method which
includes stope dimensioning, and unplanned sources of dilution. If dilution is inherent in
mining method and their stope dimensioning, this is primary dilution. If the dilution is not
planned, it is secondary dilution. This secondary dilution could also be called unplanned
dilution which is the additional non-ore material from rock or backfill outside the stope
boundaries due to blast-induced over-break, unstable wall rock fall and backfill fall.
(Henning and Mitri, 2007). The proposed heuristic stope layout optimisation minimises
the internal dilution which is part of planned or primary dilution. This is managed by
 Heuristic stope layout optimisation accounting for variable stope dimensions 5

assessing variable stope length that follows the grade spatial variability through the
ore-body without neglecting operational and geotechnical constraints, by evaluating slide
quantity that may represent internal dilution within each stope, and by penalising
recovery of internal dilution blocks.
The minimum and maximum dimension of the stopes is the input information that
ensures the stability of open stopes in underground hard rock mines and allows the
equipment to work efficiently. The stability of the stopes is influenced by many variables,
the sizes of the stopes, the shape of the excavations, the surrounding stresses and degree
of jointing rock masses. Those are evaluated together to provide a recommended size of
the stopes (Grenon and Hadjigeorgiou, 2000), that is, the geo-mechanic data and
structural analysis are used to assess the stability of any particular stope. Geotechnical
engineers may recommend the maximum size of the stopes based on geotechnical
considerations and mine engineers may decide the minimum stope size based on the
equipment space requirements which are operational considerations.
The rock mass characterisation, estimation of rock mass properties, identification of
potential failure modes, and stability analysis (Swart and Handley, 2005) are geotechnical
consideration that changes throughout the ore deposit. In other words, the geotechnical
considerations can change through the deposit as the host rock strength fluctuates.
In the proposed model formulation, adjacent blocks that share similar considerations
could be grouped as a sector to define stope sizes. Thus, the ore deposit is divided into
sectors and the geotechnical requirements are controlled by the minimum and maximum
dimension of stopes by each sector. In addition, the dimension of the mining equipment
and previous mined stopes under similar conditions may also influence in the stope size
decision. In consequence, possible stopes in a sector may have similar stope parameters
in the optimisation.
3D block model of the ore-body based on estimation/simulation is another input
parameter in the stope layout optimisation. The assays of the drillholes and geological
model assist in defining the quality of the ore-body model by each location; however,
additional definition holes may be required besides these exploration drillholes to provide
a better knowledge about the quality and their spatial variability. An accuracy evaluation
of the model at local scale is relevant in underground mining because only stopes with
economic values are extracted and the grade spatial variability through the ore-body
influences the optimisation on stope length selection that minimises the internal dilution.
Ideally the block model should follow the dominant direction of mineralisation of the
deposit to have a better control of the dilution. The ore-body is discretised in blocks,
the smaller the block size, the better definition of contact between ore and waste.
This also supports the stope layout optimisation because decision variables are linked to
each block.
The proposed formulation combines the blocks into stope such that the profit is
maximised and the internal dilution is minimised. Stope sizes vary between minimum
and maximum allowable limits. Although the idea appears simple, mathematical model
requires complex formulation that cannot be solved straightforward by exact optimisation
methods which may require unreasonable computing time to solve. Precedence relations
are introduced as constraints. According to these constraints each block is evaluated with
its slide positioned and consecutive slides suiting the stope length conditions. The slide
precedence constraints require extracting a set of slide predecessors before each block
being evaluated. A slide is the set of blocks in height and width stope direction and the
length of each slide is the length of the block. This is shown at the left side of Figure 1.
6 M.E. Villalba Matamoros and M. Kumral

A stope contains consecutive set of slides in length stope direction. The length
precedence constraints require to mine set of blocks or slides associated with the
maximum and minimum dimension of stopes by sector. This is illustrated at the right side
of Figure 1. The stopes are defined one adjacent to other in the length direction to prevent
overlapping among them until complete the evaluation of the whole deposit. Thus, the
formulation presented herein considers consecutive stopes with equal excavation
cross-section dimensions where only stope length dimensions may fluctuate because
operations considerations.

Figure 1 Slide predecessors (a) and length predecessors (b) (see online version for colours)

As illustrated in Figure 1, a stope may contain consecutive slides and each slide is a set of
blocks. Slides must have an average grade greater than cut-off; however, the algorithm
allows accumulating slides with average grade less than cut-off. These are called internal
dilution slides because have in mayor proportion blocks with grade less than cut-off.
The number of these internal dilution slides (Figure 2) fluctuates from zero to allowable
maximum provided that the average grade of blocks into each stope and slides at their
border must be greater than cut-off.
Evaluating each block as decision variable and set of blocks as part of each slide
assists optimisation to manage better the internal dilution instead of using the stope
dimensions directly which cannot consider the metal grade local scale variability given
by the blocks.
The variable stope lengths and number of internal dilution slides option, explained
before, are part of the stope decision variables and are controlled by the objective
function by penalising the processing recovery of internal dilution. The penalisation is
made directly to the processing recovery of each block being evaluated as internal
dilution and could fluctuate from 0 to 1 since percentage values are penalised.
In addition, a function can be derived to calculate the processing recovery of each block
considered as internal dilution. This adjusted recovery will make the optimisation select
mostly dilution blocks with grade inferior closer to cut-off because are penalised less than
dilution blocks with grade inferior further to cut-off to guarantee maximum profit;
 Heuristic stope layout optimisation accounting for variable stope dimensions 7

otherwise, a single recovery for all dilution blocks will be similarly penalised because
omit their local-scale grade variability. These influence the selection of dilution blocks
that can contribute more to the profit. The objective function component associate with
these penalisations is a deduction value from the revenue, that is, the optimisation will
select stopes with minimum internal dilution that impact less the profit.

Figure 2 Location of internal dilution slides (see online version for colours)

The notation used to formulate stope layout heuristic optimisation that manages better the
imminent presence of internal dilution owing to the ore-body grade spatial variability and
to operational and geotechnical constraints besides maximising profit considers:
Indexes
k: a block at sector j, where k = 1, …, K(j)
i: an expected stope, where i = 1, …, I. Note that the total number of stopes (I) will be
defined after the optimisation is solved.
j: a sector, where j = 1, …, J.
Parameters used in the constraints and objective function
gjk: grade of block k at sector j
wjk: tonnage of block k at sector j
cutOff: minimum economic grade for main metal
Ojk: binary parameters to flag with one, the block k at j sector which grade is
greater than the cut-off; otherwise, the block is flagged with zero.
dx, dy, dz: block dimensions
δj: stope width at sector j
γj: stope height at sector j
λ min
j ,λ max
j : stope minimum length and maximum length at sector j
8 M.E. Villalba Matamoros and M. Kumral

µ jk ′ : binary parameters to flag availability of consecutive block k′ of k at sector j.

P: price of metal by tonnes of metal ($/oz)
M: mining costs per tonne mined ($/t)
C: processing costs per tonne milled ($/t)
Parameters related to internal dilution
ζ: penalty for internal dilution grade recovery (%)
cufOffdilution: minimum grade for internal slide dilution for main metal
R: recovery of metal
Rdilution: recovery of metal for internal dilution minimum grade.
f(gjk): recovery function of blocks with grade less than cut-off.
Decision variables of the formulation
xijk: binary variable, if block k at sector j is mined or not as part of stopei
lij: length dimension of stopei at sector j (lij is between λ jmin , λ jmax )
dij: additional slides to the minimum stope slides i at sector j (dij is between 0,
(λ jmax − λ jmin )/dx)
sij: number of internal dilution slides for stopei at sector j (below the cut-off grade)
bj: allowable maximum number of internal dilution slides at sector j.
The objective function maximises profit where the first component is the revenue of
stopes in all sectors, the second component is the mining and processing cost of the
produced stopes, the third component is the cost associated with internal dilution. This
last component assists to minimise the internal dilution owing to the selected dilution
blocks within the stopes are penalised through their adjusted processing recovery.
J I K ( j) J I K ( j)

∑∑ ∑ xijk w jk g jk R P − ∑∑ ∑ xijk w jk ( M + C )
j =1 i =1 k =1 j =1 i =1 k =1
J I K ( j)
(1)
−∑∑ ∑ xijk wijk g jk (1 − O jk ) P R − ς ( f ( g jk )
j =1 i =1 k =1
( )
The penalty factor of internal dilution block could fluctuate from 0 to 1. Factor equal to 1
is the lowest penalisation because third component uses only the adjusted dilution block
recovery given by their function. Meanwhile, factor equal to 0 is the higher penalisation
in combination with the adjusted dilution recovery. Further higher penalisations must be
given directly to this third component instead of given to dilution block recovery.
Thus, the effect of third component in objective function may be increased. Thus, the
trade-off between these components is governed by a penalty factor. This objective
function is subject to 13 set of constraints. The first constraints ensure that block k can be
mined only once through the sectors and stopes.
I J

∑∑ x
i =1 j =1
ijk ≤ 1, ∀k = 1, … , k ( j ) (2)
 Heuristic stope layout optimisation accounting for variable stope dimensions 9

The minimum and maximum dimension of the stopes by each sector is defined by block
predecessors in the constraints. The following constraints consider the blocks (ηij) in
height and width directions that need to be mined, as slide predecessors, with the block k
being evaluated. The set of slide predecessors for each k is defined as Ω k ′ .
ηij
ηij xijk − ∑ xijk
τ
′ ≤ 0, ∀i = 1,…, I , ∀j = 1, …, J , ∀k = 1, …, K ( j ), k ′ ∈ Ω k ′ (3)
τ =1

The set of slide predecessors Ω k ′ for each block k must have an available number of
blocks ηij equal to the blocks in width and height stope dimensions; otherwise, block k is
not considered as part of the stope to be evaluated.

δj γ j 
ηij =  × − 1, ∀i = 1, … , I , ∀j = 1, … , J
 dy dz 
(4)
 
The next precedence constraints are related to the minimum length that each stope must
have where the parameter ϕij defines the number of blocks in the minimum length stope
direction. The set of block successors Ψ k ′ are given for each block k being evaluated.
ϕij
ϕij xijk − ∑ xijk
τ
′ ≤ 0, ∀i = 1, … , I , ∀j = 1, … , J , ∀k = 1,… , K ( j ), k ′ ∈ Ψ k ′
τ =1

where (5)
λ min
j
ϕij = −1
dx
The maximum length of each stope is related to the decision variables (dij) and a second
set of successor blocks ϒ k ′ . These decision variables allow the stopes to have dimensions
between the minimum and maximum size.
θij
θij xijk − ∑ xijk
τ
′ − d ij ≤ 0, ∀i = 1,… , I , ∀j = 1,… , J , ∀k = 1, … , K ( j ), k ′ ∈ ϒ k ′
τ =1

where (6)
λ max
j
θij = −1
dx
Parameter θij defines the number of blocks in the maximum length stope direction which
set of block successors ϒ k ′ are given per block k being evaluated. The decision variables
dij times block length must be less than the difference between the maximum and
minimum length size per sector. This is associated with a number of blocks in stope
length direction.
λ jmax − λ jmin ≤ dij × dx, ∀i = 1, … , I , ∀j = 1, … , J (7)

To define, the optimal length dimensions of each stope.

λ jmin + ( d ij × dx ) ≤ lij , ∀i = 1, … , I , ∀j = 1, … , J (8)

The average grade of a stope slide predecessor must be greater than the cut-off grade.
10 M.E. Villalba Matamoros and M. Kumral

η +1
1 ij
∑ ( x × w jk × g jk ) ≥ cutOff , ∀i = 1,…, I , ∀j = 1,…, J
ηij + 1 k =1 ijk
(9)

The heuristic algorithm accumulates the stope slide predecessors Ω k ′ until match the
stope size constraints, these slides must have their average grade greater than the cut-off.
Otherwise, the algorithm starts to accumulate the slides with average grades over
cutOffdilution and less than cutOff until match the maximum slide number decision variable
(bj) per iteration. These slides which are part of internal dilution must be surrounded by
slides with an average grade greater than cutOff. Thus, bj may take values from 0 to
maximum stope slides minus 2 slides per iteration and per sector, and support decision
variables sij to select the number of slides with internal dilution of stope i at sector j.
λ maxj
bj ≤ − 2, ∀j = 1, …, J (10)
dx
sij ≤ b j , ∀i = 1,…, I , ∀j = 1,…, J (11)

To block xijk is evaluated as part of the first slide or predecessors set of each stopei only if
a consecutive block xijk ′ in the stope length direction must be available. The availability
of this consecutive block k′ is flagged with a binary parameter µ jk ′ .
xijk − µ jk ′ ≤ 0, ∀i = 1, … , I , ∀j = 1, … , J , ∀k = 1, … , K ( j ) (12)

The heuristic algorithm will evaluate each possible stope configurations starting at any
block location in the deposit at sector j, and the average grade of blocks xijk within stop i
should have average grade greater equal than cut-off grade.
( sij + 2 )(ηij +1)
∑ (x ×w × g )
k =1
ijk jk jk
≥ cutOff , ∀i = 1, … , I , ∀j = 1,… , J (13)
( s + 2 ) × (η + 1)
ij ij

The number of blocks times the maximum number of slides with internal dilution
provides the number of iterations by sector to find the near optimal solution, that is,
variable evaluation starting location, internal dilution slides and satisfying all the
constraints will define the solution space. The stope layout optimisation is a deterministic
polynomial time (NP-hard) complex problem and time-consuming. Some techniques
such as exact methods may provide an optimal solution at the expense of excessively
computing time and other techniques as heuristic methods may provide a sub-optimal
solution in a reasonable time. The proposed optimisation uses the heuristic algorithm to
solve the stope layout problem because the impractical solution time of exact methods,
and the complexity of the stope layout formulation. This formulation requires several
precedence constraints related to each block within a stope which are hardly constrained.

3 Case study

The data provided for this case study correspond to a portion of a gold deposit. 20,706
blocks are located in a volume of 290 m. in the east, 510 m. in the north and 140 m. in the
height direction.
 Heuristic stope layout optimisation accounting for variable stope dimensions 11

Each block has dimensions of 10 m. (length), 10 m. (width) and 10 m. (height). The

average gold grade is 1.9 g/t. The spatial distribution of these blocks shows that the
higher concentrations of gold are located in the north-east region (Figures 3 and 4).
The volume to be evaluated is divided into two sectors, the first sector with the height
of 60 m. located at the bottom and the second sector with the height of 80 m. located at
the top.

Figure 3 Spatial distribution of gold data, sector 1 in blue and sector 2 in purple (see online
version for colours)

Figure 4 Spatial distribution of gold data, horizontal and vertical cross sections (see online
version for colours)
12 M.E. Villalba Matamoros and M. Kumral

These sectors require different considerations for the stope layout design. Sector 1 needs
smaller stope sizes than sector 2 because of increasing depth. The parameters used in
current case study are described in Table 1.

Table 1 Main input parameters of heuristic stope optimisation

Parameter Parameter Explanation

j 2 Number of sectors
K(j) 8804 and 11,832 Number of blocks for every sector
cufoff 3.5 (g/t) Minimum economic gold grade
dx, dy, dz 10, 10, 10 Block dimensions
P 1300 (US$/oz) Realised gold price
M 100 (US$/t moved) Mining costs per tonne mined
C 40 (US$/t milled) Processing costs per tonne milled
ζ 1 Penalty of internal dilution recovery
cufOffdilution 0.5 (g/t) Minimum grade for slides of stope internal dilution
R 0.96 Recovery of metal
Rdilution 0.6 Recovery of metal for minimum grade internal dilution
f(gjk) Linear Equation for internal dilution recovery
δ1, δ2 20, 40 Stope width at sector 1 and 2
γ1, γ2 20, 40 Stope height at sector 1 and 2
λ 1
min
,λ
1
max
20, 40 Stope minimum length and maximum length at sector 1
λ min
2 ,λ
max
2 20, 50 Stope minimum length and maximum length at sector 2

For sector 1, the geotechnical engineer specifies a minimum [20 m (length), 20 m (width)
and 20 m (height)] and maximum stope [40 m (length), 20 m (width) and 20 m (height)]
dimensions. Similarly, for sector 2, a minimum [20 m (length), 40 m (width) and 40 m
(height)] and maximum [50 m (length), 40 m (width) and 40 m (height)] stope
dimensions. The average grade of each stop must be greater equal than 3.5 g/t and stopes
could have internal dilution slides with average grades less than 3.5 g/t and greater equal
than 0.5 g/t. The recovery percentage of internal dilution blocks are penalised in the
objective function third component by adjusting their value with a linear function,
and using a factor which may fluctuate from 0 to 1.
To adjust the recovery of the internal dilution, a linear equation is calculated given
96% recovery for material grade greater than 3.5 g/t and 60% recovery for average slide
grade of 0.5 g/t. The recovery of blocks that are internal dilution is calculated from linear
equation f ( g jk ) = 0.12 × g jk + 0.54 which gradient (mR = 0.12) and intersect (bR = 0.54)
parameters are calculated as follows:

( R − Rdilution ) ( 0.96 − 0.6 )

mR = = ,
( cutOff − cutOff dilution ) ( 3.5 − 0.5 )
bR = −cutOff × mR + R = −3.5 × 0.12 + 0.96
 Heuristic stope layout optimisation accounting for variable stope dimensions 13

The optimisation program took 8 h and 43 min in a dual-core processor computer of

3.70 GHz and 16 GB of RAM to find the solution of a deposit with 20,706 blocks.
Sector 1 required 26,412 iterations and the sector 2, 47,832 iterations to evaluate all the
tentative locations of the stopes, potential number of slides with internal dilution per
stope and possible stope sizes.
The implementation of the heuristic stope layout optimisation shows that profit or
objective function of sector 1 converge after 10,287 iterations and profit of sector 2 after
13,125 iterations. Figure 5 shows that objective function of sector 1 converges initially
at 3000 iterations when stopes were evaluated only with b1 = 0 and b1 = 1 as possible
maximum number of slides with internal dilution; however, the maximum objective
function is found when the evaluation considers an additional maximum slide as internal
dilution b1 = 2.

Figure 5 Convergence of stope layout heuristic solution (see online version for colours)

Figure 6 Internal dilution slides (sij) of the stope layout heuristic solution (see online version
for colours)
14 M.E. Villalba Matamoros and M. Kumral

Decision variables si1 at sector 1 selected between 0 and 2 slides as internal dilution per
stope. Meanwhile, decision variables si2 at sector 2 also selected between 0 or 2 slides as
internal dilution per stope when b2 = 2 even though the stopes were evaluated with b2 = 3
(Figure 6), this is due to internal dilution minimisation. Note that stopes of sector 2 have
maximum length of 50 m., this mean, 5 slides of 10 m. from which maximum 3 slides
may be selected as internal dilution and decision variable b2could take a value from 0 to 3
per iteration. Thus, decision variables sij and bj assist to minimise the internal dilution.
The condition of variable length, in proposed heuristic stope layout, assists to
minimise the internal dilution because the shape and grade spatial variability of the
ore-body change through the deposit.
For instance, the stopes may have maximum length in continuous spatial grade
regions and minimum length in regions with low grade spatial continuity. The stope
layout feasible solution shows that 63% of the stopes at sector 1 selected the maximum
length of 40 m., whereas, 46% of the stopes at sector 2 selected the maximum length of
50 m (Figure 7).

Figure 7 Variable length (dij) of the stope layout heuristic solution (see online version
for colours)

Figure 8 Grade of the stope layout heuristic solution (see online version for colours)
 Heuristic stope layout optimisation accounting for variable stope dimensions 15

As expected, the location of these stopes are associated with regions with more
continuous grade greater than cut-off 3.5 g/t; otherwise, stopes with minimum length
(22% of stopes at sector 1 and 19% at sector 2) are mostly located in isolated regions
with small economical material concentrations or at economical grade spatial continuity
region borders. The stope grade of both sectors is illustrated below in Figure 8. Note that
isolated stopes may become unprofitable in production schedule evaluations because their
development cost will be higher.
Heuristic optimisation found 80 stopes that matches the geotechnical considerations
and guaranty the minimum internal dilution. These stopes are located at places with high
concentration of gold because the optimisation maximises the profit and indirectly the
ore-body value. Since the algorithm considers different parameters for the dimension
of the stopes per sector, Figure 8 also shows different stope sizes between sectors.
The optimisation found 54 small stopes in sector 1 and 26 large stopes in sector 2 with
variable dimensions.
The profit convergence of the heuristic solution observed in Figure 5 could also be
associated with the number of stopes found after each iteration. The number of stopes
tend to increase as the solution reach the maximum profit; however, Figure 9 shows that
at local scale, higher profit not always means higher number of stopes due to the quantity
of internal dilution related to stope sizes and ore-body grade spatial variability.
For instance, the number of stopes given by heuristic feasible solution at sector 2 is not
the same as the maximum number of stopes found after the solution converges.

Figure 9 Number of stope related to the profit convergence heuristic solution (see online version
for colours)

The internal dilution or planned dilution of the heuristic solution is 15.36%. As expected,
the size of the stopes influence the percentage of internal dilution, bigger the stope
dimensions higher the dilution. Sector 1 obtained an internal dilution of 14.40%
meanwhile sector 2 with bigger stope dimensions considerations obtained 15.81%.
This internal dilution can be further minimised by changing the penalty factor; however,
a decrease of profit 5% and decrease of dilution 4.5% is observed when the penalty is
reduced from 1 to 0.75, see Figure 10. This figure shows the trade-off between profit and
internal dilution when the effect of the penalty is increased.
16 M.E. Villalba Matamoros and M. Kumral

Furthermore, the definition of the minimum grade parameter for internal dilution
also affects the internal dilution of the stope. Sensitivity analysis of this parameter
(cutOffdilution) shows that the higher cutOffdilution, the lower the internal dilution percentage
and the higher selectivity. The number of stopes of stope layout feasible solution will be
reduced from 82 to 63 units, the profit reduced 25% and the dilution reduced almost 20%
when this cutOffdilution parameter (Figure 11) changes from 0.5 g/t to 2.5 g/t.

Figure 10 Sensitivity analysis of the internal dilution penalty (see online version for colours)

Figure 11 Sensitivity analysis of the minimum grade for internal dilution (see online version
for colours)

The implementation of the proposed heuristic stope layout showed that the internal
dilution percentage is minimised by considering multiple sizes of the stopes, variable
number of internal slides with dilution; and penalising the block values which grade is
less than cut-off through a lower processing recovery. Additionally, convergence figures
of the heuristic feasible solution show that mining recovery of the material with
economical metal content is maximised. This implies the best feasible solution with the
maximum profit, best mining recovery with lower planned dilution, and the best feasible
number and dimensions of the stopes.
 Heuristic stope layout optimisation accounting for variable stope dimensions 17

4 Conclusion and future work

In this paper, heuristic stope layout optimisation is proposed to maximise the profit and
minimise the internal dilution under the operational and geotechnical constraints. The
internal dilution is minimised by penalising recovery of internal dilution blocks,
by evaluating variable number of slides that may represent internal dilution (per stope),
and by assessing variable stope length. The proposed approach can deal with several
sectors and variable stope dimensions. This stope layout optimisation will support in
more efficient, productive and profitable underground operations.
The stope layout formulation proposed herein can find feasible solutions that
converge in a reasonable computing time. To demonstrate their performance, a case study
was carried out using data of a gold deposit. The implementation showed that the internal
dilution was minimised to 15.36% by considering variable stope sizes, variable number
of internal slides with dilution (from 0 to 3); and penalising the block values with grade
less than cut-off of 3.5 g/t through a lower processing recovery that is calculated from a
linear function. The stope layout solution respect the geotechnical requirements and the
mining recovery of the material with economical contain are maximised which implies
the feasible solution with the maximum profit. In addition, sensitivity analysis is
performed for parameters that impact the percentage of internal dilution through stope
layout optimisation. This proposed heuristic approach can be applied in any deposit that
requires stopes because their flexibility.
The grade fluctuations in the ore-body and other parameters could make difficult to
forecast the stope layout correctly. Uninformed and ultimately costly decisions are made
because of imperfect geological knowledge or information effect and fluctuations of
other input parameters (Villalba Matamoros, 2014), that is, the fluctuations in their input
parameters in underground mining has not been explored in detail. Consequently,
multiple simulation of the ore-body will be incorporated in the stope layout optimisation,
as a future work, with a proper stochastic programming formulation that use the
combination of more than one initial solution to find new solutions. In addition,
the present formulation can be easily extended for multi-element because ore bodies may
have several metals.
Once the stopes are defined, the next step will be to optimise the mine production
schedule which requires several input parameters, such as stope layout, ore-body model,
geotechnical considerations, production targets, stoping operation timing, allocation of
resources, mining costs, and operational considerations. Thus, this stope layout approach
can be extended to evaluate the mine production scheduling as future work.
The heuristic method could terminate when a local optimal solution is found.
To prevent the solution to be trapped in the local optimal, a meta-heuristic method will be
used, as future work, which is also heuristic by definition; however, they have a power
mechanism to reach a better solution. The stochastic nature of stope layout and mining
sequence input parameters could provide many scenarios or solutions, and meta-heuristic
method could combine good solutions to generate better new solutions.

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to NSERC and Goldcorp for their supports (Project number:
478371).
18 M.E. Villalba Matamoros and M. Kumral

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