Stochastic strategic planning of open-pit mines with ore selectivity recourse

Stochastic mine planning algorithms have been extended to better represent ore selection decisions. Under geological uncertainty, existing algorithms generate plans that may violate the mineral processing capacity; under such geological scenarios, the excess ore undergoes a recourse action which is not as profitable as regular processing, hence decreasing the net present value. This decrease has previously been represented as a penalty on excess ore, which may not accurately represent actual operations. The new framework considers the most typical recourse: increasing the cut-off grade into the mineral process. This approach is demonstrated by adapting the VND algorithm of Lamghari et al.