Open Pit Mine ─ Planning & Design

Building on the success of its 2006 predecessor, this 3rd edition of Open Pit Mine Planning and Design has been both updated and extended, ensuring that it remains the most complete and authoritative account of modern open pit mining available. Five new chapters on unit operations have been added, the revenues and costs chapter has been substantially revised and updated, and the references have been brought fully up to date. In addition, the pack now also includes a fully working version of the MicroMODEL mine planning software package.

Volume 1 deals with the fundamental concepts involved in the planning and design of open pit mines. Subjects covered are mine planning, mining revenues and costs, orebody description, geometrical considerations, pit limits, production planning, mineral resources and ore reserves, responsible mining, rock blasting, rotary drilling, shovel loading, haulage trucks and machine availability and utilization.

Volume 2 includes CSMine and MicroMODEL, user-friendly mine planning and design software packages developed specifically to illustrate the practical application of the involved principles. It also comprises the CSMine and MicroMODEL tutorials and user’s manuals and eight orebody case examples, including drillhole data sets for performing a complete open pit mine evaluation.

Open Pit Mine Planning and Design is an excellent textbook for courses in surface mine design, open pit design, geological and excavation engineering, and in advanced open pit mine planning and design. The principles described apply worldwide. In addition, the work can be used as a practical reference by professionals. The step-by-step approach to mine design and planning offers a fast-path approach to the material for both undergraduate and graduate students. The outstanding software guides the student through the planning and design steps, and the eight drillhole data sets allow the student to practice the described principles on different mining properties (three copper properties, three iron properties and two gold properties). The well-written text, the large number of illustrative examples and case studies, the included software, the review questions and exercises and the reference lists included at the end of each chapter provide the student with all the material needed to effectively learn the theory and application of open pit mine planning and design.

William Hustrulid studied Minerals Engineering at the University of Minnesota. After obtaining his Ph.D. degree in 1968, his career has included responsible roles in both mining academia and in the mining business itself. He has served as Professor of Mining Engineering at the University of Utah and at the Colorado School of Mines and as a Guest Professor at theTechnical University in Lulea, Sweden. In addition, he has held mining R&D positions for companies in the USA, Sweden, and the former Republic of Zaire. He is a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and a Foreign Member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA). He currently holds the rank of Professor Emeritus at the University of Utah and manages Hustrulid Mining Services in Spokane,Washington.

Mark Kuchta studied Mining Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines and received his Ph.D. degree from the Technical University in Lulea, Sweden. He has had a wide-ranging career in the mining business. This has included working as a contract miner in the uranium mines of western Colorado and 10 years of experience in various positions with LKAB in northern Sweden. At present, Mark is an Associate Professor of Mining Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. He is actively involved in the education of future mining engineers at both undergraduate and graduate levels and conducts a very active research program. His professional interests include the use of high-pressure waterjets for rock scaling applications in underground mines, strategic mine planning, advanced mine production scheduling and the development of user-friendly mine software.

Randall K. “Randy” Martin studied Metallurgical Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines and later received a Master of Science in Mineral Economics from Mines. He has over thirty years of experience as a geologic modeler and mine planner, having worked for Amax Mining, Pincock, Allen & Holt, and Tetratech. Currently he serves as President of R.K. Martin and Associates, Inc. His company performs consulting services, and also markets and supports a variety of software packages which are used in the mining industry. He is the principal author of the MicroMODELR software included with this textbook.