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Asian Journal of Engineering, Sciences and Technology - Volume 12, Issue 1 2022
By Joseph Nwosu
Keywords: Complex stripping ratio, compound unit of ore, complex ore deposits.
Traditionally, mathematical models developed for the design of pit limits had been tailored to suit single ore deposits. The case where there are more than one type of ore (complex deposit) had been grossly neglected. This apparent neglect was caused by the difficulty of developing mathematical models that can take care of variations in values, cost of mining and processing that are inherent in complex ore deposits. In this paper, we introduce two new concepts: the complex stripping ratio and the compound unit of ores. These two concepts help to simplify the development of mathematical models for pit limit estimation of complex ore deposit. Based on these two concepts, mathematical models for pit limit design of complex deposits have been developed. The models have been tried with hypothetical complex deposit to design a pit limit that takes into account, variation in values of ore, cost of mining and processing of the different types of ore in the deposit.