Provision of a Mathematical Model for Economic Comparison of Production Drilling Methods in Sublevel Stoping

Abstract

Sublevel stoping is an underground mining method which has a low level of production cost. As well main part of the production cost is related to choosing of the drilling method in each stope. The main objective of this paper is to generate a model for identification of the best drilling choice in each case. In order to developing a mathematical model, 150 stopes has been designed by hypothesized dimensions and drilling patterns. In each case production cost was calculated based on extracted ore unite. The out puts come from through calculation of the hypothesized designing on account of different thicknesses of the ore body and heights of the production blocks. A mathematical model has been developed through non-linear regression technique on the basis of the out puts. The generated model is able to define dissimilar production cost per extracted ore unit based on each production drilling method. Therefore the best choice is the drilling method which has the lowest rate of dissimilar production cost. Verification of the model has been carried out on some random data. Accordingly the result of verification has been acceptable by reason of a suitable adaptation ratio.