Optimizing the open pit-to-underground mining transition
Underground mining is used when an economically viable deposit is situated sufficiently deep such that open pit mining is cost prohibitive. There exist many underground mining techniques: (i) open stoping (Fig. 1), (ii) room-and-pillar, (iii) sublevel caving, (iv) drift-and-fill, (v) longwall, and (vi) block caving.Determining which method(s) …