Optimal mining practice in strategic planning

In recent years, the mining industry has become more aware of the benefits of strategic planning as a costeffective means of improving project value. As the quality of our assumptions improves, the quality of our results also improves, enabling us to make better decisions and improve the value of the finite mining resources. Though universities and software companies strive to provide better algorithms and integrate these in their software tools, mining companies are still faced with very limited options and capability in this field. Engineers charged with the responsibility of undertaking strategic planning for large mining companies often need to make significant compromises in undertaking the tasks. A core thread throughout this paper is the role of skilled people in realising the potential of a project. The paper aims to highlight some of the dangers for the engineers working in this field and provide some sound principles to help them maximise the value of the limited resources we have been entrusted with. © 2011 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.