Planning block caving operations with metal price uncertainty

The precise determination of the quantities and qualities of materials buried deep in the ground from widely spaced exploratory drilling leads to uncertainty in the estimation of such as geology, rock mass discontinuities, stress fields, grades of metals in mineralization, etc. These technical uncertainties are exaggerated by the inconsistency and variability of metal prices.; This thesis proposes the introduction of 'metal price uncertainty' as a quantitative planning variable in order to define mining limits (boundaries) and the production sequence of mining while utilizing the block caving mining method. The thesis addresses the lack of selectivity of block caving, and how the commonly used concept of a 'cut-off' grade is augmented with a 'certainty index' based on the stochastic simulation of metal prices. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...