Computer aided design and analysis of Sapan Dalam open pit mine: a case study

Geologically, the Sapan Dalam coal deposit of Indonesia consists of steeply dipping miilti-seams of variable thickness which are interrupted by four major faults. The deposit had been proved with 27 drill holes at an average spacing of 200 metres. The existing mine had been planned manually and as such provides little flexibility to cope with changes in mining conditions. With the aid of a commercial mine planning package (developed by GEMCOM Service Inc.), computer aided technique was used to build the deposit model and evaluate its economic viability. The four basic phases of mine planning (exploration database management, deposit modelling, pit design, and production scheduling) were adopted.