Improving Underground Mine Access Layouts Using Software Tools

The authors have developed two software tools, PUNO and DOT, for optimally designing the layout of the system of tunnels in an underground mine, known as the access network for the mine. We recently applied these tools, which use principles from geometric optimization, to ore deposits at the Prominent Hill mine in South Australia and the Leeville gold mine in Nevada. When we compared the designs that the tools generated with the designs prepared by mining engineers, we found that our tools generated designs more quickly, were at least as cost efficient, and often revealed new design options by which the engineers’ original designs could be improved.