Optimal life-of-mine scheduling for a Bauxite mine

This paper describes a new optimized life-of-mine planning software tool called Bodor (Boddington Optimizer), developed for BHP Billiton’s Boddington Bauxite mine in south Western Australia. Bodor minimizes pre-tax net present cost (capital and operational) over a specified mine life, and is applied to a mine model consisting of bauxite pods pre-designed to a fixed cut-off grade, directly feeding a refinery with bauxite that meets grade and throughput targets in each period over the life-of-mine. Bodor has been very successful in its application to the Boddington mining operation, producing a new life-of-asset mine plan which delivers a significant reduction in net present cost. This value add is achieved primarily through a better timing of ore-body exploitation which optimally trades-off lower haulage costs against some capital costs that are brought forward. A core aspect of Bodor’s utility lies in managing various complex environmental constraints in determining the optimal extraction schedule.