MineSight

in the Foreground

1 February 2009
Working with Polygons and Controlling Slopes
in the MineSight

3-D Pit Expansion Tool

In the Mine Planning cycle it is important to use open pit designs that reflect the mining
process. This can be done within the Pit Expansion tool which allows you to create
accurate mining pits by defining various design options such as Face slope(s), Pit
slope(s), and Berm width(s) through the use of input tables and 3D block model values.
This article will cover these options, as well as tips for generating a successful pit
expansion.

Redefine Polygon Direction after Splicing Pit Toe or Crest

When creating a pit design using the Pit Expansion tool, bench polygons are created
which outline the shape of the pit, typically on each mining bench toe or mid-bench
elevation. Each polygon has a specific direction: either clockwise or counter-clockwise,
depending upon the parameters that were used during the setup of the tool, such as
expanding Up/Down and Inward/Outward. While this may seem like a minor detail, it
is actually very important to the proper operation of the tool.

Sometimes its beneficial to use the Polyline | Splice function to edit the toe and crest
polygons of the pit as it expands. This allows you to change the shape of the pit during
the expansion. Following the splice, you can then expand the pit in the desired direction
and the pit will continue from the spliced toe.

However, when you manually splice the crest or toe polygons, it is possible splicing will
reverse the direction of the polygons. This will cause an outward expansion to turn
inward or an inward expansion to turn outward. See Figure 1 below for an example of
this behavior.

Figure 1. An Up and Outward pit expansion incorrectly turns inward on itself following the splicing of a Pit Toe
polygon.
MineSight

in the Foreground

2 February 2009

This issue can be resolved by manually redefining the polygon direction. On the
Expansion tab, click the Edit Strings button. Toggle the appropriate Toes or Crests
edit option and the desired At level elevation (Figure 2). Click OK to add the polygon to
the Selection Set so the polygon can be operated on by MS3D CAD functions.



Figure 2. Edit Strings dialog in the Pit Expansion tool.

Next, go to the MineSight

3-D (MS3D) Polyline menu and select Redefine | Direction.

Toggle Show current polyline/polygon directions and specify an Arrow Size to view
the current direction (Figure 3). Next, toggle Polygons and choose the appropriate
direction. Click Apply and the polygon direction will be corrected. Once this is done,
save the polygon. Expansion of the pit can be continued as normal. This is shown in
Figure 4 below.


Figure 3. The Redefine Direction function showing the spliced polygon going counter-clockwise. Use the dialog
options to change the direction to clockwise.

MineSight

in the Foreground

3 February 2009
HINT: For expansions in the shape of a pit (Outward and Up or Inward and
Down), lines should maintain a clockwise direction. For expansions in the shape
of a dump (Inward and Up or Outward and Down), lines should maintain a
counter-clockwise direction.


Figure 4. Pit expansion after redefining the polygon direction.

Controlling Pit Expansion with Face slope, Pit slope, and Berm width
Parameters

On the Required tab of the Pit Expansion tool, you can define several parameters that
control the expansion characteristics of a pit. We will focus on Face slope, Pit slope,
and Berm width as illustrated in Figure 5. The Face slope parameter is used to specify
the slope of the bench faces. The Pit slope parameter is used to specify the overall Pit
slope defined by an imaginary line extending between two toe or crest polygons. The
Berm width parameter is used to specify the desired bench width.

During the creation of a pit design, the Pit Expansion tool will honor two of these three
variables. The Face slope value will always be honored and is used in conjunction with
either the Pit slope or the Berm width to determine the overall slope angle of the
expansion.

MineSight

in the Foreground

4 February 2009


Figure 5. Options for controlling the overall slope of the pit design.

In all cases, the minimum overall slope angle as prescribed by the Face slope and Pit
slope or the Face slope and Berm width will be used. Because of this, the Pit slope
value entered can be thought of as a maximum overall slope angle, while the Berm
width can be thought of as a minimum Berm width.



Figure 6. Mathematical definitions for variables defined on the Required tab in the Pit Expansion tool. B = Berm
width, h = Step size (default is the bench height), = Pit slope, = Face slope.

In a case where the pit expansion shape is determined by the Face slope and Pit slope,
the Berm width will be calculated using the following formula:
MineSight

in the Foreground

5 February 2009

=
tan
1
tan
1
* h B

Because the Berm width value is treated as a minimum Berm width, if the Berm
width entered in the table is greater than the value calculated from this formula, the pit
will expand using Berm width instead of Pit slope.

In the case where the pit expansion shape is determined by the Face slope and Berm
width, the Pit slope angle will be calculated using the following formula:

+
=

tan /
tan
1
h B
h


Because the Pit slope value is treated as a maximum Pit slope, if the Pit slope value
entered into the table is less than the number calculated from this formula, the pit will
expand using Pit slope instead of Berm width.

If you wish to use one of these methods specifically over the other, do the following:

Using Face slope and Pit slope
To expand your pit using the Face slope while honoring the Pit slope, enter a 0 for
the Berm width for all levels. This will negate any effect this entry has on the
calculation. This ensures that the Face slope and Pit slope calculation method is
always followed.

Using Face slope and Berm width
To expand your pit design using the Face slope while honoring the Berm width, enter
a Pit slope equal to the Face slope for all levels. This ensures that the expansion will
never produce an overall slope that is lower than the Face slope with Pit slope
method, thereby ensuring that the Face slope with Berm width method is followed.


Defining Pit Expansion Parameters by Sector table, Model value, or
Model/code table

An alternative to using the Step (bench) table for specifying the Face slope, Pit slope,
and Berm width values is to use the Optional tab where slope and berm values can be
retrieved from either a Sector table, a Model value, or Model/code table (see Figure 7).
To use the Model value and Model/code table options, you must select a 3D block
model view using the model view selector .

MineSight

in the Foreground

6 February 2009


Figure 7. More flexibility in the Face slope, Pit slope, and Berm width value is available through the Optional
tab of the Pit Expansion tool.

Sector table
The Sector table option allows you to manually enter Face slope, Pit slope, and Berm
width values based upon an azimuth range. To use this option, for one or more of these
parameters, toggle Sector table for the desired parameter, Face slopes in this example.
Notice the corresponding Sectors button is enabled as shown in Figure 7.

Click the Sectors button to open the sector editing dialog (Figure 8).

Within the Sector dialog, the center for the sectors must be specified. The center can be
defined either by digitizing directly in the viewer using the Digitize button or by
entering the East and North coordinates manually.

In the table, the value for the parameter (Face slope in our example) is specified as a
function of azimuth. The sectors are defined by the first azimuth that is part of the given
sector. Thus, in Figure 8 below, the sector corresponding to 0-45 degrees is assigned the
Face slope corresponding to azimuth equal to zero, 70 degrees in this example.
Continue through all of the sectors around the pit in this manner. By toggling the Show
center and Show rays options, you can visually check the sectors as they are entered
into the table as shown below in Figure 8. The sectors have been labeled to demonstrate
their corresponding Face slope(s).

MineSight

in the Foreground

7 February 2009

Figure 8. Face slope(s) defined by sector from the Optional tab. Sectors can be tracked visually using the Show
Center and Show Rays options.

Model Value
The Face slope, Pit slope, and Berm width can be defined by reading item data from a
3D block model. To utilize this option, select a model view which references the
appropriate 3D block model. Next, toggle Model value under the desired parameter and
select the item containing the data using the item chooser (Pit slope defined using
item SLPA in the example in Figure 7). Pit expansion may now start/continue utilizing
the block model data.

Model/code Table
The Model/code table is used to define parameter values based on value for one code
item in the 3D block model. To use this option, select a model view which references the
appropriate 3D block model. Toggle Model/code table for the desired parameter, then
select the code item using the item chooser (Berm width defined using item SLPC in
the example in Figure 7). The Codes button at the bottom of the panel is enabled.

Click the Codes button and enter valid code values and respective parameter values to
be used as shown in Figure 9. Click OK when finished.

MineSight

in the Foreground

8 February 2009


Figure 9. View of the Pit Expansion Base polygon above various 3D block model slope zones. To the right, the code
table matches the zones with corresponding Berm widths.

The Pit Expansion tool will use the parameter values entered on the Optional tab first.
If the parameter is not defined there, it will use the values entered in the Step (bench)
table. However, the same rules discussed in the Controlling Pit Expansion section of
this article still apply. The Pit slope value entered in the Step (bench) table will still act
as a maximum Pit slope, introducing the possibility that the Berm width values from
the model will be ignored in certain cases.

Consider the following examples.

Figure 10 shows the pit using the varying Berm width values as entered into the
code table in Figure 9. The Face slope (70 degrees) and the Pit slope (maximum
of 45 degrees) are entered in the Step (bench) table as shown in Figure 5. In this
case, the Face slope with Berm width expansion never results in a Pit slope
greater than 45 degrees, rendering the Pit slope value irrelevant.

MineSight

in the Foreground

9 February 2009


Figure 10. Contours representing varying Berm width (Figure 9) with Face
slope=70 degrees and the Pit slope=(maximum) 45 degrees (Figure 5) resulting in a
Face slope and Berm width expansion.


Now, use the exact same configuration as above, except change the Pit slope value in
the Step (bench) table in Figure 5 from 45 to 25 degrees. The Pit slope calculated using
the Face slope with berm method exceeds 25 degrees for all Berm width(s). Thus, this
pit expands using the Face slope with Pit slope method and the expansion has a
uniform Pit slope of 25 degrees in all directions as shown in Figure 11.

MineSight

in the Foreground

10 February 2009


Figure 11. Contours representing varying Berm width (Figure 9) with Face slope=70 degrees and the Pit
slope=(maximum) 25 degrees resulting in a Face slope and Pit slope expansion.

Utilizing the Face slope, Pit slope, and Berm width options, found on either the
Required or Optional tab, you can implement simple or complex slopes into a pit
design. Understanding how the Face slope, Pit slope, and Berm width values are used
and calculated increases the control you have over the expansion of the pit, thus
reducing the need to splice crests and toes and providing a more efficient use of the Pit
Expansion tool.