A Developed Fuzzy Goal Programming Approach to Determine a Processing Plant Site

One of the most crucial decisions in mine design is to locate mine infrastructures. The problem of locating a processing plant can be considered in the form of a multi-objective case, which can be solved by goal programming method. In this paper, a fuzzy-based goal programming approach was developed in order to solve the problem of processing plant site determination. In order to determine the efficiency of the developed approach, Sungun copper area was studied. In this case, five goals were considered as adjacency to crusher, adjacency to tailing dam, adjacency to power source, distance from blasting sources, and topography of the available land. Furthermore, six feasible alternatives were initially specified by studying Sungun area map, and then were prioritized using the approach. After investigating the considered area, it was specified that the determined site is the most ideal alternative in this case, considering the levels of the goals and their fuzzy weights.