Uncertain production scheduling optimization in open-pit mines and its box robust counterpart

The block extraction sequence is among the most challenging and important issues that should be regarded through whole mining operations to reach the maximum profit amount. Such Open-pit Production Scheduling problems can be solved under either deterministic or non-deterministic states. This study aims to model the problem applying robust counterpart linear optimization which uses the box set based counterpart. Block economic value, as the objective function coefficient and operational capacity, as the constraints coefficients, are considered as uncertainty sources. Exact mathematical modeling using CPLEX solver, is applied to solve the box counterpart. The model, which was solved in deterministic and uncertain conditions, terminated in results with some differences in scheduled plans.