Study on the influence of ore loss rate and dilution rate on the technical and economic indexes of strategic planning of an open-pit uranium mine

Since the production of an open-pit uranium mine, the actual ore loss rate and ore dilution rate are higher than the values taken in the feasibility study stage, which affect the strategic planning of the project.Based on the historical production data, this paper analyzing the influence of the ore loss rate, set the ore dilution rate to 26%, and analyzing the influence of the ore dilution rate, set the ore loss rate to 8%.In this paper, the Psedoflow algorithm and the Milawa NPV algorithm in Whittle software are used to do pit optimization and strategic planning for eleven ore loss rate and dilution rate, and to use output data to analyze the impact of ore loss rate and dilution rate on technical and economic indicators such as NPV, production cost, mine life, stripping ratio and so on.The results show that the ore dilution rate has a great impact on the mined waste rock tons, NPV and unit process cost, considering the large gap between the actual ore dilution rate and the industry standard, strengthening the dilution rate control during the mining will improve production efficiency.The northern area of No.1 pit is greatly affected by the ore dilution rate, such as pit shell, process cost and mined ore tons, it shall be designed as a separate stage which mined last, and supplementary geological exploration is required.The ore loss rate has a greater impact on total metal quantity, mined ore tons and NPV, the difference between the actual ore loss rate and the industry standard is small, and the overall impact on production is general.