Analyzing the role of safety level and capital investment in selection of underground metal mining method

It is one of the important tasks to select a suitable mining method for economic and safe extraction of the specific ore deposit. The selection of individual mining methods depends on multiple factors like dip, shape, thickness, depth, grade distribution, RMR (rock mass rating) of ore and adjacent strata, and RSS (rock substance strength) of ore and adjacent strata. The present study aims to analyze the role of two extrinsic factors (safety and capital) in the selection of underground metal mining methods. A fuzzy-AHP decision-making model is developed to analyze the possible changes in the mining method with different levels of safety and capital. The study considers seven alternatives or mining methods (block caving, sublevel stoping, sublevel caving, room and pillar mining, shrinkage stoping, cut and fill stoping, and square set stoping) in the model. The results revealed that the preference level or ranking of different mining method in a particular condition like low safety (SAL), medium safety (SAM), high safety (SAH), low capital (CL), medium capital (CM), and high capital (CH) remains same for different decision-making attitude and uncertainty level.