Credit rating for this course is 60 Credits consisting of a total hours of 600. The objective is to strengthen the student’s ability to develop and produce a piece of work that is relevant in practice and meet the academic standards needed at master’s level. The research project is a vital part of achieving master’s level and it is a chance for a student to undertake research into an area of his/her choosing, related to the programme theme. Department will support student to create his/her research proposal. Student will develop his/her critical abilities and produce a piece of work that is relevant in practice and meets the academic standards needed at master’s level.
Course aim
The objective is to strengthen the students project evaluation skills and to familiarise them with recent developments in risk and decision analysis, including the transfer of option valuation methodologies from the field of financial securities to investment decisions relevant to real assets such as mineral projects. These methodologies include techniques such as Modern Asset Pricing (MAP) and/or Real Options (RO) Valuation.
Expected learning outcomes
1. Construct realistic DCF models of mining projects in both nominal and real dollars, i.e. including or disregarding inflation under assumed certainty;
2. Describe the concept of uncertainty and risk, our attitudes to it and how to make decisions under uncertainty using either the expected value or the expected preference (certainty equivalent) value criteria;
3. Develop a risk simulation model and make a sequential investment decision with a decision tree;
4. Use decision trees in financial analysis and structure, run and interpret a Monte Carlo simulation;
5. Use financial option to hedge the market risk and price the financial options;
6. Describe the features of financial options that would be useful in managing risk for real assets as well as structuring various real-options models to allow valuing the flexibility of various real options.
Course Status: Core
Credit rating: 12 Credits
Total hours spent: 120 hours
Course Contents
(a) Introduction to mineral project evaluation, government; economic and /social objectives and criteria, economic modeling and analytical tools and the general considerations on cash flow, review of time value of mine, discounted cashflow and inflation considerations and constant money calculations Mining Taxation considerations effect of taxation on individual cost and benefit elements; individual project and integrated company tax bases; Basic elements of the Tanzanian fiscal system, royalties, taxation systems, and selected international jurisdictions.
(b) Estimation of mineral reserves, revenue, and capital/operating costs, putting it all together: evaluation of mine development proposals, concentrate and Net Smelter Return (NSR), transportation costs, optimization of mine development and operating specifications
(c) Financial modelling and discount cashflow (DCF) analysis; general outlines, cashflows, estimating cashflows, cost of capital and discount rate, discounted cashflow analysis (DCF), Net Present value, Discounted payback period, capital efficiency factor (KE), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), timing of cashflows, Annuity and perpetuity
(d) Application of DCF analysis; general considerations, financial measures of value, DCF assuming 100% equity, cashflow including dividend, capitalisation of interest during preproduction, or lead time, modeling the financial decision, comparison of mutually exclusive projects, comparison of projects of unequal life, equivalent annual value (EAV), economic life of an asset, sunk costs and incremental values, effects of delays on pre-production capital investment, buying or leasing
(e) Evaluation of joint ventures (JVs); definitions, financial elements of JV deals, structure and management of JVs, Expectations and attitudes on JV negations, ingredients for success and hidden costs, financial analysis of JVs, Financial models of JVs, Sensitivity analysis of various JV deals under the effect of changes in the price of metals, Sensitivity analysis of various JV deals under the effects of delays and costs Escalation
(f) Towards risk management; expected value and risk-neutral decisions, determining risk exposure in mineral exploration, optimal share of risky investment: Spreading risk through joint ventures (JVs), utility theory: Risk preferences and risk profiles, the utility exponential function and certainty equivalents, expected preference value (EPV) and risk-averse decision determining the risk tolerance (RT) coefficient, the value of risk (VaR).
(g) Financial and commodity deliveries; general, forwards/future prices and hedging, call and put options, option payoff diagrams and simple option strategies, options valuations using closed-form equations, e.g. Black and Scholes (B-S) formula, volatility measurement. Stochastic process for forward prices forecasts: review of log-normal distribution of commodity prices, Geometric Brownian Motion (GBM), Reverting and non-reverting prices models,
Real Options Valuations (ROV)-General
concepts and
fundamental principles,
weakness and biases in DCF/NPV, comparison of discounted rates in DCF analysis and ROV, the value of flexibility, ie keeping
the options open, static “now on never” versus dynamic ‘now or later
‘investment decisions’ project as
a tree of successive decisions within benefit of hindsight to:
commence/delay, stage/expand/reduce and suspend/resume and continue/abandon production. Evaluation
of simple real options
using the B-S formula
(i) Application of the no-arbitrage and replicating portfolio concepts to a mining project; Simple Modern Asset Pricing (MAP) model of a mine; evaluation of real options using the binomial lattice method with: State prices; Evaluation of real options using the binomial lattice method with Risk-free probabilities, methods to calculate the volatility (σ) of net operating cash flows, valuing the option to expand mine production optimizing pre-production stripping , valuing tonnage-grade trade-off options. Assessing the option value of a multi-phase venture agreement.
Teaching and learning activities
Lectures, tutorials, assignments, independent studies and case studies
Assessment Methods
The course assessment will be distributed as follows:
Continuous Assessment (Tests, quizzes and/or homework): 40%
University Examination: 60%
Reading list
1. Stermole, J. M. and Stermole F. J. (2011). Economic and Investment DecisionMethods. Investment Evaluation Corporation, Colorado, USA
- Benninga, S. (2014). Financial Modelling. 4th edition, Cambridge MA, The MIT Press
- Crundwell, F. K. (2008). Finance for Engineers, Springer
- Maxwell, P and Guj, P (eds), (2013). Mineral Economics, 2nd edition, Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
- Robert T. Clement and Terence Reilly (2014), Making Hard Decisions. Third Edition, South-Western, Cengage
Course aim
The main objective of this course is to give to the students the basic concepts of cost analysis and management at departmental, divisional and corporate level along with the framework for thinking about cost management and contracts cost management with financial reporting and cost accounting. Cost behaviour, budgeting and budget construction and strategic cost management will be presented. Concepts and application of capital and operating costs estimates methods, mine accounting and the life–of-mine plan and operating budget will be presented with real life case studies.
Expected learning outcomes
At the end of the course, student should be able to:
- Describe and the integrated cost management and accounting of mining system;
- Apply this knowledge in real mining environment effectively.
Course status: Core
Credit rating: 12 Credits
Total hours spent: 120 hours
Course Content
(a) Introduction to cost analysis, framework for thinking about cost management and contracts cost management with financial reporting, cost accounting and factors affecting cost management.
(b) The economics of mining, marginal value and the economic decision, cost analysis and decision making, production level and costs, short-run cost curves, optimal level of production and life-of-mine modeling.
(c) Cost effective mining schemes, basic types of mine costs and cost behaviors, cost drivers and cost predictions.
(d) Mine budget planning and control process, mechanics budgeting process, flexibility in budget, variance in budget (material, labor and overhead)
(e) Mining project capital costs estimation: purpose, procedures and methods, fixed capital and working capital, types of cost estimates, factored estimates, and activity-based costing.
(f) Operating cost estimations, operating schedule, source of information, supply costs and operating cost data
(g) Fundamentals of costing and cost controls: allocating costs of support departments, standard costing (functional based control approach) and cost decentralization.
Strategic cost management: value chain
analysis, strategic position analysis,
activity resource usage model and tactical decision making
(i) Managing cost reduction programme in mining: methods of cost reductions, managerial considerations, centralized vs task force approach and work force mobilization approach
Teaching and learning activities
Lectures, tutorials, assignments, independent studies and case studies
Course Assessment
The course assessment will be as follows:
Continuous Assessment (Test, quizzes and/or homework): 40%
University Examination: 60%
Reading list
1. Hansen, D.R. & Mowen, M. M. (2013). Cost Management Account and Control, 6th edition, Thomson-South West.
- Cavender, B. (1999), Mineral Production Costs: Analysis and Management, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Inc., Littleton, Colorado.
- Runge, C.I. (1998). Mining Economics and Strategy, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Inc., Littleton, Colorado, USA
- Noakes, M and Lanz, T. (1993). Cost Estimation Handbook for the Australian Mining Industry, Monograph No: 20 Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
- Flanagan, R. (ed.) (2012) Cost Estimation Handbook 2nd Edition, Monograph No: 27 Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
The main focus of this course is to provide to the students in-depth knowledge and skills of ore deposit discovery and extraction by either open pit or underground mining based on the geology, rock conditions, environmental consideration and economics. Also the course will provide fundamental criteria used for selection of the mining methods and equipment to be applied for extraction of the mineral economically. The course objective is to provide an enhanced understanding of mineral processing techniques.
Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:
- Describe various sampling techniques used in a mineral processing operation
- Explain commonly used techniques for mineral beneficiation;
- Describe the operating principles of the major pieces of equipment used in mineral processing operations;
- Demonstrate how to size and select equipment used in mineral processing operations;
- Analyze criteria for selection of process techniques (technical and economic evaluations).
Course status: Elective
Credit rating: 12 Credits
Total hours spent: 120 hours
(a) Introduction: An overview of common unit operations existing in mineral processing plants.
(b) Comminution: Principles and theory of comminution, major pieces of equipment used for comminution (crushers and grinding mills), advances in comminution (High Pressure Grinding Rolls-HPGR, stirred media mills and microwave technology).
(c) Sampling: Theory of ore sampling, sampler design, planning and executing of process plant circuit survey. Economic implications of proper sampling on plant design and operations.
(d) Classification and Screening: Principles of classification, mass balance of hydrocyclones, major operating parameters for hydrocyclones, industrial screening.
(e) Principles of mineral recovery techniques: Gravity concentration, leaching, froth flotation, dense media separation, magnetic and electrostatic separation, ore sorting, coagulation, flocculation, agglomeration and, dewatering of concentrates and tailings disposal.
(f) Sizing and Selection of Equipments: Fundamentals of sizing and selecting major pieces of equipment in mineral processing operations.
Teaching and learning activities
Lectures, tutorials, assignments, independent studies and case studies
Assessment methods
The course assessment will be distributed as follows:
Continuous assessment (Assignments, quizzes and tests): 40%
University Examination: 60%
Reading list
- Kawatra, S. K. (2006). Advances in Comminution. Society for Mining Metallurgy.
- Marsden, J., & House, I. (1992). The chemistry of Gold Extraction. New York: Ellis Horwood.
- Mular, A. L., Halbe, D. N., & Barratt, D. J. (2002). Mineral Processing Plant Design, Practice, and Control .Society for Mining Metallurgy.
- Wang, Y., & Forssberg, E. (2007). Enhancement of Energy Efficiency for Mechanical Production of Fine and Ultra-fine Particles in Comminution. China Particuology, 5(3), 193-201.
- Wills, B. A. (2006). Mineral Processing Technology: an introduction to the practical aspects of ore treatment and mineral recovery. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Course aim
The main objective of this course is to impart the participants the skills necessary to construct a realistic Discounted Cash flow (DCF) model of a mining project and to evaluate it initially under assumed certainty and then analysing and taking the related project and financial risks into consideration in shaping investment decisions under uncertainty.
Expected learning outcomes
1. Describe financial management associated with the mining industry and explain the forces behind cash flow in each of these markets;
2. Analyse and assess mining investments, financial and risk management regarding major capital investments, new mining ventures projects on existing mines using various methodologies and criteria;
3. Describe the role of equity and debt in funding projects to generate financial leverage and how to handle borrowing in a DCF analysis;
- Describe and develop decision analysis and forecast sensitivity and scenario analysis;
5. Interpret and assess economic market situations.
Course status: Elective
Credit rating: 12 credits
Total hours spent: 120 hours
Course Content
(a) Introduction, corporate financial objectives and valuation methodologies, financial accounting concepts, accrual financial accounting versus cash accounting and the main financial accounting statements, capital rationing and budgeting, growth and integrated objectives,
(b) Assessing the effect of a number of transactions common in mining on statement of financial position and on the cash balance, acquisition accounting in mining takeover and fair value allocation and capital gain tax
(c) Investment decisions in exploration, new mining ventures and projects on existing mines, the role of joint venture, formulation of joint venture agreement
(d) Financial decision, risk-return trade-offs and the cost of equity, the investment portfolio effect, attitude to risk, profiles, venture capital and initial IPOs, criteria needed for an IPO, criteria for inclusion in a stock market index and the role of fiscal incentives.
(e) Cost of depth and financial structure and leverage: Funding options at various stages of mining project, secured, borrowing and cost of debt finance, depth facilities, depth policy, weighted average costs of capital and the financial leverage, hurdle rates; mine amalgamations, share valuations, effects of gearing on the ability to repay loans, the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), relationship to capital structure, calculating beta and the risk premium
(f) Marketing arrangements, and uncertainty; inflation, establishing price and price escalations, hedging of commodities and changes in exchange rates;
(g) Construction of simple discounted cashflow (DCF) models in nominal and real dollar terms, applying the main DCF investment criteria: NPV, IRR, PVR etc.
Financial modelling of mines: Evaluation models, whole-of life cashflow
modelling of a
mining project, profit plan or break-even model, estimating revenue and general capital recurrent operating
cost considerations, assessing the value of the project under naïve
investment and recovery assumptions, modelling
the pre-production period under more realistic capital
investment and taxation assumptions
(i) Principles of risk analysis, risk and uncertainty, sensitivity analysis, spider and Tornado Diagrams Scenario analysis, risk neutral decisions based on Expected Value (EV), The risk of Gambler’s ruin, Risk preferences and Certainty Equivalent (CE) value (to include workshop session on the use of @risk software)
(j) The use of decision trees in financial and risk analysis: Structure of decision trees, Maximising EV, Maximising CE, potential application in mining. Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS): probability distribution of inputs versus single-point expected value inputs, discrete and continuous distributions, estimating probabilities, structuring and running a Monte Carlo Simulation.
Teaching and learning activities
Lectures, tutorials, assignments, independent studies and case studies
Assessment Methods
The course assessment will be distributed as follows:
Continuous Assessment (Tests, quizzes and homework): 40%
University Examination: 60%
Reading List
1. Maxwell, P and Guj, P (eds), (2013). Mineral Economics, 2nd Edition, Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
2. Rudenno, V. (2012). The Mining Valuation Handbook: Mining and Energy Valuation for Investors and Management, 4th Edition, John Wiley and Sons, Australia.
3. Lonergan, W. (2006). The Valuation of Mining Assets, Sydney University Press, Sydney
4. Robert T. Clement and Terence Reilly (2014). Making Hard Decisions, 3rd Edition, South-Western, Cengage.
5. Torries, T. F. (1998). Evaluating Mineral Projects: Applications and Misconceptions SME, Littleton, Colorado.
Course aim
This course provides the students with a comprehensive and practical understanding of the socio-environment impacts both positive and negative that mining has on society. The main issues in this course will include: voluntary codes, EIA, EMS, Environmental auditing, Environmental risk management and best practice environmental management, exploration, noise, water, dust, lighting, tailings and air. Social community engagement, mine waste, Acid Rock Drainage (ARD) and tailings management.
Expected learning outcomes
Upon completion of this module, student should be able to:
- Identify key environmental and social components in which the mine is operating and key environmental and social issues related to the mining industry;
- Contribute to perform baseline study and EIA;
- Describe the importance and extent of public involvements in the process of EIA and analyse various community programmes for community development;
- Identify and analyse various methods of ARD management and tailings disposal.
Course status: Elective
Credit rating: 12 Credits
Total hours spent: 120 hours
Course Contents
(a) Mining and the environment: key environmental issues in mining, effectiveness of Environmental Management in the mining industry, the critical factors and corporate culture
(b) The environmental components: the atmosphere-air, weather and the climates, the lithosphere- geology, landform and earth resources; the hydrosphere-storage and movement of water; the biosphere-life on earth.
(c) The social-sphere, social and cultural fabrics of society, the economic sphere-production, distribution and consumptions of goods and services, state and nature of environment
(d) Environmental impact assessment in mining cycle, managing the environmental impact assessment process, environmental impact assessment step by step
(e) Public involvement: planning stakeholders involvements, identifying and engaging stakeholders, conflicts identification and management, understanding the benefits and risks of public involvements
(f) Environmental baseline identification, environmental scoping, conducting baseline surveys, remote sensing and GIS.
(g) Identifying and evaluating environmental impacts: defining challenges, directions and methodologies, linking cause and effects, cultural heritage sites and mine development, special nature of community impacts
Environmental
concerns-landform, mine wastes, mine influents, acid mine drainage, water
balance, air quality and climatic changes, biodiversity and habitants, social
and economic changes.
(i) Community development: community development process, preparing for mine closure, community programme, local benefits and common problems
(j) Acid mine drainage and tailings disposal: nature and significant of acid mine drainage, evaluating the occurrence and risk of ARD, tailing disposal scheme, surface tailing disposal, approaches to waste rock disposal.
Teaching and learning activities
Lectures, tutorials, assignments and independent studies and case studies
Assessment Methods
The course assessment will be distributed as follows:
Continuous Assessment (tests and assignments): 40%
University Examination: 60%
Reading list
1. Karlheinz Spitz, (2009). Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal”, Taylor & Francis.
2. Peter Darling, Editor, (2011). SME Mining Engineering Handbook, 3rd edition, (Chapter, 16 & 17)
3. Rankin, W. J. (2011). Minerals, Metals and Sustainability-meeting future material needs. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.
4. Dick, V., Marshal K, and Ta M. L., (1992). Risk Assessment / Management Issues in the Environmental Planning of Mines, Society of Mining Engineers, Inc. (SME), Volume I.
5. Jerrold, J.M., (1997) Mining Environmental Handbook: Effects of Mining on the Environment and American Environmental Controls on Mining
Course aim
The objective of the course is to provide the students with a deep understanding of the science of work place health and safety management. Particular interest will be paid to the health and safety management in mining industry by drawing experience from other industries. Students will be exposed to the higher levels of different methods of job hazard assessment, mapping of activities, risk identification in work place and modeling of risks at workplace.
Expected learning outcomes
On successful completion of this module, you should be able to:
1. Recognise, understand and be able to interpret key items of health and safety legislation;
2. Explain the reasons for preventing accidents, dangerous occurrences & ill-health and the causes thereof;
3. Facilitate risk assessments and accident investigations, and be able to draft such a health and safety document and/or safety case for operation.
4. Design and implement effective health and safety systems to minimise exposure to risk.
Course Status: Elective
Credit rating: 12 Credits
Total hours spent: 120 hours
Course Content
(a) Safety management: hazard identification, hazard and risk analyses, management techniques, safety audits and statistics.
(b) Risk assessment and management: concept of risk assessment, subjective and quantitative risk assessment tools and techniques (HAZOP, FMECA, WRAC, FTA and JSA).
(c) Accident aetiology: theories of accident causation, the role of human error in accidents, concept of active and latent failures, strategies for reducing human error.
(d) Accident and incident investigations techniques: ICAM and Root cause analysis.
(e) Cost benefit analysis, attitude to safety in mining, effective training, accident and injury report/recovery.
(f) Ergonomics and safety engineering, prevention of traumatic injury, work stress, environmental factors, monitoring and protection, safety policies and programs, action plans and personal protective equipment.
(g) Generic approaches to loss control within mining operations and identification of management strategies to deal with such losses.
Full
catastrophic management (emergency preparedness and response) planning drawing
on experience and techniques applied in mining industry.
(i) Case studies in the mining industry risk management (i.e. rock fall risk, tailings dump failure, underground fire, slope instability, cost of accidents etc.)
(j) Health and safety management systems and regulatory requirements on the mining industry risk management plans
(k) Occupational diseases and health impacts associated with mining activities and environment.
Teaching and Learning Activities
Lectures, Tutorials, Assignments and Independent Studies
Assessment Methods
The course assessment will be distributed as follows:
Continuous Assessment (Tests, quizzes and/or homework): 40%
University Examination: 60%
Reading List
1. Dhillon, B.S., (2010), Mine Safety, A Modern Approach, Springer-Verlag London Limited
2. Ridley, J. and Channing, J. (1999), Safety at Work, Butterworth Heinemann
3. Lack, R. W. (1997), Essentials of Safety and Health Management.
4. Kumamoto, H (2007), Satisfying Safety Goals by Probabilistic Risk Assessment. Springer,
5. Michael Karmis (2001), Mine Safety and Health Management. SME. Colorado, USA.
6. Wahab K.A., (1992), New Technology in Mine Health and Safety, Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration Inc.
Course aim
The objectives of this course is to equip the students with an in-depth knowledge and skills in the development, production and other processes involved in underground mining systems. The course will provide to the students the technical knowledge and skills that are required to develop different underground mine systems and the challenges that are involved in the design and selection of different underground mining systems to enhance productivity and reduce costs.
Expected leaning outcomes
Demonstrate the ability to:
1. Apply or perform an depth analysis of advanced Mining processes and systems and their technology;
2. Assess infrastructure requirements for mining systems;
3. Design various underground mining methods with a consideration of safety, working environment and sustainability approach;
4. Apply CAD systems in mine design.
Course Status: Core
Credit rating: 12 Credits
Total hours spent: 120 hours
Course content
(a) Review and evaluation of new development in underground mining systems to achieve higher productivity, enhance safety and reduce costs.
(b) Design considerations: current state-of-the-art methods (in design), development, and production in underground hard rock mining using bulk-mining and vein mining methods.
(c) Design and layout of: sublevel caving, block caving, open stoping and blasthole stoping, VCR, cut and fill, shrinkage stoping systems etc. Equipment selection, production scheduling, ventilation design and mining costs.
(d) Drill and blast design, cost and productivity estimates, stope services design and materials handling, design and location of mine infrastructures.
(e) New techniques for mine development and production systems, new haulage and conveyance systems, mine automation and monitoring future trends in automated high productivity mining schemes.
(f) Mine backfill systems, backfill types, properties and placement, fill operations and management, monitoring and quality control of back fill systems and current research in mine fill system
(g) Applications of CAD systems in mine design with emphasis on design principles and discussion of case studies to illustrate applications of the principles.
Teaching and learning activities
Lectures, tutorials, assignments, independent studies and case studies
Assessment methods
The course assessment will be distributed as follows:
Continuous Assessment (test, quizzes and/or homework): 40%
University Examination: 60%
Reading list
1. Peter Darling (2011), “SME Mining Engineering Handbook”, 3rd edition
2. Hartman, H. L (2002), Introductory Mining Engineering, 2nd edition. Wiley, New York.
3. Hustrulid, W.A, and Bullock, R (2001), Underground Mining Methods: Engineering Fundamentals and International Case Studies, Society for Mining Metallurgy and Exploration: Littleton
4. Howard L. Hartman (1992), SME Mining Engineering Handbook, 2nd edition,
5. Gertsch, R. E. and Bullock, R (1998), Techniques in Underground Mining, SME, Colorado USA
Course aim
This course provides students with deep understanding on principles and fundamental concepts in planning and design of surface mining systems. The course dwells with the application of Datamine, Whittle, Surpac and Vulcan in designing various systems.
Expected learning outcomes
On completion of this course, students should be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of principles and methodologies of open pit mine planning, design and optimization
2. Use the tools and commercial software used in mine planning and design.
3. Build geological and economical models
4. Schedule mine sequence and determine mine life
Course Status: Core
Credit rating: 12 Credits
Total hours spent: 120 hours
Course content
(a) Introduction to strategic open pit planning and design concepts and terminologies
(b) Orebody modelling – resource and reserve definitions and estimations by assay compositing, block modelling and geostatistical estimation techniques.
(c) Economic analysis - mine revenues and costs, cut-off grade optimization and lane’s theory, stripping ratio analysis, cash flow analysis and net present value calculation and optimization.
(d) Input data for initial mine design
(e) Open pit limit design and Optimization using manual method, floating cone, 2D & 3D Lerchs and Grossmann algorithm.
(f) Design process in open pit mining, cut-off grade analysis and Lane’s Theory, bench slope design, haul road and pushback design
(g) Geometrical mine layout design using various computer programs: Computer aided haul road generation and dump design, infrastructure locations
Heuristic
long and short-term scheduling techniques, mathematical optimisation for
sequencing and scheduling
(i) Equipment selection, acquisition and production systems: drill and blast and load and haul
(j) Mine life estimation and capacities.
Teaching and learning activities
Lectures, tutorials, assignments, independent studies and case studies
Assessment methods
The course assessment will be distributed as follows:
Continuous Assessment (quizzes, tests and mini projects): 40%
University Examination: 60%
Reading list
1. William Hustrulid, Mark Kuchta, and Randall K. Martin (2013), “Open Pit Mine Planning and Design”, 2nd Edition,
2. Peter Darling, Editor (2011), SME Mining Engineering Handbook, 3rd edition,
3. Howard L. Hartman (1992), SME Mining Engineering Handbook, 2nd edition
4. Bruce A. Kennedy (1990), Surface Mining, 2nd edition,
5. Dimitrakopoulos, R (2007), Orebody Modelling and Strategic Mine Planning Uncertainty and Risk Management Models, AUSIMM