A compliance driver tree (CDT) based approach for improving the alignment of spatial and intertemporal execution with mine planning at open-pit mines

The sustainable economic success of open-pit mines depends firstly, on the degree of integrity of the mine planning process and secondly, on the extent to which both spatial and intertemporal requirements of approved mine plans are executed. Accordingly, an open-pit mine meeting short-term production targets may fail to achieve planned spatial targets at the detriment of delivering on its long-term mine plan requirements. Therefore, this paper presents a new approach or framework, embedding compliance driver trees (CDTs) to improve the alignment of spatial and intertemporal execution of mine plan requirements, to the mine planning process. A case study application of the CDT-based approach to an open-pit iron ore mine in South Africa showed that when using a spatial mine-to-plan (M2P) index to measure compliance, the spatial mine-to-plan compliance improved from 74% in 2013 to 92% in 2018. The spatial M2P index plateaued at above 90% in the three years 2016–2018, indicating the implementation maturity of the CDT-based approach. The approach enables improved measurement and management of the spatial mine-to-plan compliance to ensure sustainability of the mining operation by maintaining planned levels of mining operational flexibility. The CDT-based approach can be adapted for practical use by the broader open-pit mining industry for economic sustainability of their operations.