The selection of an underground mining method using the Fuzzy TOPSIS method: a case study in the Kamar Mahdi II fluorine mine

Abstract

The selection of the mining method is one of the most crucial decisions in the stage of designing mines. This depends on some underlying parameters such as economic, technical and efficiency properties. The parameters may be collected and examined in a wide range of methods including core drilling and developmental planning of an active mine. The process of selecting the mining method can be described as multi-criterion decision-making due to the several factors involved in the evaluation process. Through the multi-criterion decision-making, the structure of problems is analyzed. However, multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) is often criticized because of its inability to handle uncertain and imprecise problems. Thus, the fuzzy decision-making is proposed as a powerful tool. Therefore in this paper, the fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (Fuzzy TOPSIS) is used to select the best mining method among square-set stoping, cut-and-fill stoping, shrinkage stoping and sublevel stoping at the Kamar Mahdi fluorine mine based on 14 criteria such as deposit thickness, deposit dip, grade distribution, joint spacing in deposit and hanging wall as well as the cost of mining. Other criteria with the same importance for the four alternatives are neglected. Finally, the alternatives are ranked and the shrinkage stoping is proposed as the optimal mining method for this mine.