Dilution

• Dilution

In MSO, Dilution refers to material below cut-off grade that gets blended with ore, thus reducing the grade of excavated material. Dilution in general is impossible to avoid in stoping due to geometries of the orebodies and it is therefore divided into planned and unplanned dilution. The annealed stope shape includes planned dilution which is the waste material necessary to extract the ore. Unplanned dilution is material that originates outside the stope boundaries.

You can also evaluate if dilution will make the stope shape uneconomic, and only consider shapes that are economic with dilution. The default mode is to optimize the undiluted shape and then add dilution, but with this control a smaller undiluted shape will be produced and the dilution will include more above cutoff material.

Dilution settings aim to simulate and control overbreak and waste inclusion in stope designs. Proper dilution modelling is essential to generate realistic and mineable shapes that reflect operational realities.

For example, in a Slice framework, to factor in unplanned dilution that originates from outside the stope boundaries from the HW/FW or Near/Far a dilution ELOS/Skin can be specified. See Define Equivalent Linear Overbreak Slough (ELOS).

Dilution functions are available for both slice and prism frameworks.