Pit Optimization using Whittle Four-X

Introduction
Whittle pit optimization software is widely recognized as an industry standard. Mincom is an
authorized agent for Whittle software. Whittle is available in several different versions. The 3-D and
4-D versions are still used, but have been replaced by the Four-X version. A trimmed-down, less
expensive version of Four-X is available which is called Four-S. Whittle is available for PC’s and
several Unix platforms. Whittle relies on generalized mining packages (eg. Minescape) as a source for
block model data. So the general procedure in using Whittle is to first create a block model in the
generalized mining package and export the data to Whittle. After optimization in Whittle is complete,
pit shell information generated by the analysis is then imported back into the original source block
model for further mine planning.

SGI Unix Setup

You should have java installed on your machine (/usr/java). This allows the use of the fxmenu
program which is semi-gui. It also enables direct launching of Whittle from the Minescape menu. The
alternative is to manually type in the names of the Whittle programs that you need to run. In order to
run the fxmenu program, you need to set the environment variable JAVA_HOME to /usr/java. In order
to run any of the Whittle programs, you must have a copy of a valid fx.ini file in your working
directory. This file is used for license verification. The Whittle executable files can be located
anywhere. You should modify your PATH environment variable accordingly.

When Whittle is launched from the Minescape menu, the project ./data directory is used as the Whittle
working directory. If a fx.ini file is not found in the project ./data directory, the system will copy the
file from $WHITTLE_HOME if possible.

Prerequisites
You must have a block model of the deposit. Be sure to include a pit shell attribute (column) in the
block model. The model can be subcelled and/or sparse. The IJK order of the block model does not
matter for the Whittle export/import. It is usually best to export the total units of saleable product for
each block model cell. In the case of coal, this would likely be tons/cell. In the case of gold, this
would likely be ounces/cell. This allows greater flexibility for the optimization analysis than would
say exporting the dollar equivalent for each cell. You should always be aware of air cells and how they
are handled in Whittle and Minescape. Generally, it is best to use topography as a top clip surface
when exporting. This means that the model will be sparse in Whittle. This requires a value of 3 for the
Whittle Active Block indicator. If density is MISSING for any cells in your block model, they will be
assigned default density values for waste. If you are using a Whittle Active Block Indicator of 1, then
any blocks that are not exported to Whittle (i.e. if you have a sparse model) will be assigned the default
block tonnage specified in the Whittle parameters file.

The Whittle parameters file contains all of the information that the programs need to run the
optimization. Parameters files have a .par suffix. You need to have a “seed” parameters file in your
project ./data directory. Parameters values which do not change commonly are placed in the seed file.
This seed parameters file is merged with information about your block model to create a new
parameters file for the export.