Amirkabir Journal of Civil Engineering

Amirkabir Journal of Civil Engineering

Simultaneous Determination of the Location and Time of IPCC System Installation and Relocation in Open Pit Mines Considering the Time Value of Money

Document Type : Research Article

Authors
Fardin Shirmohammadi
Sajjad Afraei
Majid Ataee Pour
Department of Mining Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
10.22060/ceej.2026.24259.8282
Abstract
As the depth of the mines increases, the loading rate of each truck per unit of time decreases, so that the number of trucks may increase in order to compensate for a drop in production. In contrast, the continuous transportation system, is capable of carrying more volumes of minerals and wastes due to its higher carrying capacity and functionality on steep slopes. For this reason, this topic has attracted the attention of researchers. This research examines the optimal level of the in-pit crusher station, so that its using time and location are optimized based on the time value of money. To this end, a modified target function is used to consider the capital and operational costs of both truck and conveyor transport systems according to the time value of the money and apply the impact of capital costs on the initial locations and subsequent locations of the crusher station. The results show that the use of the year when the method of changing the method from the Shovel-truck system to the IPCC system leads to the lowest net present value of the costs, and the use of location information that year to determine the optimal level has achieved the best results. According to the findings in the hypothetical mine, the fifth year in the fifth year was the most optimized place and time for the use of the IPCC system, and the cost of using the system was 5.16% in the first year of the mine.
Keywords
Open Pit Mines
Shovel-Truck System
In-Pit Crushing and Conveying System
Crusher Location
Subjects
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Amirkabir Journal of Civil Engineering
Volume 57, Issue 10
January 2026
Pages 1769-1788