In oil sands mining, tailings are voluminous unwanted by-products generated from extracting the desired mineral from the mined ore. Dyke construction and backfilling activities require well-managed techniques to facilitate progressive reclamation at the earliest opportunity. This directly affects the sustainability and profitability of the mining operation. This research introduces a goal programming framework that simultaneously optimizes the (1) production schedule with limited duration stockpiling and directional mining; (2) dyke construction schedule; (3) size, shape, and location of tailings-cells; and (4) mining and processing production targets. The results show that in creating in-pit tailings-cells designs, decreasing the mining-cells volume and increasing the number of mining-cells improve the net present value of the operation due to increased operational flexibility. The model generated a uniform schedule for ore and practical tailings-cells designs for backfilling activities. Integrating tailings-cells optimization into oil sands mine planning and waste management ensures the efficient use of in-pit mined-out areas required for sustainable operations.

在油砂开采中，尾矿是从开采的矿石中提取所需矿物而产生的大量有害副产品。堤坝的建造和回填活动需要管理良好的技术，以尽早促进逐步的填海。这直接影响采矿业务的可持续性和盈利能力。这项研究引入了一个目标编程框架，该框架可以同时优化（1）具有有限持续时间的库存和定向开采的生产进度；（二）堤防建设进度；（3）尾矿池的大小，形状和位置；（4）采矿和加工生产目标。结果表明，在创建矿井尾矿池设计时，由于增加的操作灵活性，减少采矿单元的体积和增加采矿单元的数量可提高操作的净现值。该模型生成了用于回填活动的矿石和实际尾矿池设计的统一时间表。将尾矿池优化集成到油砂矿山规划和废物管理中，可确保有效利用可持续运营所需的矿井内采空区。