Abstract:
Mining engineers frequently encounter complex design problems for
which the critical components of the design are difficult to quantify
or compare. Teams of people typically work on these designs and
human perceptions and judgments play a strong role. To assist with
this process, the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) as a
decisionmaking tool is described in this paper. Although the
technique is used in many other disciplines, it is currently not
widely used in mining engineering in South Africa. To use the AHP
process, the problem should be treated as a hierarchy that defines
the goal, the alternatives to reach it, and the criteria for evaluation
of these alternatives. Pairwise comparisons are conducted on the
criteria of the hierarchy to establish priorities. The value of the
technique is that it is simple to test for consistency amongst the
pairwise comparisons to ensure that the answer obtained is better
than that provided by a random selection. To illustrate the
technique, the use of a backfill support system in a platinum mining
project was investigated. Ten design parameters, which will be
impacted by the use of backfill, were identified and weighted
according to their relative importance. The result of the AHP
evaluation was that the use of a backfill support system should be
preferred to a conventional support system at the mine.
