The need to determine the width of working benches arises constantly in short‑term and long‑term planning, as well as in the process of open‑pit operation. …

Analysis of the Kovdorsky open pit operation over the last 5 years has shown that the volume of the blasted block varied widely (from 30 to 130 thousand m³), with its average value for rock decreasing by 22.4 thousand m³ (from 55.6 to 33.2 thousand m³) and for ore by 28 thousand m³ (from 51.5 to 23.5 thousand m³). Carry over reserves of blasted rock mass also fluctuated significantly; its maximum reserve in 1967 1968 reached 780 800 thousand m³, and in 1969 amounted to 840 thousand m³, while the minimum reserve in 1965 was 270 thousand m³, and in 1967 and 1968 it was 520 and 500 thousand m³, respectively.

When designing a quarry with a given annual productivity of a mineral, the question arises of determining the amount of waste rock removed annually. Since the volume of waste rock is generally much greater than the amount of mined minerals, proper planning of stripping operations by year of development is extremely important. The solution of this issue affects the scale of the mining enterprise and the size of its industrial base, which in turn determines the efficiency of capital investment in the national economy ...