User:Ctc426/sandbox/Ultimate pit

In surface mining, the ultimate pit, final pit or pit limit is the economic mine shell or boundary of an open-pit mine. The creation of this design comes from a process known as pit optimization where the blocks in the block model are determined to be either ore, waste or not economical to mine. The result, an ultimate pit, is a shell that is considered the most economic to mine given the parameters used during pit optimization. Typically, the ultimate pit is mined in phases or "pushbacks" to increase the mine's NPV by accessing ore earlier in the mine life. Therefore, the ultimate pit is used as guide when creating mid to long-range mine plans.

Creating the ultimate pit is one the first steps in developing a mine design and can change throughout the mine's life.