A small gold mining company wanted to develop a new open pit adjacent to their existing operations. They wanted a mine plan that would make use of waste material to raise a tailings dam. MEC developed a detailed and staggered mine plan that meet the client’s brief of supplying waste for the tailings dam lift, while economically extracting gold. In addition to the client’s requirements, MEC’s plan made use of detailed 3D modelling of the excavation. This outlined key operational requirements, making the plan achievable and giving the operations department a good understanding of the overall strategy.