Mineral processing plant location using the analytic hierarchy process—a case study: the Sangan iron ore mine (phase 1)

Locating the mineral processing plant near a mine is the most important parameter that affects the whole process. Many factors, and their preferences, should be considered in this stage. The factors include economical, geological, technical, environmental and tectonic parameters. A multi-criteria decision making method is necessary to rank the alternatives. In this paper we describe how plant location is selected by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This method, with eight criteria, was used to select a location for the mineral processing plant at the Sangan iron ore mine (phase 1). Three alternatives for the processing plant were evaluated. The main criteria were distance from the mine, access to heavy machinery transport, the amount of excavation required for grading, bed mixture capacity, belt conveyor length, distance from the tailing dam, distance from the waste dumps and surface water diversion requirements. Finally, the alternatives were ranked and the best location was proposed.