  Strategic decisions to develop a mineral deposit are subject to geological
uncertainty, due to the sparsity of drill core samples. The selection of
metallurgical equipment is especially critical, since it restricts the
processing options that are available to different ore blocks, even as the
nature of the deposit is still highly uncertain. Current approaches for
long-term mine planning are successful at addressing geological uncertainty,
but do not adequately represent alternate modes of operation for the mineral
processing plant, nor do they provide sufficient guidance for developing
processing options. Nonetheless, recent developments in stochastic optimization
and computer data structures have resulted in a framework that can integrate
operational modes into strategic mine planning algorithms. A logical next step
is to incorporate geometallurgical models that relate mineralogical features to
plant performance, as described in this paper.
