Adaptive operational strategies for surface mining: challenging climate change impacts and seasonality risks

Abstract Climate-driven rainfall variability disrupts continuity of 24-mining operations, especially in high-rainfall regions. This research explores a three-stage decision pipeline consisting of Nominal Group Technique (NGT) idea-generation, literature-guided taxonomy filtering, and Borda prioritisation, to identify seasonality-sensitive operating strategies for surface mining operations to improve productivity and safety outcomes and promote continuity and sustainability. Explored at a large open-pit copper mine, experts consistently prioritised integrated planning functions and diversifying operational strategies (e.g., opportunistic equipment maintenance during wet periods). This approach converts heterogeneous expert judgement into an implementable shortlist whilst revealing where planning-execution integration between mining teams yields the greatest perceived benefit. Although based on a single site and mining-domain SMEs, the results offer some practical guidance for mines in high-rainfall regions and motivate follow-on interdisciplinary validation.