Function development for appraising brittleness of intact rocks using genetic programming and non-linear multiple regression models
- Authors: Khandelwal, Manoj , Faradonbeh, Roohollah , Monjezi, Masoud , Armaghani, Danial , Bin Abd Majid, Muhd , Yagiz, Saffet
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Engineering with Computers Vol. 33, no. 1 (2017), p. 13-21
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Brittleness of rock is one of the most critical features for design of underground excavation project. Therefore, proper assessing of rock brittleness can be very useful for designers and evaluators of geotechnical applications. In this study, feasibility of genetic programming (GP) model and non-linear multiple regression (NLMR) in predicting brittleness of intact rocks is examined. For this purpose, a dataset developed by conducting various rock tests including uniaxial compressive strength, Brazilian tensile strength, unit weight and brittleness via punch penetration on rock samples gathered from 48 tunnels projects around the world is utilized herein. Considering multiple inputs, several GP models were constructed to estimate brittleness index of the rock and finally, the best GP model was selected. Note that, GP can make an equation for predicting output of the system using model inputs. To show applicability of the developed GP model, non-linear multiple regression (NLMR) was also applied and developed. Considering some model performance indices, performance prediction of the GP and NLMR models were evaluated and it was found that the GP model is superior to NLMR one. Based on coefficient of determination (R (2)) of testing datasets, by proposing GP model, it can be improved from 0.882 (obtained by NLMR model) to 0.904. It is worth mentioning that the proposed predictive models in this study should be planned and used for the similar types of rock and the established inputs ranges.
Artificial neural network as a tool for backbreak prediction
- Authors: Monjezi, Masoud , Hashemi Rizi, S , Majd, Vahdi , Khandelwal, Manoj
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Geotechnical and Geological Engineering Vol. 32, no. 1 (2014), p. 21-30
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- Description: Backbreak is one of the destructive side effects of the blasting operation. Reducing of this event is very important for economic of a mining project. Involvement of various parameters has made the backbreak analyzing difficult. Currently there is no any specific method to predict or control the phenomenon considering all the effective parameters. In this paper, artificial neural network (ANN) as a powerful tool for solving such complicated problems is used to predict backbreak in blasting operation of the Sangan iron mine, Iran. Network training was fulfilled using a collected database of the practiced operation including blast design details and rock condition. Trying various types of the networks, a network with two hidden layers was found to be optimum. Performance of the ANN model was compared with statistical analysis using datasets which were kept apart from the original database. According to the obtained results, for the ANN model there existed a higher correlation (R2 = 0.868) and lesser error (RMSE = 0.495) between the predicted and measured backbreak as compared to the regression model. Also, sensitivity analysis revealed that the inputs rock factor and number of rows are the most and the least sensitive parameters on the output backbreak, respectively. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
A comparative study on the application of various artificial neural networks to simultaneous prediction of rock fragmentation and backbreak
- Authors: Sayadi, Ahmad , Monjezi, Masoud , Talebi, Nemat , Khandelwal, Manoj
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering Vol. 5, no. 4 (2013), p. 318-324
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- Description: In blasting operation, the aim is to achieve proper fragmentation and to avoid undesirable events such as backbreak. Therefore, predicting rock fragmentation and backbreak is very important to arrive at a technically and economically successful outcome. Since many parameters affect the blasting results in a complicated mechanism, employment of robust methods such as artificial neural network may be very useful. In this regard, this paper attends to simultaneous prediction of rock fragmentation and backbreak in the blasting operation of Tehran Cement Company limestone mines in Iran. Back propagation neural network (BPNN) and radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) are adopted for the simulation. Also, regression analysis is performed between independent and dependent variables. For the BPNN modeling, a network with architecture 6-10-2 is found to be optimum whereas for the RBFNN, architecture 6-36-2 with spread factor of 0.79 provides maximum prediction aptitude. Performance comparison of the developed models is fulfilled using value account for (VAF), root mean square error (RMSE), determination coefficient (R2) and maximum relative error (MRE). As such, it is observed that the BPNN model is the most preferable model providing maximum accuracy and minimum error. Also, sensitivity analysis shows that inputs burden and stemming are the most effective parameters on the outputs fragmentation and backbreak, respectively. On the other hand, for both of the outputs, specific charge is the least effective parameter. © 2013 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
An ANN-based approach to predict blast-induced ground vibration of Gol-E-Gohar iron ore mine, Iran
- Authors: Saadat, Mahdi , Khandelwal, Manoj , Monjezi, Masoud
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering Vol. 6, no. 1 (2014), p. 67-76
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Blast-induced ground vibration is one of the inevitable outcomes of blasting in mining projects and may cause substantial damage to rock mass as well as nearby structures and human beings. In this paper, an attempt has been made to present an application of artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the blast-induced ground vibration of the Gol-E-Gohar (GEG) iron mine, Iran. A four-layer feed-forward back propagation multi-layer perceptron (MLP) was used and trained with Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. To construct ANN models, the maximum charge per delay, distance from blasting face to monitoring point, stemming and hole depth were taken as inputs, whereas peak particle velocity (PPV) was considered as an output parameter. A database consisting of 69 data sets recorded at strategic and vulnerable locations of GEG iron mine was used to train and test the generalization capability of ANN models. Coefficient of determination (R2) and mean square error (MSE) were chosen as the indicators of the performance of the networks. A network with architecture 4-11-5-1 and R2 of 0.957 and MSE of 0.000722 was found to be optimum. To demonstrate the supremacy of ANN approach, the same 69 data sets were used for the prediction of PPV with four common empirical models as well as multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis. The results revealed that the proposed ANN approach performs better than empirical and MLR models. © 2013 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Evaluation of effect of blast design parameters on flyrock using artificial neural networks
- Authors: Monjezi, Masoud , Mehrdanesh, Amirhossein , Malek, Alaeddin , Khandelwal, Manoj
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Neural Computing and Applications Vol. 23, no. 2 (2013), p. 349-356
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- Description: Flyrock, the propelled rock fragments beyond a specific limit, can be considered as one of the most crucial and hazardous events in the open pit blasting operations. Involvement of various effective parameters has made the problem so complicated, and the available empirical methods are not proficient to predict the flyrock. To achieve more accurate results, employment of new approaches, such as artificial neural network (ANN) can be very helpful. In this paper, an attempt has been made to apply the ANN method to predict the flyrock in the blasting operations of Sungun copper mine, Iran. Number of ANN models was tried using various permutation and combinations, and it was observed that a model trained with back-propagation algorithm having 9-5-2-1 architecture is the best optimum. Flyrock were also computed from various available empirical models suggested by Lundborg. Statistical modeling has also been done to compare the prediction capability of ANN over other methods. Comparison of the results showed absolute superiority of the ANN modeling over the empirical as well as statistical models. Sensitivity analysis was also performed to identify the most influential inputs on the output results. It was observed that powder factor, hole diameter, stemming and charge per delay are the most effective parameters on the flyrock. © 2012 Springer-Verlag London Limited.
Application of soft computing in predicting rock fragmentation to reduce environmental blasting side effects
- Authors: Monjezi, Masoud , Mohamadi, Hasan , Barati, Bahare , Khandelwal, Manoj
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Arabian Journal of Geosciences Vol. 7, no. 2 (2014), p. 505-511
- Full Text: false
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- Description: In the blasting operation, risk of facing with undesirable environmental phenomena such as ground vibration, air blast, and flyrock is very high. Blasting pattern should properly be designed to achieve better fragmentation to guarantee the successfulness of the process. A good fragmentation means that the explosive energy has been applied in a right direction. However, many studies indicate that only 20-30 % of the available energy is actually utilized for rock fragmentation. Involvement of various effective parameters has made the problem complicated, advocating application of new approaches such as artificial intelligence-based techniques. In this paper, artificial neural network (ANN) method is used to predict rock fragmentation in the blasting operation of the Sungun copper mine, Iran. The predictive model is developed using eight and three input and output parameters, respectively. Trying various types of the networks, it was found that a trained model with back-propagation algorithm having architecture 8-15-8-3 is the optimum network. Also, performance comparison of the ANN modeling with that of the statistical method was confirmed robustness of the neural networks to predict rock fragmentation in the blasting operation. Finally, sensitivity analysis showed that the most influential parameters on fragmentation are powder factor, burden, and bench height. © 2012 Saudi Society for Geosciences.
Backbreak prediction in the Chadormalu iron mine using artificial neural network
- Authors: Monjezi, Masoud , Ahmadi, Zabiholla , Yazdian-Varjani, Ali , Khandelwal, Manoj
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Neural Computing and Applications Vol. 23, no. 3-4 (2013), p. 1101-1107
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Backbreak is one of the unfavorable blasting results, which can be defined as the unwanted rock breakage behind the last row of blast holes. Blast pattern parameters, like stemming, burden, delay timing, stiffness ratio (bench height/burden) and rock mass conditions (e.g., geo-mechanical properties and joints), are effective in backbreak intensity. Till date, with the exception of some qualitative guidelines, no specific method has been developed for predicting the phenomenon. In this paper, an effort has been made to apply artificial neural networks (ANNs) for predicting backbreak in the blasting operation of the Chadormalu iron mine (Iran). Number of ANN models with different hidden layers and neurons were tried, and it was found that a network with architecture 10-7-7-1 is the optimum model. A comparative study also approved the superiority of the ANN modeling over the conventional regression analysis. Mean square error (MSE), variance account for (VAF) and coefficient of determination (R 2) between measured and predicted backbreak for the ANN model were calculated and found 89.46 %, 0.714 and 90.02 %, respectively. Also, for the regression model, MSE, VAF and R 2 were computed and found 66.93 %, 1.46 and 68.10 %, respectively. Sensitivity analysis was also carried out to find out the influence of each input parameter on backbreak results, and it was revealed that burden is the most influencing parameter on the backbreak, whereas water content is the least effective parameter in this regard. © 2012 Springer-Verlag London Limited.
Evaluation and prediction of blast-induced ground vibration at Shur River Dam, Iran, by artificial neural network
- Authors: Monjezi, Masoud , Hasanipanah, Mahdi , Khandelwal, Manoj
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Neural Computing and Applications Vol. 22, no. 7-8 (2013), p. 1637-1643
- Full Text: false
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- Description: The purpose of this article is to evaluate and predict blast-induced ground vibration at Shur River Dam in Iran using different empirical vibration predictors and artificial neural network (ANN) model. Ground vibration is a seismic wave that spreads out from the blasthole when explosive charge is detonated in a confined manner. Ground vibrations were recorded and monitored in and around the Shur River Dam, Iran, at different vulnerable and strategic locations. A total of 20 blast vibration records were monitored, out of which 16 data sets were used for training of the ANN model as well as determining site constants of various vibration predictors. The rest of the 4 blast vibration data sets were used for the validation and comparison of the result of ANN and different empirical predictors. Performances of the different predictor models were assessed using standard statistical evaluation criteria. Finally, it was found that the ANN model is more accurate as compared to the various empirical models available. As such, a high conformity (R 2 = 0.927) was observed between the measured and predicted peak particle velocity by the developed ANN model. © 2012 Springer-Verlag London Limited.
Classification and regression tree technique in estimating peak particle velocity caused by blasting
- Authors: Khandelwal, Manoj , Armaghani, Danial , Faradonbeh, Roohollah , Yellishetty, Mohan , Abd Majid, Muhd , Monjezi, Masoud
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Engineering with Computers Vol. 33, no. 1 (2017), p. 45-53
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Blasting is a widely used technique for rock fragmentation in surface mines and tunneling projects. The ground vibrations produced by blasting operations are the main concern for the industries undertaking blasting operations, which can damage the surrounding structures, adjacent rock masses, roads and slopes in the vicinity. Therefore, proper prediction of blast-induced ground vibrations is essential to demarcate the safety area of blasting. In this research, classification and regression tree (CART) as a rule-based method was used to predict the peak particle velocity through a database comprising of 51 datasets with results of maximum charge per delay and distance from the blast face were fixed as model inputs. For comparison, the empirical and multiple regression (MR) models were also applied and proposed for peak particle velocity prediction. Performance of the proposed models were compared and evaluated using three statistical criteria, namely coefficient of correlation (R (2)), root mean square error (RMSE) and variance account for (VAF). Comparison of the obtained results demonstrated that the CART technique is more reliable for predicting the peak particle velocity than the MR and empirical models and it can be introduced as a new technique in this field.
Optimization of blasting design in open pit limestone mines with the aim of reducing ground vibration using robust techniques
- Authors: Rezaeineshat, Afsaneh , Monjezi, Masoud , Mehrdanesh, Amirhossein , Khandelwal, Manoj
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Geomechanics and Geophysics for Geo-Energy and Geo-Resources Vol. 6, no. 2 (2020), p.
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- Description: Blasting operations create significant problems to residential and other structures located in the close proximity of the mines. Blast vibration is one of the most crucial nuisances of blasting, which should be accurately estimated to minimize its effect. In this paper, an attempt has been made to apply various models to predict ground vibrations due to mine blasting. To fulfill this aim, 112 blast operations were precisely measured and collected in one the limestone mines of Iran. These blast operation data were utilized to construct the artificial neural network (ANN) model to predict the peak particle velocity (PPV). The input parameters used in this study were burden, spacing, maximum charge per delay, distance from blast face to monitoring point and rock quality designation and output parameter was the PPV. The conventional empirical predictors and multivariate regression analysis were also performed on the same data sets to study the PPV. Accordingly, it was observed that the ANN model is more accurate as compared to the other employed predictors. Moreover, it was also revealed that the most influential parameters on the ground vibration are distance from the blast and maximum charge per delay, whereas the least effective parameters are burden, spacing and rock quality designation. Finally, in order to minimize PPV, the developed ANN model was used as an objective function for imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA). Eventually, it was found that the ICA algorithm is able to decrease PPV up to 59% by considering burden of 2.9 m, spacing of 4.4 m and charge per delay of 627 Kg. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Performance of hybrid SCA-RF and HHO-RF models for predicting backbreak in open-pit mine blasting operations
- Authors: Zhou, Jian , Dai, Yong , Khandelwal, Manoj , Monjezi, Masoud , Yu, Zhi , Qiu, Yingui
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Natural Resources Research Vol. 30, no. 6 (2021), p. 4753-4771
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- Description: Backbreak is an adverse phenomenon in blasting operation, which can cause, among others, mine walls instability, falling down of machinery, drilling efficiency reduction and stripping ratio enhancement. Therefore, this research aimed to develop two-hybrid RF (Random Forest) prediction models of random forest, which are optimized by Harris hawks optimizer (HHO) and sine cosine algorithm (SCA), for estimation of the backbreak distance. The HHO and SCA algorithms were adopted to determine two hyper-parameters (mtry and ntree) in the RF models, in which root mean square error (RMSE) was utilized as a fitness function. A database with 234 samples was established, in which six variables [i.e., hole length (L), burden (B), spacing (S), stemming (T), special drilling (SD) and powder factor (PF)] were used as input variables, and backbreak was defined as output variable. Additionally, three classical regression models (i.e., extreme learning machine, radial basis function network and general regression neural network) were adopted to verify the superiority of the hybrid RF prediction models. The predictive reliability of the proposed models was assessed by the combination of mean absolute error (MAE), RMSE, variance accounted for (VAF) and Pearson correlation coefficient (R2). The results revealed that the SCA-RF model outperformed all the other prediction models with MAE of (0.0444 and 0.0470), RMSE of (0.0816 and 0.0996), VAF of (96.82 and 95.88) and R2 of (0.9876 and 0.9829) in training and testing stages, respectively. A Gini index generated internally in the RF model showed that backbreak was significantly more sensitive to L and T than to SD. © 2021, International Association for Mathematical Geosciences.
Six novel hybrid extreme learning machine–swarm intelligence optimization (ELM–SIO) models for predicting backbreak in open-pit blasting
- Authors: Li, Chuanqi , Zhou, Jian , Khandelwal, Manoj , Zhang, Xiliang , Monjezi, Masoud , Qiu, Yingui
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Natural Resources Research Vol. 31, no. 5 (2022), p. 3017-3039
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- Description: Backbreak (BB) is one of the serious adverse blasting consequences in open-pit mines, because it frequently reduces economic benefits and seriously affects the safety of mines. Therefore, rapid and accurate prediction of BB is of great significance to mine blasting design and other production activities. For this purpose, six different swarm intelligence optimization (SIO) algorithms were proposed to optimize the extreme learning machine (ELM) model for BB prediction, i.e., ELM-based particle swarm optimization (ELM–PSO), ELM-based fruit fly optimization (ELM–FOA), ELM-based whale optimization algorithm (ELM–WOA), ELM-based lion swarm optimization (ELM–LOA), ELM-based seagull optimization algorithm (ELM–SOA) and ELM-based sparrow search algorithm (ELM–SSA). In total, 234 data records from blasting operations in the Sungun mine in Iran were used in this study, including six input parameters (special drilling, spacing, burden, hole length, stemming, powder factor) and one output parameter (i.e., BB). To evaluate the predictive performance of the different optimization models and initial models, six performance indicators including the root mean square error (RMSE), Pearson correlation coefficient (R), determination coefficient (R2), variance accounted for (VAF), mean absolute error (MAE) and sum of square error (SSE) were used to evaluate the models in the training and testing phases. The results show that the ELM–LSO was the best model to predict BB with RMSE of 0.1129 (R: 0.9991, R2: 0.9981, VAF: 99.8135%, MAE: 0.0706 and SSE: 2.0917) in the training phase and 0.2441 in the testing phase (R: 0.9949, R2: 0.9891, VAF: 98.9806%, MAE: 0.1669 and SSE: 4.1710). Hence, ELM techniques combined with SIO algorithms are an effective method to predict BB. © 2022, The Author(s).
Hybridizing five neural-metaheuristic paradigms to predict the pillar stress in bord and pillar method
- Authors: Zhou, Jian , Chen, Yuxin , Chen, Hui , Khandelwal, Manoj , Monjezi, Masoud , Peng, Kang
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Frontiers in Public Health Vol. 11, no. (2023), p.
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- Description: Pillar stability is an important condition for safe work in room-and-pillar mines. The instability of pillars will lead to large-scale collapse hazards, and the accurate estimation of induced stresses at different positions in the pillar is helpful for pillar design and guaranteeing pillar stability. There are many modeling methods to design pillars and evaluate their stability, including empirical and numerical method. However, empirical methods are difficult to be applied to places other than the original environmental characteristics, and numerical methods often simplify the boundary conditions and material properties, which cannot guarantee the stability of the design. Currently, machine learning (ML) algorithms have been successfully applied to pillar stability assessment with higher accuracy. Thus, the study adopted a back-propagation neural network (BPNN) and five elements including the sparrow search algorithm (SSA), gray wolf optimizer (GWO), butterfly optimization algorithm (BOA), tunicate swarm algorithm (TSA), and multi-verse optimizer (MVO). Combining metaheuristic algorithms, five hybrid models were developed to predict the induced stress within the pillar. The weight and threshold of the BPNN model are optimized by metaheuristic algorithms, in which the mean absolute error (MAE) is utilized as the fitness function. A database containing 149 data samples was established, where the input variables were the angle of goafline (A), depth of the working coal seam (H), specific gravity (G), distance of the point from the center of the pillar (C), and distance of the point from goafline (D), and the output variable was the induced stress. Furthermore, the predictive performance of the proposed model is evaluated by five metrics, namely coefficient of determination (R2), root mean squared error (RMSE), variance accounted for (VAF), mean absolute error (MAE), and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). The results showed that the five hybrid models developed have good prediction performance, especially the GWO-BPNN model performed the best (Training set: R2 = 0.9991, RMSE = 0.1535, VAF = 99.91, MAE = 0.0884, MAPE = 0.6107; Test set: R2 = 0.9983, RMSE = 0.1783, VAF = 99.83, MAE = 0.1230, MAPE = 0.9253). Copyright © 2023 Zhou, Chen, Chen, Khandelwal, Monjezi and Peng.
Application of various robust techniques to study and evaluate the role of effective parameters on rock fragmentation
- Authors: Mehrdanesh, Amirhossein , Monjezi, Masoud , Khandelwal, Manoj , Bayat, Parichehr
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Engineering with Computers Vol. 39, no. 2 (2023), p. 1317-1327
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- Description: In this paper, an attempt has been made to implement various robust techniques to predict rock fragmentation due to blasting in open pit mines using effective parameters. As rock fragmentation prediction is very complex and complicated, and due to that various artificial intelligence-based techniques, such as artificial neural network (ANN), classification and regression tree and support vector machines were selected for the modeling. To validate and compare the prediction results, conventional multivariate regression analysis was also utilized on the same data sets. Since accuracy and generality of the modeling is dependent on the number of inputs, it was tried to collect enough required information from four different open pit mines of Iran. According to the obtained results, it was revealed that ANN with a determination coefficient of 0.986 is the most precise method of modeling as compared to the other applied techniques. Also, based on the performed sensitivity analysis, it was observed that the most prevailing parameters on the rock fragmentation are rock quality designation, Schmidt hardness value, mean in-situ block size and the minimum effective ones are hole diameter, burden and spacing. The advantage of back propagation neural network technique for using in this study compared to other soft computing methods is that they are able to describe complex and nonlinear multivariable problems in a transparent way. Furthermore, ANN can be used as a first approach, where much knowledge about the influencing parameters are missing. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature.
Mine-to-crusher policy : planning of mine blasting patterns for environmentally friendly and optimum fragmentation using Monte Carlo simulation-based multi-objective grey wolf optimization approach
- Authors: Hosseini, Shahab , Mousavi, Amin , Monjezi, Masoud , Khandelwal, Manoj
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Resources Policy Vol. 79, no. (2022), p.
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- Description: The quality of rock fragmentation intensively affects downstream operations and operational costs. Besides, Environmental side effects are inevitable due to mine blasting despite improvements in blasting consequences such as fly-rock and back-break. This study concentrates on optimizing mine blasting patterns for environmentally friendly mineral production and minimizing operational costs by achieving environmental-oriented and economic objectives-based on a new framework using artificial intelligence techniques. A gene expression programming (GEP) based on Monte Carlo simulations (MCs) denoted that rock size distribution can be modeled and predicted without any uncertainty. Four main objectives involving operational costs, back-break, fly-rock, and toe volume were highlighted for minimizing in the optimization framework. The multi-objective model was implemented by applying it to a running mine and solved using the grey wolf optimization algorithm. As optimizing, 17 optimal blasting plans were achieved to implement in the different rock types. The multi-objective model was able to reduce mine to crusher cost as well as undesirable blasting consequences considerable favourite of mining managers. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd