Open-pit mine design just found an unlikely muse: soap bubbles. Researchers at the University of Melbourne have built Bubble Pit software that uses the physics of bubble clusters to design the nested pit shells that define an open-pit mine. Thinking Mine Design, the commercial spinout, is now taking the technology to market.
The stakes are real. Open-pit mining is the dominant method for near-surface ore deposits, and the geometry of those nested pits—their depth, slope, and reach—determines how much waste rock must be moved to extract every tonne of ore. Small gains in pit design efficiency cascade through the entire operation. Bubble Pit is being tested at Newcrest Mining in Australia and Newmont, the world's largest gold mining company.
The geometry of bubbles and benches
Open-pit mines descend in stepped rings called benches. The ultimate pit limit—the outermost boundary of those nested benches—decides how much ore is reachable and how much waste must be moved. That boundary is the biggest single cost driver in any mine plan.
Soap bubbles share walls efficiently, naturally forming connected shapes that minimize surface area for a given volume. The University of Melbourne team, led by mathematician Professor Hayam Rubinstein and mining engineer Dr. Louis-Lewis Yarmouk, realized this same principle could generate pit shells that satisfy operational constraints—minimum working width for equipment—while reducing excess waste.
"The bubble model lets miners cluster nested pits so they meet the required connectivity and minimum operational width, which raises the efficiency of ore extraction," Professor Rubinstein said.
From dissertation to live tests
The core ideas emerged from Dr. Yarmouk's doctoral research at the University of Melbourne, supervised by Professor Rubinstein. An AMIRA Global grant funded development; the software was completed in July 2021.
Two follow-on phases are underway. Both extend the bubble model into scheduling—which bench gets mined when—and transportation, how ore moves from face to processing plant. These are higher-stakes problems: scheduling errors compound across years, and transportation costs in large open-pit operations can rival extraction costs themselves.
Who should care about Bubble Pit
| Stakeholder | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Major mining operators** (Newmont, Newcrest) | Potential to cut waste-to-ore ratios and accelerate time-to-first-production |
| Mid-tier miners | If the tool proves scalable, could lower capital costs on new pit designs |
| Mining software vendors | Could displace or supplement existing nested pit algorithms within existing platforms |
| Equipment manufacturers | Design shapes that match fleet specs more closely, reducing the need for redesign cycles |
| Academics in operations research | The bubble model is a fresh optimization framework that may inspire applications beyond mining |
Our analysis
Bubble Pit's early test list is telling. Newmont and Newcrest do not trial academic tools for publicity; their involvement signals serious intent.
The question is generalization. If the bubble model improves scheduling and transportation as cleanly as it handles pit design, the addressable problem inside a mine grows significantly. If those later phases plateau, the tool remains a useful but narrow optimizer for the design stage.
The startup structure—exclusive license to university IP, founding team retained—follows a proven academic spinout playbook. That model works when the researchers stay engaged, which they appear to be doing.
Watch the live test results. Watch whether the scheduling and transportation phases hold the same efficiency gains as the pit design module. If the bubble math survives contact with real ore bodies, it could quietly become a standard input to pit design—the way block modeling did two decades ago.
Key takeaways
- Bubble Pit uses soap bubble geometry to optimize the nested shells that define an open-pit mine.
- The software is in live testing at Newcrest Mining and Newmont, with further development sponsored by both companies.
- Follow-on phases will apply the same bubble model to scheduling and transportation optimization.
- Thinking Mine Design holds exclusive rights to the University of Melbourne patent; broader release is targeted for late 2022.
Frequently asked questions
Who developed Bubble Pit?
Professor Hayam Rubinstein and Dr. Louis-Lewis Yarmouk at the University of Melbourne. Dr. Yarmouk's doctoral dissertation provided the foundational ideas, which were developed into commercial software through the startup Thinking Mine Design.
Why use soap bubbles for mine design?
Soap bubble clusters naturally form shapes that minimize surface area while maintaining connectivity—exactly the geometric properties needed to generate nested pit shells that satisfy minimum working width requirements for equipment access.
Which companies are testing the software?
Newcrest Mining in Australia and Newmont, the world's largest gold mining company, are both running live tests and have agreed to sponsor further development.
What comes after pit design?
Two follow-on phases are planned: applying the bubble model to scheduling (deciding when to mine each bench) and transportation (moving ore from face to plant). Professor Rubinstein noted that timing and transportation are "hot topics" given the upfront investment in large mines.