Shahrood University of Technology Journal of Mining and Environment 2251-8592 17 3 2026 05 01 Application of Intelligent Methods in Predicting Penetration Rate of Drill Bits in Open-Pit Mining 1109 1125 3524 10.22044/jme.2025.15933.3065 EN Ali Nemati Vardin Department of Mining Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran Masoud Monjezi Department of Mining Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran Hasel Amini Khoshalan Department of Mining Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran Jafar Hamidi Khademi Department of Mining Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran Mojtaba Rezakhah Department of Mining Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran Journal Article 2025 03 16 Drilling is one of the most important operations in open-pit mining, and the penetration rate of drill bits is a key performance measure. This paper presents research on the penetration rate of drill bits based on mining rock mass rating, thrust pressure (weight on bit), rotational pressure, and Schmidt hammer rebound hardness. To achieve this, a dataset comprising the drilling operations of 85 blastholes from the Sungun copper mine in Iran was prepared and analyzed using statistical and intelligent methods. Multivariate regression analysis and artificial neural networks developed in Python, utilizing optimization algorithms such as gradient descent, stochastic gradient descent, and adaptive moment estimation, were applied to predict the penetration rate of drill bits in this study. The coefficient of determination (R²), mean absolute error (MAE), and root mean square error (RMSE) served as performance indicators to evaluate the methods employed. Among these, the adaptive moment estimation (Adam)-based model exhibited superior performance compared to alternative models, achieving values of R² = 0.96, MAE = 4.55, and RMSE = 4.30. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis revealed that mining rock mass rating is the most influential factor on the rate of penetration, while thrust pressure has the least impact. https://jme.shahroodut.ac.ir/article_3524_405bd83c053b779febaac47f0f241993.pdf