Abstract: Based on the ecological footprint definition and model,the distribution model of ecological costs is established,so as to allocate the ecological costs into mine production costs of an open-pit mine.The ultimate boundary is designed transforming the exogenous costs into endogenous costs from the perspective of ecology.Through the iteration of ultimate pit optimization,the ultimate boundary is obtained by considering ecological costs,besides that,the influence of ecological costs on the ultimate boundary is analyzed.The optimization results show that:the ultimate boundary delineated by considering ecological costs is reduced by 11.29%,quantity of ore and rock of the ultimate boundary delineated by considering ecological costs are reduced by 15.38% and 30.45% respectively,compared with the ones of the ultimate boundary without considering ecological costs.The net profit of the ultimate boundary delineated by transforming the ecological costs into endogenous costs is raised by 13.46%,by comparing with the mine comprehensive costs by the ecological costs calculated by the ultimate boundary without considering ecological costs.The above analysis results show that the influence of the transforming ecological costs into endogenous costs on ultimate boundary is significant.

Key words: Ecological footprint, Ecological costs, Open-pit mine, Ultimate boundary optimization, Optimization iteration