the present invention relates to the field of extracting resource from a particular location . in particular , the present invention relates to the planning , design and processing related to a mine location in a manner based on enhancing the extraction of material considered of value , relative to the effort and / or time in extracting that material . the present application discloses , amongst other things , a method of and apparatus for determining slope constraints , determining a cluster of material , determining characteristics of a selected portion of material , analysing a selected volume of material , propagating clusters , forming clusters , mine design , aggregation of blocks into collections or clusters , splitting of waste and ore in clumps , determining a selected group of blocks to be mined , clump ordering and identifying clusters for pushback design .