Within the EU-funded research initiative SLIM (sustainable low impact mining) several innovations for the surface mining sector are introduced. Among others the automatic design of blast layouts considering the actual geometric and geologic conditions is addressed. This includes: (i) automatic rock mass characterization including the determination of rock structures, (ii) automatic placement of boreholes according to the current shape of the bench face, and (iii) automatic association of volumes to boreholes for loading. In order to close the control cycle for blast optimization, latest tools for muck pile characterization are applied This includes: (i) measurement of muck pile volumes and comparison with the according bank volumes and (ii) 3D fragmentation analysis including the detection of boulders.