Introduction

Scheduling for Mining

Tasks

Scheduling Workflow Outline

Open-Pit & Underground Mine Scheduling

 

Scheduling for Mining

  • Allocate time and resources (equipment, facilities and personnel) to complete a series of tasks (drill, blast, dig … material), subject to:

    • Completion of prerequisites (material acted upon beforehand)

      • àdependencies

    • Constraints on aggregated values of task properties

      • e.g. mass of waste mined in period, average grade of gold in ore …

    • Optimisation of key performance indicator

      • Maximum or minimum

      • e.g. mass of material moved, revenue earned …

 

Operational Scheduling

  • Allocate time and resources (equipment, facilities and personnel) to complete a series of tasks (drill, blast, dig … material), subject to:

    • Completion of prerequisites (material acted upon beforehand)

      • àdependencies

    • Constraints on aggregated values of task properties

      • e.g. mass of waste mined in period, average grade of gold in ore …

      • Modelled as “targets” and highlighted when exceeded

Strategic Scheduling

  • Allocate time to complete a series of tasks (drill, blast, dig … material), subject to:

    • Completion of prerequisites (material acted upon beforehand)

      • àdependencies

    • Constraints on aggregated values of task properties

      • e.g. mass of waste mined in period, average grade of gold in ore …

    • Optimisation of key performance indicator

      • Maximum or minimum

      • e.g. mass of material moved, revenue earned …

Introduction (Top)

Tasks

  • Separate pieces of work (jobs) to be completed

  • Definition

    • List of attributes (properties)

      • e.g. volume, density, grade, …

    • Wireframe (solid) specifies location and 3D spatial extent

  • Imported from wireframes

    • Wireframe attributes mapped to task attributes

    • Additional attributes for tasks calculated using expressions

      • e.g. based on design parameters

Classifications for Tasks

  • Task Types

  • Sets of tasks with common characteristics (e.g. attribute derivations and default rates)

    Schedule | Task Types | Manage

  • Task Categories

  • Sets of tasks assigned to user-defined categories

    Schedule | Task Types | Categories | Manage

  • Task Groups

  • Sets of tasks defined by filters and/or expressions

    Schedule | Add Tasks | Inter-Group Dependencies

Introduction (Top)

Scheduling Workflow Outline

  • Operational or Strategic

  • Units of Measurement

  • Task Attributes

  • Define Task Types

  • Add Tasks

  • Set Dependencies

  • Visual Checks

  • Run Diagnostics

  • Strategic: Optimise

  • Animate

  • Report

  • Python Scripting

Introduction (Top)

Open-Pit & Underground Mine Scheduling

  • Blending from single or multiple pits/mines

  • Production targets

  • Grade targets

  • Stripping ratios

  • Constraints on periods

  • Constraints across multiple periods

Refer to Open Pit Mine Scheduling Workflows for workflow options.

Introduction (Top)