Two Courses - 8 days

MINP 301 - Surface Mine Production Scheduling GEOVIA MineSched™ Core

MINP 302: Compliance of Strategic and Tactical Mine Plans - Advanced MineSched and Isight

Who Should Attend

Medium / short-term open pit planning is an eight-day training split over two courses, designed for the mine planners, mining engineers, geologists, and technical managers who are responsible for activities that require them to generate or oversee monthly and weekly mine production schedules. The course is designed to provide theory through lectures, complemented by a hands-on real-world mine planning project using GEOVIA MineSched and SIMULIA Isight. The project covers all the required steps from a long-term yearly schedule generated within a designed pit to a monthly production schedule taking into account mining and processing capacities, truck-shovel hours, drilling and blasting, blending, and stockpiles management constraints. Learn how to model and manage stockpiles and processes, block modeled waste dumps followed by automated filling strategies and waste scheduling. Also, reporting and 3D visualization of a spatial database of the materials within the waste-dump, which is critical for both long-term waste dump management and reclamation. The course covers the following topics:
    •  Medium/ short-term planning concepts
    •  Alignment of short-term plans with strategic plans
    •  Parameters: rates, delays, priorities
    • Quantity and quality targets
    •  Defining mining locations
    • Defining process streams
    • Period polygons: tonnage/grades
    • Reporting: Excel, Access, MS Project
    • Animations & presentation tools

Course Description

Software: Geovia MineSched and Simulia Isight

Medium / short-term open pit planning is a three-day course designed for the mine planners, mining engineers, geologists, and technical managers who are responsible for activities that require them to generate or oversee monthly and weekly mine production schedules. The course is designed to provide theory through lectures, complemented by a hands-on real-world mine planning project using GEOVIA MineSched. The project covers all the required steps from a long-term yearly schedule generated within a designed pit to a monthly production schedule taking into account mining and processing capacities, truck-shovel hours, drilling and blasting, blending, and stockpiles management constraints. Mining constraints can be applied to ensure that practical schedules are generated. Learn how to model and manage stockpiles and processes, block modeled waste dumps followed by automated filling strategies and waste scheduling. Also, reporting and 3D visualization of a spatial database of the materials within the waste-dump, which is critical for both long-term waste dump management and reclamation. The course covers the following topics:

    • Medium/ short-term planning concepts
    • Data preparation
    • Parameters: rates, delays, priorities
    • Quantity and quality targets
    • Defining mining locations
    • Defining process streams
    • Period polygons: tonnage/grades
    • Reporting: Excel, Access, MS Project
    • Animations & presentation tools

Outcomes of the course include:

    • Schedule from block, polygonal and grid models
    • Schedule with any number of elements, material types.
    • Schedule with different qualities of material.
    • Graphically sequence mining blocks
    • Report tonnage and grade within  the sequence.
    • Control all aspects of the schedule
    • Use target-based scheduling algorithms.
    • Incorporate mining directions
    • Incorporate bench lags/leads, face geometry,
    • include location limits, and other mining constraints
    • Generate practical minable schedules. 
    • Schedule ancillary activities - drilling, blasting.
    • Schedule back filling.
    • Include material movement to stockpiles and processes.
    • Material movement to spatially modeled waste dumps. 
    • Blend material from mines and stockpiles
    • Blend material to meet targets at plants, waste dumps.
    • Produce schedules with reports & graphical results.
    • Visualize Mine Schedules with 2D and 3D Graphics.
    • Display tonnage and grade attributes.
    • View colored period and production data.
    • Generate intermediate mining surfaces.
    • Animate mining sequence as a movie or frame-by-frame.
    • Validate and communicate the sequence of activities.
    • Generate reports with production tonnage and grade data.
    • Produce polygon and bench reports.
    • Obtain a detailed understanding of the schedule.
    • Communicate the results to management.
    • Create reverse vertical lag or constant face distance.
    • Design cut polygons on specific layers
    • Apply geometry rules to create new polygons.
    • Attach attributes to the mine cut polygons.
    • Sequence the mine polygons.

Module 1

    1) Data storage and familiarization
        a) Setup data management hierarchy
        b) Data review
    2) Data editing and management
        a) Block model reporting
        b) Determine the tonnes and grades in rock types
        c) Polygons for graphical results
    3) Block model material classes
        a) Assign material classes in the block model
    4) Scenario management
        a) Creating and opening scenarios
    5) Navigating the scenarios
        a) Data grids & Charts
        b) Dashboard & Spreadsheet views
    6) Scenario parameters – geological model data
        a) Defining geological models
        b) Add the model for scheduling
        c) Assign material classes for the schedule
        d) Validate model & check the model for errors
    7) Scenario parameters – location definition
        a) Setup Schedule step
        b) Define mining locations
        c) Define the two or more mining locations for scheduling
        d) Evaluate the defined mining locations

Module 2

    1) Mining constraints
        a) Mining rates
        b) Resource availability
        c) Physical constraints
    2) Create schedule
        a) Define a timeline for the schedule
        b) Create the schedule
        c) Add reports and charts to the dashboard
    3) Publishing results
        a) Create graphical results & animations
        b) Standard and custom reports
        c) Gantt charts
        d) Block model Schedule
        e) Analyzing the schedule
        f) Adding calendars to resources
    4) Sequencing the stages
        a) Sequencing the stages using precedences
        b) Sequencing the stages using priorities
    5) Targets
        a) Quality and Quantity targets
        b) Add a quality target to the schedule
        c) Add flexibility to the schedule
        d) Explore the options for meeting the targets
        e) Minimize the rehandling
        f) Material ratio and strip ratio targets
        g) Investigate effects of material classes on capacities
        h) Create a schedule that has a constant ore production
        i) Create a schedule that pre-strips waste
        j) Location priority
    6) Fill locations
        a) Add the model that will be used for filling
        b) Change the waste stockpile to use waste dumps.

  Module 3

    1) Make the schedule more practical
        a) Mining direction
        b) Investigate the different mining directions
        c) Investigate vertical-lag, horizontal-lag, maximum-lag
        d) Swell factor.
        e) Max number of benches and drop cuts
        f) Max number of active benches per period
        g) Production rate modifiers
    2) Haulage and Tonne Km calculations
        a) Adding Haulage to the schedule
        b) Create haulage route strings
        c) Reporting TKM
    3) Short-term polygons
        a) Creating polygons from the long-term schedule
        b) Bench plans
        c) End of period surfaces
        d) Polygon mining vs. Bench Polygon mining
        e) Polygon constraints
        f) Polygon mining to a seam boundary
        g) Polygon mining a single bench
        h) Different polygons on separate benches
4) Polygon sequencing
        a) Adding a polygon sequence
        b) Graphically sequencing polygons
5) Ancillary activities
        a) Drilling and blasting activity
        b) Graphically animating the activities
        c) Production activities (optional)