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Element Description
Element Description
the low OPDV in this area. The key difference between year. The extraction year is the governing factor which
UGV0 and IV0 is in the south end of the mine where the determines at what time the IV value of a block becomes
pit commences. Hence, the IV0 parameter biases negative. This grouping allows those blocks that had a
towards high grade blocks mined late in the open pit negative IV due to the year of underground extraction to
mine life. be omitted from the optimal outline.
Stope optimisation Development activities
The process of creating mining outlines from the IV0 In order to optimise the schedule, it is necessary to
resource model is conducted using Snowdens Stopesizor provide development parameters for each ventilation
software (Myers et al., 2007). Stopesizor modifies a district. Because the development designs cannot be
geological block model to identify the optimum mining finalised until after the analysis had generated a final
outline for a range of cut-off values (usually grade- stoping inventory, it was decided to use conceptual
based). This stope resource generation is achieved by designs to generate indicative parameters in the form
constructing selective mining blocks (SMBs), where the of
SMB represents a minimum practical mining geometry.
Y~Az(BzC) X (4)
Each SMB comprises a contiguous group of resource
blocks that honour minimum dimension, bearing and where Y is total development metres, A is fixed capital
dip constraints for each axis. Stopesizor has the development metres (development required to access the
flexibility to optimise mining outlines for a variety of highest IV0 cut-off stope in a ventilation district), B is
underground mining methods by allowing the user to variable capital development (metres per tonne of stope
specify minimum practical mining shapes and orienta- ore), C is variable operating development (metres per
tions. Mining capacity constraints and the effect of tonne of stope ore), and X is stoping ore tonnes. The
discounting mean that not all of this material can be fixed capital development is further subdivided into two
mined from the underground mine in an optimum categories: common capital development and access
combined underground and open pit operation. capital development. Common capital development is
However, the analysis does indicate that there is development required by more than one ventilation
potential to increase the overall value of the operation district. Access capital development is development
by mining a significant amount of South Area ore from required to access the highest IV0-cut-off stope in a
underground. ventilation district. Framing the development require-
ments in this manner allows the development require-
Production activities ments for each ventilation district to be estimated and
The basic underground production unit is the Ventilation adjusted during the schedule optimisation process.
district, for which production and development con- Common capital development is identified and appro-
straints are well understood. This project included the priate dependencies are imposed to account for the
design of conceptual development layouts for the South shared nature of this development.
Area and the creation of suitable new ventilation districts
for an underground-with-pit scenario. In order to reduce Underground optimisation technique
the optimisation problem to a manageable size for efficient Schedule optimisation is conducted using Snowdens
computation, stope blocks are accumulated into a series of Evaluator software package. Evaluator is a high level
groups or bins. It is assumed that within each group, the strategic scheduler based on a MIP formulation solved
contained blocks are to be depleted at the same rate. In by a CPLEX engine (ILOG CPLEX, 2007). The
order to produce the best possible approximation of a scheduler optimises the timing and cut-off grade for
block by block optimisation, each group contains blocks both stoping and development activities. MIP involves
with similar properties. The blocks are grouped according determining the optimal value of a series of decision
to ventilation district, IV0 outline, and the year in which variables which reflect the mathematical model gener-
the blocks were planned to be extracted by the open pit. ated. In this optimisation, there was a decision variable
The tonnage and grade for each group is determined by for each activity in each period (except where explicitly
summing the tonnages and weight-averaging the grades of stated otherwise by the user). The output for each
the contained resource blocks. Each ventilation district is decision variable reflects the portion of each activity that
a distinct geometric zone; hence, grouping blocks by this is completed in a period.
property means that they may be able to be practically Each decision variable is assigned an IV value. For
extracted at the same rate, due to the location of production activities, the IV of the decision variable is
development and mining equipment. equal to the UGDV minus the OPDV. Note the
The stope optimisation process generates a series of application of the discounted underground value, accord-
nested mining outlines at IV0 cut-offs between $0/t and ing to the period being examined, rather than the
$100/t, at $10/t intervals. The number of tonnes added to undiscounted (IV0) value is used to generate the stope
the outline at each interval was substantial. As such, it is shapes. The OPDV is applied as an opportunity cost, or
assumed that material within each of the intervals can be additional mining cost, to the underground operation. For
grouped together. Material contained within the highest development activity decision variables, the IV is the cost
IV0 interval can be mined first, followed by the next of development for that activity. Framing the problem in
highest IV0 interval and so on. Geotechnical sequencing this manner ensures that the optimisation process will seek
constraints are not considered in this high level study, to maximise the overall discounted incremental value of
but will need to be incorporated in subsequent studies in the underground operation. In addition to those variables
order to verify their impact on the optimal solution. In described above, there are a number of other decision
addition to being grouped by ventilation district, blocks variables included in the formulation used to implement
are also grouped by their planned open pit extraction fixed costs and ensure that dependent activities are treated
correctly. The decision variables associated with sequen- the various cases and the underground optimisation
cing are binary variables, meaning that they must be either results.
0 or 1. The second aspect of the optimisation involved The base case UG1 provides a reference. An interest-
applying capacity and sequencing constraints. The main ing outcome from this case is that no blocks within the
constraints applied in this optimisation were total mining 30 year pit shell are included in the optimal mining
capacity, mining capacity in each ventilation district, total outline. This result indicates that underground mining
processing capacity, total lateral development capacity, within these limits will not add value to a combined
lateral development capacity in each ventilation district, operation, and that perhaps the value added for mining
reserve constraints (i.e. to ensure that production activities underground ahead of the open pit might only be
were completed to a maximum of 100% and did not applicable for operations with a very long life. Figure 3
exceed reserve) and sequencing constraints. The formula- illustrates the optimum schedule for case UG1 (the base
tion is entered into the CPLEX MIP solver, which case) and indicates the general direction for strategic
generates a solution that maximises the project incre- planning. The complete results show the mine area (and
mental value whilst honouring all imposed constraints. ventilation district) production rates and average grades
Each optimisation is solved to within 0?5% optimality, that should be targeted in each respective period in order
which means that whilst there may be a better solution to maximise value. The results reinforce that a declining
available, at most it would return an incremental value cut-off policy should be followed whenever possible.
0?5% greater than that of the solution provided. For the Analysis of the blocks mined for each case also yields
purposes of this study, the selected level of optimality is important results. The block model output can be used
deemed to be sufficient. to identify the period in which blocks/stopes are mined.
This data can be used to generate data for more detailed
Underground cases and results sequencing and scheduling.
Eight feasible cases of underground alternatives for UG2 considers quarantining all the open pit resources
optimisation were identified for the purpose of investigat- mined in the first 40 years. This is found to reduce
ing the influence of production rate, variable mining cost incremental value by 5%. UG3 to UG5 tested alternative
and pit shell exclusion on value. Table 3 summarises production rates on the basis of known mining and
Table 3 Summary of results for the underground with pit optimisation scenarios
infrastructure constraints. A key feature of the project is that the underground schedules were feasible. In this
that the underground operation uses the processing stage of the project, COMET is being used to determine
facilities constructed for the open pit. The underground the optimum combined open pit and underground
operation, therefore does not incur any capital cost for schedule from the twin inputs of optimum underground
the ore processing plant and any economies of scale are schedule and optimum pushback sequence. COMET
limited. While increases in the production rate did used a more conventional block value ranking variable
increase value, the benefit would need to be considered as the problem of competition between underground
in the context of the plant capacity displaced from the and open pit has now been resolved; the variable chosen
open pit at high production rates. UG6 to UG8 tests the is net return per mill hour. The optimisation process
cost sensitivity and indicates that a small change in considered four different underground cases in combi-
variable mining cost does not greatly impact the total nation with the pit. These cases were compared with the
reserve mined and mine life. Thus, discounting is the current approved business case, which entailed stoping
main driving force for strategy. of the North Area for a small expansion into the South
Area, but with a steadily declining production rate over
time as the resource became depleted.
Combined open pit and underground
optimisation Final economic results
Objective of combined schedule optimisation COMET generated the mining and processing schedules
The work described above is aimed at optimising an that yielded the maximum discounted value (NPV)
under the given constraints. Figure 4 gives the relative
underground operation around the fixed open pit
schedule. A further modelling stage using COMET was results for the total five cases. The term current case
refers to the project schedule for which the underground
required to:
and open pit operations have not been subject to the
(i) determine the relative value of alternative under-
combined optimisation exercise described by this paper.
groundpit combinations. For example, deple-
The best value is yielded by Case UG1. Figure 5
tion of ore from the pit schedule may significantly
shows how this additional value is achieved. The key
reduce value
points included increases in early metal production
(ii) allow the COMET optimiser to choose whether to
(period A) due to the declining cut-off grade strategy of
fill pit feed shortfalls from the open pit stockpile
the underground mine during the open pit ramps-up
or from the underground mine
period and the ability of the expanded underground
(iii) indicate optimum life for the underground
operation to provide material of the required quality to
operation
make up for shortfalls in the production schedule, i.e. to
(iv) determine the processing destinations for under-
ground ore.
COMET modelling
A COMET model is constructed to model the current
proposed ore processing configuration, stockpiles, oper-
ating costs, capital costs and operational constraints.
The open pit mine is represented as a set of pushback
block models and each underground case as a dummy
open pit pushback. Blocks mined in each underground
option are excluded for the resource available to the
open pit. For the final optimisation run, COMET is set
up so that if all underground material available in a
particular period has to be mined, COMET can then
choose whether to process the ore in that period or 4 Comparison of relative value for undergroundopen pit
stockpile it for later processing. This approach ensures combinations