2007 revised 2010 Dr. B. C. Paul Note This presentation includes screenshots from the MineSight computer program developed by Mintec. The views and procedures identified in this presentation are considered by the author to be common knowledge to those in the trade and many of the ideas expressed here can be found in numerous books and journals. The Ajo Open Pit in Arizona They mined around the barren core Lacks Clear Steps and Has A Lot of Interaction Computers Almost a Necessity In general need to know you have a large ore reserve close enough to the surface to be open pit mined Generally comes from geologic data Open pit designs normally represent ore reserves and geology as a block model Slice and dice the ore reserve up into small blocks that sit end to end and on top of each other 10s of Millions of blocks common
The Program We Will Use MineSight is a suite of mining tuned computer programs Heart is a 3D CAD graphics program called MineSight Has a wide array of mining calculations programs that link production planning to the graphics functions in the 3D CAD program MineSight development started with first computer routines in the 1970s and list has grown since Collection includes everything from old fortran routines to modern python program language routines MineSights Visually Linked Calculation Routines MineSight Compass A windows like user interface built over a bunch of old Dos, Fortran and Unix Programs Collection of over 400 routines Have the feel of old mainframe batch programs Thats because they are old mainframe routines and subroutines with a modern windows like graphical interface to feed them Looks new but has you do some things to set up runs that are like old mainframe batch routines New Kids on the Block Built a Suite of New Programs that run in Python visual language Economic Planner State of the Art Open Pit Metal Mining Optimization and integrated together Activities Planner Microsoft Projects Gant Charts set up for Mining Data Analyst Ore Reserves Statistics and Geostatistics Interactive Planner Link between databases and 3D graphics for planning Strategic Planner Other procedures constantly being prepared Editorial Commentary Lack of Consistency A 40 year collection and operating systems have run in fundamentally different ways over the years Made to look windows like but cant always hide the architecture underneath Has bugs in it Most bugs are triggered by assuming people will input in a certain way and you dont Mining has lots of local terms in it so wording can encourage you to do unexpected things Most bugs are operator error triggered but it is rather unforgiving Very computer and graphically intensive Pushes hardware and designs to the limit and a lot of hardware and system components misbehave when they are at their limit Its wonderful to have so much integrated power and routines all in one semi-coherent package Lets Start this Puppy Up! If Used Often MineSight has an icon that says MS3D (ie MineSight 3 D) Can Also Do A Menu Fishing Start #1 -Click Start #2- Pick All Programs #3- Find MineSight And Highlight it until A side menu pops out #4- Click on the MS3D icon (note you do have Icons for some of The other routines I mentioned). Look for the Desktop Icon for MS3D and Click on It Ok I Dont Have One Cause I Dont Start That way but some people do. Programs Splash Screen Mines or designs Are kept as Projects It can default Start where the Program lives
Or be sent to Where you store A project If you have a Project or design Already you can Have it loaded And ready to go. Operating the Starting Prompt If you pull down the Menu it will show You were up to the Last 10 projects Worked on were Stored. You can also Trigger a Windows Explorer style Pick using a Browse function. It has typical Windows Options for Oking or Canceling The strange looking X symbol is MineSights Delete command. MineSight Opens (sometimes it will prompt you to do something first) Looks a little like An Autocad for Windows It has a 3D display Area similar to Autocad. Data Manager is A two tiered Windows Exploring Down below it Has a message And info window Two Tiered Windows Exploring Has two Levels Top Level Shows You The Folders Bottom Level Shows You the Files in a folder
(as a 3D geometry program Has a variety of different File types that support The program logic no You probably wont understand them on sight). The X Box The little red X box closes Things.
You can close The Windows Explorer like Data Manager
You can close a 3D Visualization window You can close the Whole program Driving Options Uses the familiar Drop down menus Of a windows Program (some options do Appear on more than One drop down) Also has a huge Collection of icons (They are short-cuts To the most Popular functions. You also will only Learn what these Funny symbols stand For by experience) General Quirks and Observations MineSight does not have an escape key function You right click to finish a function which gets you out of it (but might also finish a goof) MineSight has a more enforced save structure Some drawing functions will not let you move on until you save you last group of edits It is not consistent in when this happens but if the program stops taking orders a right click to finish what ever it thinks your doing and then a save is a good guess. MineSight has limited Undo functionality You can save the last set of edits and then go back and undo it. It does not keep a step by step undo list that lets you go back and undo the last 20 things one at a time Undo function often requires you to save before it becomes available If you really goof it keeps back-up copies of everything and you can go in and fetch a back up copy of what you screwed up. Some Rigidity in Menu and Icon Structure Microsoft Office allows you to pick groups of icons, call them toolbars and dock your favorites in a certain position Vulcan has created some tool bar dockability MineSight has not MineSight does allow you to right click and pull up an on the spot menu of recently used and custom chosen functions So Why Should I Learn MineSight CAD like mine design packages are rapidly becoming an industry standard knowing one increases your marketability There is enough similarity in packages that knowing one will allow you to learn any other with greater ease (in case your employer didnt make the same choice for basic package as we did or if your employer changes his/her mind later). We are using it in this class and you dont want to even think about life without it. Using the Data Manager Upper Level Determines which Files are open Lower Level Controls individual objects To Open An Object Highlight the object And then right click With your mouse To bring up a menu Check the Menu for the Open (or Close) option Most Likely You Will Start With Some Surface Information (In Our Case It Will Already be Pre-Entered) Our MineSight operator read in or digitized surface topography and then had the Computer create a surface that fit the data You Can Play with the Surface View Push and hold the left and right keys On your mouse as you move it to Rotate your object in 3D (so you can Look at it from different directions). You Can Move Your Surface Up and Down (Pan Around) Hold the right click button and the Center button down (often the center Button is a roller) and move the mouse Around. You Can Zoom In and Zoom Out Hold the left click button and the Center button down (often the center Button is a roller) and move the mouse around. Now We Have A Tool Lets Consider that Block Model Start by specifying block dimensions Look at drill and sampling data for how continuous the mineralization is Use computer routines to estimate the ore grade of the blocks using samples One of the most popular is Kriging (also polygonal and IDS) Not going to study how interpolation is done in this class. (Youll be given a block model to work with) In the field your geologists may way give you your Block Model Your Assignment #5 Copy a Prepared Starter File Start MineSight Bring up the Surface and Rotate and Maneuver Bring up your block model and examine it. Are other do this tasks Determine the Minable Ore Reserve Assume economics for material removal Look at geology for how steep the pit slopes can stand without sliding in Have the computer analyze the largest set of blocks that can be removed without taking stuff that looses money This set measures the size of the pit that can ultimately be mined (called the Ultimate Pit) Too complex to visualize Done with either a Floating Cone Miner or Learch- Grossman computer routine (Easily Available in MineSight) Computer Views of Pits Sequencing Start with an Unmined Surface and end up with an ultimate pit Need to figure out how to get there One easy approach is to just mine from the top down in layers But that is often not the way it is done The Time Value of Money A Review for those with Engineering Econ Some new thoughts for others Would you rather get $100 now or $100 five years from now Most would pick now One reason if you put money in CD at 3% interest in 5 years you would have $116 Youd only need $86 now to earn to $100 in five years so how can $100 not delivered for five years be worth more than $86? Handling the Time Value of Money Money can be multiplied by a discount factor to adjust to how much right now money it is equal to. Mining commonly looks for investments to earn 15% If you get $100 now its $100 If you get $100 in 1 year its like $87 If you get $100 in 5 years its like $50 If you get $100 in 10 years its like $25 You see the pattern the longer the money takes to get here the less it is worth What Does the Time Value of Money Do to Mine Plans? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 $100,000,000 $100,000,000 Just adding up money gives $600,000,000 Total But not all the money got here at the same time if we apply discount factors and Then add we get $1,670,000 almost even money (at 15% interest) (A Total After Multiplying by Discount Factors is called a Net Present Value The more a project is worth the hotter the item!) Same Money But Some is Moved Forward in Time 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 $100,000,000 $150,000,000 $50,000,000 Same money but I collect more money sooner and less later
NPV is now $57,100,000 instead of $1,670,000
Get more of your money faster = Better NPV! Put-Off Expenses 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 $150,000,000 $0 $50,000,000 $100,000,000 Same Money Again but now the NPV is $197,374,000
Getting money early and putting off expenses makes project values improve A WHOLE LOT! How Can I Make That Happen in the Field Suppose I mine my best and most valuable ore first? Suppose I delay spending money stripping waste material If I mine from the top down I will usually mine mostly waste at first And wait a long time to get down to the best ore What I would like to do for a sequence is to ask the computer to find me the best ore with the least stripping first I will get the computer to identify a series of nested pits that have the most value and use that as my draft sequence Developing a Practical Layout With a series of nested pit shells as a guide design a set of pits that follows the guides but has benches, and roads required for practical mining. MineSight is a 3D Cad program so I can draw in my roads and benches Look at Further boosting earnings by running artificially high Cut-Off grades at first and sizing mine production Can be done with VALP in MineSight Size up your equipment fleets and haulage times MineSights haulage program is still weak (we will use FPC) Develop detailed long term schedules of what will be mined from where MineSight Strategic Planner can do this In for major refinement in March or April Collectively these steps are called long term mine planning
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