Iron Ore Company of Ontario

(IOCO)
Prepared by Professors
C. J. Piper and A. R. Wood

Ivey Management Services, Version: (A) 2000-07-21

Presented by
Aya Haroun g00067361
Safa Al Zarooni g00060839
Khawla Al Maazimi g00062047

February 27 , 2018

College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018

 Table of Content
• Company Background
• Terminology
• Operation Process
• Problem Definition
• Attribution of the problem
• Analysis
• Recommendation

College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018

 Company Background

• IOCO is a leading Canadian producer of iron ore pellets

and concentrate serving customers worldwide.
• The Company operates a mine, concentrator and a
pelletizing plant in Labrador City, Newfoundland and
Labrador, as well as port facilities located in Sept-Îles,
in the province of Quebec.
• It also operates a 418-kilometre railroad that links the
mine to the port.

College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018

• IOC operated a large open pit iron-ore mine ,
working in the business field of processing iron
ore.
• Operated an ore Handling Facility on lake superior,
Loading ocean- going ships, and lake Freighters.
• The mine was accessible by :
o Aircraft railroad
o 40 km road from the Trans-Canada Highway.
• Production was scheduled on a year-round, 24
hour-per-day basis to produce over 46 million tons
of crude ore per year, of which 21 million tons are
high grade concentrate.
• To achieve this capacity, a concentrator was built
with input capacity to be used at full capacity at all
times.

College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018

 Terminology
Name Definition
Bench narrow, strip of land cut into the side of an
open-pit mine. These step-like zones are
created along the walls of an open-
pit mine for access and mining.

Crude- Ore The un-concentrated ore as it leaves the

mine.

Concentrator Industrial processes and it is the first steps to

the extraction of the metals.

College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018

 Terminology
Name Definition
Muck loose material usually rock or ore that has
been fragmented as a result of blasting in a
working face such as a tunnel, large
underground chamber, or an open-cut
excavation work site or mine.
Ore the desired mineral that is left after
impurities have been removed from mined
Concentrate ore

Idle Time unproductive time on the part of

employees or machines caused by
management or as a result of factors
beyond their control.
Bridging Blockading of receiving opening by one or
more pieces.

College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018

 Operation Process

Plan

Cross Section
A-B

College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018

Drilling 12 m holes into rock holes filled with explosives Shovels load trucks

large rocks
Crushers are reduced
in size

Waste Dumps

The concentrate
product is loaded on a
ship and exported to
Europe and North
America
College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018
 480 cubic meters per hour per unit

11 shovels
7 shovels / ore zone
1 shovel crude zone
Remaining shovels undergoes maintenance

4 trucks were assigned to each shovel

1.5 Km between loading site & crushers

College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018

 - 2 crushers
-Capacity of 9420 tons per hour.
-Two trucks could dump simultaneously into each crusher, with
an average time of 1.7 min
-Morning shift : Capacity reduces to half for maintenance
purposes

The stockpile :
- 120 m away from the crusher
- Ore is dumped in the stockpile when both crushers are
stopped.
- 15 minutes are lost at every reroute occurrence.
- Time required for a loaded truck to come from shovel in
mine, turn and dump on the stockpile = the time needed to
carry ore to one of crushers, turn, and dump.
- The benefit is having ore loads to be delivered to crushers
when mining is postponed

College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018

 Problem Definition
Issue : The long time it takes to transfer the Ore from shovels in the mine to
the crushers and then returning back to the shovel for reload.

How to decrease idle time of trucks??

How to Handle Loaded Ore Trucks during Operating delays of Ore crushes
at the mine ??
Should we stockpile or not ??

• To minimize total waiting time and stockpile costs (Keep operations costs as low as possible).
• To improve productivity process and decreasing idle time of machines and labor.

College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018

 Attributes of the problem:
1. Rhythmic cycle which was set up not desirable to
break.

2. Worker in the mine might conceivably feel frustrated

and lose enthusiasm for their work , it it’s
periodically disrupted.

3. Long period of waiting will cause reduction in

efficiency and productivity in the mine.

4. Cost of resulting inefficiency could not measured

accurately . College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018
 shovel-truck cycle
1.7m
4.5 m
5.34m

5.34m
T1 arrived
while shovel
Activities T1 T2 T3 T4 still loading T4
loading from Shovel 0 4.5 9 13.5
Departure 4.5 9 13.5 18
Arrival after 1st Trip 16.88 22.5 27 31.5
2nd Departure 22.5 27 31.5 36

Idle time for shovel-truck cycle = 18-16.88 = 1.12 m

College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018

 Applying Stockpile
• When?
• Benefits:
– Ore will reach faster
• Costs:
– Additional costs
– Saving costs
• Re-handling stockpile

College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018

 Bridging Duration

(332x12.86)/120= 35.6 min per shift

College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018

College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018
 Should we stockpile?
Aspects Stockpile Moving from shovel area
to waste Area
Total cost $385 $783.2
Cost per truck $32.5 $71.2

So it is better to stockpile

A stockpile of 2181.6 tonnes will be built during

bridging

College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018

 Recommendation
• Decreasing waiting times at crushers and fixing
machines maintenance .
• We can reduce number of trucks to only 3 trucks
to be used and thereby reducing one truck idle
cost of 26.24$/hr.
• Running multiple scenarios for re-handling
stockpile to find the optimum point for minimum
cost.
• Decreasing bridging by soften and decreasing
rock sizes.
College of Engineering | Dr. Amin Chaabane | ESM 685 |Spring 2018