MINE 325

COMPUTER APPLICATIONS

Introduction
 LEARNING OUTCOMES

• At the end of this section, the student

should be able to:

Explain the engineering design process

Apply the process to mine planning & design

2
 OUTLINE

• Mine planning & design

• Engineering design
process

3
Mine Planning & Design

4
 WHAT IS A MINE PLAN?

• A set of engineering drawings, specifications,

schedules, procedures, equipment, etc. which
together specify the plan for developing,
exploiting, or closing a mine

• They are usually classified by time horizon or

objectives

5
 CLASSIFICATION

Time horizon

• Short range (daily, weekly, monthly up to 1 year)

• Medium range (3-5 year horizon)

• Long range (>5 to Life of Mine)

Objectives

• Tactical

• Strategic

6
STRATEGIC VS. TACTICAL ENVIRONMENTS
Strategic Tactical
To determine the objectives To attain the objectives
Obtain best value Obtain lowest costs
Design Implementation
Determine limitations and constraints Identify the resources to achieve the
plan
Match the components to maximize the Allocate the resources to particular
objective, i.e. max NPV, IRR, etc. tasks
Test the effect of various strategies and Test the effect of various operating
scenarios practices
Identify variances and develop Identify variances and develop
corrective strategies corrective practices

Kear (2006): “Strategic and tactical mine planning components”, J. of SAIM, Vol. 106, pp. 93-96
 Input & Output

Input examples Output examples

• Geologic information (e.g. • Capital outlay & schedule
drill hole data) • Reserves
• Topo and land resources • Designs (e.g. CAD
• Land uses drawings)
• Equipment needs
• Surface and groundwater
hydrology • Labor needs
• Geotechnical data
• Metallurgical data

8
Mine Planning & Feasibility Studies

• A feasibility study involves

more than technical
feasibility (mine plan)

• The mine plan is a critical

piece of the feasibility study

9
Engineering Design &
Mine Planning

10
 Engineering Design
Process
Establish design
objectives and
specifications

Determine
Implement the best
measures of
design
performance

Select optimal Generate design

alternative alternatives

Evaluate and test

alternatives
11
1. DESIGN OBJECTIVES

12
Setting Design Objectives

• The client’s problem statement, although

the starting point, may not always
capture all that is desired
• “What does it mean to design a feasible, safe,
and economic open pit mine?”

• You need to ask the right questions

• Make a list of desired attributes

13
List of Desired Attributes

• Brainstorm as a team for

desired attributes

• Team leaders should

ensure non-intimidating
environment

• You are going to make

your objectives from your
list of desired attributes

14
Sample list

1. Design/plan should
result in low cost
operation

2. Plan should be safe

3. Plan should maximize

value

4. Plan must be legal

(e.g. meet MINES AND
QUARRIES
requirements)
15
 Definitions

• Objective: An aim or end product toward

which we direct effort during the design
process (e.g. mine plan should be
economic)

• Constraint: A limitation to be placed on

what we can do. Restricts the design space
(e.g. pit slope should result in SF > limit)

• Function: An action that the product/plan

should accomplish or is specially fitted to
do (e.g. loading system should be
selective)
16
 Desired Attributes List
• The desired attributes list will
contain objectives, functions, and
constraints, which need to be
separated

• Objectives need to be classified to

produce a hierarchical list

17
 Objective Trees

• Hierarchical list of objectives to illustrate

relationships

Pit(s)
Slope stability
Safe Waste dump(s)
Haulage equip.

Safe & feasible

mine plan Max. NPV or
IRR

Economic Min. CAPEX

Min. OPEX
18
 Constraints

• Various constraints
exist in mine planning
and design

• Making a good list of

constraints now will
help guide the process

19
 2. Metrics
(performance
measures)

20
 Define Metrics

• Metrics help:

• Measure the success of a

particular alternative or
design choice in meeting an
objective

• Rank the importance of each

objective relative to the others

21
Caution on Metrics

• Metrics should be repeatable

• The outcome of metrics assessment

should be expressed in
understandable units of measure

• Metrics should elicit only

unambiguous interpretation

22
 Determine Points Scale

• Determine appropriate scale for

all measures
• Use-value analysis
Value analysis is a set of techniques,
knowledge, and skills used to improve
the value of a product by eliminating
unnecessary costs or improving its
functions without compromising its
quality, reliability, and performance.

• VDI 2225 (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure)

• Develop appropriate mapping

from metric to scale

23
 Determine Points Scale
Use-Value Analysis VDI 2225
Solution Value Points Perceived Value Points
Awarde Awarde
d d
Absolutely useless 0 Unsatisfactory 0
Very inadequate 1 Tolerable 1
Weak 2 Adequate 2
Tolerable 3 Good 3
Adequate 4 Very good (ideal) 4
Satisfactory 5
Good – with drawbacks 6
Good 7
Very good 8
Exceeds requirements 9
Excellent 10
24
 Determine Points Scale

• Example with mining cost/tonne

1. Establish reasonable range of cost/tonne
2. Use a sliding scale to map cost/tonne to VDI 2225
point scale

Estimated mining cost/tonne VDI 2225 perceived VDI 2225

($/t) value Points

>9 Unsatisfactory 0

7-9 Just tolerable 1

5-7 Adequate 2

3-5 Good 3

<3 Very good (ideal) 4

25
 Ranking Objectives

• Various decision approaches exist to rank

objectives (multi-criteria decision analysis

literature)

1. Pair-wise comparisons

2. Analytical Hierarchy Process

26
 Pairwise Comparison
• Each objective is compared to the others and ranked
• 0 if it is less important
• 1 if it is more important
• 0.5 of they are equally important

• Sum the scores on each row to determine the overall

score

• Sum for all the designers in the team to determine

overall rank
Objectives Economic Safe Sustainable Score

Economic --

Safe --

Sustainable --

27
 Pairwaise Comparison

• Pairwise comparison only gives you the ranking

of the objectives and not the relative
importance (percentage contribution)

• Should only be done with 0/1 (or 0.5 for ties) to

maintain transitivity (A > B, B > C implies A > C)

• Do not use pairwise comparison as a means to

establish percentage contribution to the
decision

28
3. The rest of the
process

29
Engineering Design
Process
Establish design
objectives and
specifications

Determine
measures of
Implement the best performance
design

Select optimal Generate design

alternative alternatives

Evaluate and test

alternatives
30
Apply this process
repeatedly
• To the global problem (planning & design of a

mine)

• To sub-problems

• Designing a waste dump

• Designing a tailings storage facility

• Designing the pit or underground openings

31
 Further Reading

• Dym, C. L. and Little, P.

(2006), Engineering
Design: A Project-Based
Introduction, pp. 46-76;
Chapter 3: Defining the
Client’s Design Problem

32
 Summary
• A mine plan is set of engineering drawings, specifications,
schedules, procedures, equipment, etc. which together specify
the plan for developing, exploiting, or closing a mine

• They are usually classified by time horizon or objectives

• A mine plan is a critical piece of a feasibility study

• The engineering design process involves:

1. Establish design objectives & specifications

2. Determine performance measures (metrics)

3. Generate design alternatives

4. Evaluate & test alternatives

5. Select optimal alternative

6. Implement the best design alternative

33