Srategic mine planning optimization process is the backbone of mining operations. In mining projects, deviations from optimal mine plans will result in significant financial losses, future financial liabilities, delayed reclamation, and resource sterilization. In this course, principles and fundamental concepts involved in strategic mine planning and optimization are presented.Subjects covered are block value calculations; mining revenues and costs; open pit limit optimization using manual method, floating cone, and 2D & 3D Lerchs and Grossmann algorithms; Pseudo Flow algorithm, life-of-mine production planning; mine-life estimation.Buffer stockpiles and its impact on mining and processing operations are presented. Blending problems are setup and solved. The course complements theory with comprehensive instructions, step-by-step documentation, and hands-on experience completing two projects including iron ore and gold-copper deposits using GEOVIA Whittle™ strategic mine planning software. Comparative analysis of different mine planning strategies, stockpiling, and their impacts on the bottom line of the mining business is illustrated.

Go to the Top

The life-of-mine plan determines the order of extraction of materials and their destinationsover the mine-life.The course coversadvanced strategic mine planning techniques using GEOVIA Whittle and SIMULIA Isight. The following topics are presented in this course: cut-off grade optimization and Lane’s theory; simultaneous optimization(SIMO); multi-mine multi-process production scheduling, automation andparametric design using SIMULIA Isight. Integration of SIMULIA Isight with GEOVIA Whittle allow mine planners to run hundreds of scenarios within one projectin a short period of time. Isight is a Process Integration and Design Optimization (PIDO) software framework, which enables various applications to be easily integrated. With Isight you can create flexible simulation process flows to automate the exploration of design alternatives and identification of optimal performance parameters. This course comprehensively covers the Design and Runtime Gateways along with several fundamental components, exposing users to the ways in which a workflow can be built in Isight and the ways in which the design space can be explored.We presentan approach on how to quantify and manage geological and grade uncertainty using Whittle and Isight. The course complements theory with comprehensive instructions and hands-on experience completing two projectsusing GEOVIA Whittle strategic mine planningsoftwareand SIMULIA Isight process automation tool. Comparative analysis of different production scenarios, stockpiling, cutoff optimization, SIMO, multi-mine and their impacts on the bottom line of the mining business is illustrated.Participants carry out strategic planning of iron ore, gold-copper, and polymetallic (zinc, lead, silver, copper) case studies.

Go to the Top  

Open Pit Mine and Waste Dump Design is a four-day course designed for mine planners, mining engineers, and geologist who are responsible for activities that require them to design and manage pits, ramps, switchbacks, slots, and waste dumps. It is ideally suited to those from industry who wish to gain a more in depth knowledge of modern mine planning and design theory and software tools.The participants will complete a pit-design project during the course. The course covers open pit design terminology, impactof loading and hauling equipmenton pit and waste dump design, working bench and safety berm geometry, haul road parameters and geometric pit design. Prior to engaging in pit design, the course reviews principles and fundamental concepts in creating points, strings, and triangulations; generations of plans and sectionsand tools required in pit design. In addition,surface and solid modeling for the purpose of open pit designis reviewed and practiced. The course includes a project for top-down and bottom-up pit designguided by year-end surfaces generated in a life-of-mine Whittle project. The project starts from the final optimal pit shell, intermediate pits shells, and the long-term schedulegenerated in Whittle. It covers topics on how to choose the required parameters such as berm width,variablepit slope angle, and batter angle to achieve a desired pit and dump design. The project continues with creating surface triangulations from the pit design, obtaining volumes, tonnages and grades reported by bench, rock type and grade range from the designed pit.

Go to the Top 

Principles and fundamental concepts involved in design of open pit mines are presented using GEOVIA GEMS software in three days. Outcomes of the course include: ·   Understand pit design parameters & components ·   Understand pit design theory ·   Use optimal pit shells in pit design ·   Select loading and hauling equipment ·   Define Bench geometry as a function of equipment specs ·   Understand haul road design ·  Design of toes, crests, ramps, switchbacks and slots ·  Define berm width, pit slope angle and batter angle ·  Create final pit designs and surfaces from the designs ·  Obtain volumes, tonnages and grades reported by bench ·   Design variable pit slopes ·   Handle multi-benching ·  Manage single-pit splitting to multi-pits ·   Design variable pit slopes based on rock-types ·  Carryout multi-benching ·   Design waste dumps.

Go to the Top 

Drillholes to Block Model is a five-day course that covers principles and fundamental concepts involved in drillhole database management; data manipulation, filtering, and validation techniques; drillhole compositing techniques; plot generations; surface and solid modeling for geological domain characterization; basic geostatistical analysis, variography and search ellipsoids setup, block model setup and estimation, single and multiple folder block models, inverse distance and kriging estimation, and NI-43-101 resource classification into measured, indicated, and inferred categories. This course will also explore different methods of categorizing and reporting volumes and tonnages for resources. The course complements theory with comprehensive instructions and hands-on experience using GEOVIA SURPAC software. Participants will complete a resource modeling project with an iron ore drillhole dataset. The project covers all the required steps from drillhole database setup to statistical analyses, experimental variogram calculation, variogram modeling, search ellipsoid setup, grade estimation using inverse distance and kriging, cross validation of results, and finally resource classification.      

Drillholes to Block Model is a five-day course designed for geologists, geo-modelers, geoscientists, mine planners, mining engineers, and technical managers who are responsible for activities that require them to generate or oversee drillhole database management to estimating block models. The course is designed to provide theory through lectures, complemented by a hands-on real-world resource modeling project using GEOVIA GEMS. An iron ore data set is used with other examples presented with a copper deposit.     

Fundamentals of Discrete Event Simulation (DES) modeling and its industrial applications to mining and processing systems are presented. Theoretical and statistical aspects of simulation, including input and output analysis, experimental design, and variance reduction techniques are presented. Arena Simulation Environment (by Rockwell Automation) is used as the primary modeling simulation tool for explaining simulation concepts. The course focuses on modeling detail truck-shovel simulation models that uses the historical dispatch data, road profiles, and short-term mine plans as input into the simulation model. The simulation models need to be calibrated, and verified to link the short-term mining schedules to the operational plans in presence of uncertainties of cycle times, scheduled and unscheduled down times, shift changes, etc. The rest of the course will focus on combined continuous and discrete-event simulation of processing systems. Size classifications including sieves and hydrocyclones; comminution operations including crushing machines, grinding, and semi-autogenous mills; solid-liquid separation including thickeners and filtration; and also gravity and magnetic separation modeling will be covered by examples. The course is intended for mining and processing engineering disciplines and participants who would like to use simulation to design and optimize real-world mining systems. On completion of this course, successful attendees will have an in depth understanding of principles and methodologies, of discrete event simulation. Also, they will be able to use Arena Simulation Software (Rockwell Automation) as the simulation modeling tool for simulating and optimizing real world systems. A series of labs using Arena Simulation Software (Rockwell Automation) are undertaken to model and optimize real world systems. Students undertake a complete simulation modeling/analysis project. The completed models and labs will be shared by the participants.      

Fundamentals of Mine Planning and Design are covered as a software independent course. The course focuses on theory and guidelines for best practices in pit limits optimization, life-of-mine production scheduling, open pit mine and waste dump design, haul road design concepts, short-term production scheduling, design of experiments and Monte Carlo simulation used in parametric mine design, and applications of industrial strength discrete event simulation modeling to operational planning of mines. Topics covered include: Introduction to Strategic Mine Planning & Optimization, Pit Limits I – Manual, Floating Cone, 2D Lerchs & Grossman, Pit Limits II – 3D Lerchs & Grossman, Pseudo Flow Algorithm, Block Value Calculations, What Costs to Include in Pit Optimization, Long-Term Production Scheduling Concepts, Production Scheduling – Practical Push Backs – Max NPV, Production Scheduling - Mining Direction Control, Buffer Stockpiles and Blending, Cutoff Optimization and Simultaneous Optimization, Design of Experiments – Automated Parameterized Production Scheduling, Geometrical Pit Design Concepts – From Optimal Pit Shells to Design, Working Bench Geometry as a Function of Equipment Size, Haul Road Requirements – Windrows and Ditches, Exercise – Batter Angle, Bench Width, and Inter-ramp Calculations, Waste Rock Dump Design Factors, Short-Term Mine Planning, Mining Blocks / Benches o Whole / Bench-polygons, Haulage Road Networks Models, Creating Automated Mining Polygons based on Rock Type and Shape Similarity, Loading & Hauling Equipment Productivity Calculations, Truck-Shovel Key Performance Indicators with Historical Data, Industrial Strength Operational Simulation.  

Go to the Top