Application of optimized models through direct block scheduling in traditional mine planning.

Abstract

Many papers have been published by the scientific community on the development of techniques that use direct block scheduling (DBS) to solve open pit production scheduling problems, and have compared the results obtained with DBS to those obtained with conventional methods for mine planning. The most significant advantage of using DBS is the possibility of maximizing the economic value to each project. However, until recently, the computational complexity of DBS has prevented it from being used to solve problems on an industrial scale, where there are a large number of mine blocks to deal with and many constraints. While much research has already been conducted and many new tools and algorithms have been developed to solve this global open pit production-scheduling problem, this article proposes the use of optimized models obtained through DBS as part of the conventional medium-term planning methodology to take advantage of its benefits without being hindered by its limitations. Three different approaches to medium-term planning were compared. First, a renowned software package that is used in the mineral industry was used to execute conventional medium-term scheduling. Then, DBS was used to perform the same task. Finally, a combination of DBS and conventional scheduling was tested. Using the results provided by DBS, sectorization of specific areas was included in the conventional methodology to guide the scheduling and thus allow this combination to produce real benefits, even for large projects.