Digital Technologies and Risk Management in Strategic Mine Planning

Content and course objectives

This one-day course presents the new generation of aplied technologies that take mine planning and production scheduling optimization, and asset valuation including reserve estimation and reporting to a new level: Simultaneous optimization of mining complexes - mineral value chains with uncertainty. Uncertainty refers to material supply (material types and grades) from mines quantified with geostatistical simulations. Demand uncertainty (markets) is also integrated into the new digital technologies for life-of-mine planning, as part of strategic risk management.  

A mining complex – mineral value chain refers to the integration of mining and processing operations with multiple pits and/or underground mines, multiple metals or minerals, stockpiles, blending options and alternative processing streams to yield sellable products delivered to various customers and/or spot market. 

Simultaneous optimization of mining complexes aims to generate a production schedule for the various mines and processing streams that maximizes the economic value of the enterprise as a whole, in terms of market value of metal product(s) market value, and provides a new advanced framework and methodologies for reserve estimation and classification.  

Emphasis is placed on the downstream applications pertinent to the feasibility, development and planning stages of mining ventures, as well as in the financial optimization of relevant aspects of operations and production, stressing mineral reserve estimation and classification.

Participants will

• Discover how and why risk-based models create value and opportunities  
• Understand how to quantify and utilize grade/tonnage/metal uncertainty and variability
• Learn about efficient simulation methods for modelling orebodies and how to utilise the results in pertinent mining applications  
• Understand with examples the limits of conventional open pit and underground mine optimization and effects on long-term mine planning, scheduling and production forecasts 
• Understand how to use quantified orebody risk in ore reserve estimation, mine planning and design, and mineral project valuation
• Learn about the new stochastic mine planning framework for life-of-mine optimization
• Learn about the simultaneous stochastic optimization of mining complexes and mineral value chains with supply and demand uncertainty
• Be exposed to actual industry examples and comparisons of stochastic mine planning and production scheduling in diverse applications (gold, copper, iron ore and nickel laterite mines)  
• Be introduced to uncertainty in recoverable reserves, pit design and production scheduling with simulated orebodies (disseminated gold deposit)
• Be exposed to a new cut-off grade optimization framework for mineral value chains, affecting ore reserve estimation and reporting 
• Understand why the stochastic mine planning framework generates substantially better mine plans and production forecasts, representing an important paradigm change
• Explore the practicality of tools available for industry applications