A comprehensive review of literature published during the last two decades shows that Fullymobile In-pit Crushing and Conveying systems (FMIPCC) systems in surface mines have been increasingly studied by the mining industry and have been adopted more often by mines having tabular deposits. In Australia, the majority of FMIPCC implementations have failed to address persistent problems of overestimation of FMIPCC efficiency over the past few decades, leading to low confidence in the uptake of the system. Additionally, current time utilisation models predict single-point values and do not account for the dynamic relationship with the variability of key mine design inputs (including bench width, bench height and bench length) on system utilisation. This research focuses on investigating the influence of key mine design variables (geometry approaches, sequencing and scheduling) on the performance of FMIPCC systems in open pit and open cut applications. The methodology used in this research first establishes the relationship between key mine design variables and FMIPCC performance and then develops a novel approach for predicting FMIPCC utilisation using stochastic variables derived from historic operational data. This research further investigates of the impact of open pit exploitation schemes on FMIPCC utilisations using a case study typical of Australian coal mining. The study result predicts FMIPCC operating time ranging from 3,379 -5,233 hours and 4,347 -4,963 hours based on a confidence interval (CI) of 95% and 50% respectively. The novel contributions of this research include the development of an improved stochastic approach to time utilisation modelling of FMIPCC systems. The potential exists to extend its use to other alternative continuous haulage systems remains. Additionally, this is the first work to comprehensively evaluate the effects of mine planning variables on the overall effective utilisation of FMIPCC systems. A comprehensive historical equipment performance data set is used to document system performance ranges along with simple statistical distributions. Finally, the research has developed the first stochastic tool for modelling the utilisation of FMIPCC, considering variability of the key modelling inputs. This research successfully fulfilled its objectives by providing evidence to support the hypothesis that a source of underperformance is linked to overestimation of productive hours and throughput of FMIPCC systems. Future work should extend this research work to investigate the application of FMIPCC beyond in-pit material handling, including ex-pit environment and integrated study of multiple open pits.
This research demonstrates financial derivative trade of unprocessed materials, for the mining industry through legal smart contracts. Within the mining supply chain, a stock of mined resources can reside in a mineral stockpile for over twenty years without gaining financial interest and without undergoing the mineral extraction process to derive value from the asset. This research elaborates on a blockchain solution implemented to increase miners’ short-term cash flow for business operations through the issuance of derivative assets on mineral stockpiles which can be traded through legally binding smart contracts. The system is the first to enable mining companies’ access to the underlying asset’s value earlier in the production lifecycle through smart contract technology whilst providing hedge funds with access to new financial products for investment portfolios.
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