A high-level dynamic analysis approach for studying global process plant availability and production time in the early stages of mining projects

Abstract

In the early stage of front-end studies of a Mining Project, the global availability (i.e. number of hours a plant is available for production) and production (number of hours a plant is actually operated with material) time of the process plant are normally assumed based on the experience of the study team. Understanding and defining the availability hours at the early stages of the project are important for the future stages of the project, as drastic changes in work hours will impact the economics of the project at that stage. An innovative high-level dynamic modeling approach has been developed to assist in the rapid evaluation of assumptions made by the study team. This model incorporates systems or equipment that are commonly used in mining projects from mine to product stockyard discharge after the processing plant. It includes subsystems that will simulate all the component handling, and major process plant systems required for a mining project. The output data provided by this high-level dynamic simulation approach will enhance the confidence level of engineering carried out during the early stage of the project. This study discusses the capabilities of the approach, and a test case compared with standard techniques used in mining project front-end studies.

Economic advantages of dynamic analysis in the early stages of mining projects

“…The use of dynamic simulation is technically (Cremonese et al, 2017) and economically advantageous for the project as previously shown. However, it is only possible using the innovative "Highlevel Dynamic Analysis Approach" developed by Cremonese et al (2017), since the development of a simulation model from scratch is more time-consuming and expensive.…”

“…The influence of the bin size in the process plant capacity is not the purpose of this work and can be seen in Cremonese et al (2017). These changes could have been avoided if the simulation had been carried out in the previous phase.…”

“…Estimation of the delay in the project, due to the changes and consequently the delay in the beginning of the enterprise's implementation; 4. Estimation of the "man hours" necessary to develop a dynamic simulation study considering high-level dynamic analysis developed by Cremonese et al (2017); 5. Calculation of the change cost in each project; 6.…”

“…The use of dynamic simulation is technically advantageous for the project as shown by various authors (Cardoso and Teles, 1997;Altiok, 2010;Juliá, 2010;Bergquisst, 2012;Asbjörnsson et al, 2013;Cremonese et al, 2017). It is usual to apply dynamic simulation in FEL3 phase.…”

“…As the innovative work shown by Cremonese et al (2017), the time to develop a study can be decreased to hours (not weeks as usual) and the information obtained to make the model and the outputs of the simulation will decrease the information lack. The dynamic simulation will decrease the number of project changes and uncertainties.…”