Operational Decision Support for Material Management in Continuous Mining Systems: From Simulation Concept to Practical Full-Scale Implementations

Abstract

Material management in opencast mines is concerned with planning, organizing, and control of the flow of materials from their extraction points to destinations. It can be strongly affected by operational decisions that have to be made during the production process. To date, little research has focused on the application of simulation modeling as a powerful supportive tool for decision making in such systems. Practical experiences from implementing a simulation model of a mine for the operational support on an industrial scale are not known to the authors. This paper presents the extension of a developed stochastic simulation model by the authors from a conceptual stage (TRL4) to a new Technology Readiness Level (TRL 6) by implementing it in an industrially relevant environment. A framework for modeling, simulation, and validation of the simulation model applied to two large opencast lignite mines is presented in detail. Operational implementation issues, experiences, and challenges in practical applications are discussed. Furthermore, the strength of applying the simulation modeling as an operational decision support for material management in coal mining is demonstrated. Results of the case studies are used to describe the details of the framework, and to illustrate the strength and limitations of its application.

Simulation-based optimization approach for material dispatching in continuous mining systems

“…To address your comment and make it clear for the readers, we have added a small paragraph in the section 2 of the revised manuscript mentioning that the stochastic simulation model of the Hambach mine is presented in the below stated papers. Moreover, it is stated in page 20 line 2 of the original manuscript that, "The detail of the construction of the simulation model of an opencast mine and simulation model interface can be found in (Shishvan & Benndorf, 2014;Shishvan & Benndorf, 2016;Shishvan & Benndorf, 2017)." Shishvan, M. S., & Benndorf, J.…”

“…Operational Decision Support for Material Management in Continuous Mining Systems: From Simulation Concept to Practical Full-Scale Implementations. Minerals, 7(7), 116. doi: 10.3390/min7070116 Shishvan & Benndorf, (2017), (~ 26 pages), discuss the development of the simulation model of the Hambach mine in very detail. Integrating all the detail of the simulation model to the current paper, which is already a long paper, was not possible.…”

Production Process Optimization of Metal Mines Considering Economic Benefit and Resource Efficiency Using an NSGA-II Model

“…However, the global increase in demand for minerals will continue [1]. Therefore, it is an urgent realistic problem to optimize the production process of metal mines for mining mineral resources with the greatest economic benefits and resource efficiency to better utilize the mineral resources for sustainable development [2].…”

Production Process Optimization of Metal Mines Considering Economic Benefit and Resource Efficiency Using an NSGA-II Model

“…The sensitivities of the Pareto-optimal solutions to the unit copper concentrate price were studied. The results show that the Pareto-optimal solutions at higher profits (with lower resource utilization rates) are more sensitive to the unit copper concentrate prices than those obtained in regions with lower profits.Processes 2018, 6, 228 2 of 22 realistic problem to optimize the production process of metal mines for mining mineral resources with the greatest economic benefits and resource efficiency to better utilize the mineral resources for sustainable development [2].The production process of metal mines is a complex industrial process, consisting of three unit processes in series, i.e., the exploration process, the mining process and the beneficiation process. The input of the latter unit process is the output of the previous one [3,4].…”

“…Processes 2018, 6, 228 2 of 22 realistic problem to optimize the production process of metal mines for mining mineral resources with the greatest economic benefits and resource efficiency to better utilize the mineral resources for sustainable development [2].…”