minefed quickstart user guide (1).pdf
TRANSCRIPT
QuickStart Guide
January 2009
For MineFED version 0.9.9.30
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1.0 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 3
1.1 PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT............................................................................................ 3
1.2 OUR MINE DESIGN ......................................................................................................... 3
2.0 GET STARTED ................................................................................................................ 4
2.1 INSTALLING THE APPLICATION ............................................................................................ 4
2.1.1 DATABASE CONFIGURATION .............................................................................................. 4
2.2 MAIN SCREEN ................................................................................................................ 6
3.0 CREATING A PROJECT .................................................................................................... 6
4.0 CREATING A DATA SET .................................................................................................. 9
4.1 IMPORTING DATA ........................................................................................................ 10
4.1.1 IMPORTING BLOCK MODEL DATA ..................................................................................... 10
4.1.2 IMPORTING STRING DATA................................................................................................ 15
4.2 VALIDATING A DATA SET ................................................................................................ 22
4.3 ASSIGNING DESTINATIONS .............................................................................................. 23
4.4 REVIEWING STRINGS ..................................................................................................... 28
5.0 CREATING A SCENARIO ............................................................................................... 30
6.0 SETTING UP AND WORKING WITH A SCENARIO ........................................................... 31
6.1 SELECTING A DATA SET .................................................................................................. 31
6.2 SETTING SCENARIO DETAILS ............................................................................................ 33
6.3 SETTING BENCH DETAILS ................................................................................................ 34
6.4 SETTING FLEETS ........................................................................................................... 35
6.5 SETTING MINING STAGE SEQUENCE .................................................................................. 37
6.6 SHOWING THE BENCH SUMMARY ..................................................................................... 38
6.7 SETTING ROSTERS ......................................................................................................... 39
6.8 SHOWING RESULT DETAILS ............................................................................................. 40
6.8.1 SCHEDULE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................... 40
6.8.2 QUANTITY SCHEDULE GRAPH ........................................................................................... 42
6.8.3 SCHEDULE DETAILS ......................................................................................................... 43
6.8.4 BLOCK DETAILS .............................................................................................................. 45
6.9 OPTIMISING TRUCKING .................................................................................................. 47
7.0 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 51
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1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT
To demonstrate the most elementary functions of MineFED, we have supplied some sample Surpac
data and a set of instructions on what to do with it
1.2 OUR MINE DESIGN
We will import a simple block model representing the volumes of three material types (High Grade,
Low Grade and Waste) from a single stage in a single pit
We’ll also import a single ramp and five out-of-pit roads (OOPs) to five destinations: a Run-of-Mine
processing plant (ROM) for high-grade material, a low-grade stockpile for low-grade material and
three lifts of a waste dump for waste. Because our dump will have a maximum capacity of only
65M LCM, we will employ a dumping strategy that moves 30M LCM of waste to the lift RL 1185,
followed by 24M LCM to go to the lift at RL 1195, followed by 11M LCM to RL 1210 lift. This data is
all stored and managed in a Data Set
Then we will create a Scenario in which we set a fleet and some basic parameters such as the
schedule reporting period, and its effective production hours. After we’ve looked at the baseline
results of our mine design data through this very basic Scenario, we’ll refine the Scenario
conditions to optimise the trucking, and look at how this change affects the calculated results
SB 1210 RL (11M bcm)
SB 1195 RL (17M bcm)
Pit stg 5
GB Stockpile (vol unlimited)
TB ROM (vol unlimited)
SB 1185 RL (22M bcm)
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Any MineFED results displayed in list view can be exported to MS Excel to be compared or used in
subsequent processing outside MineFED
The data supplied for this document is named as follows:
• Block Model Pit.csv
• OOPs and Ramp for Data Design 1 OOPsSBPlusRamp.str
2.0 GET STARTED
2.1 INSTALLING THE APPLICATION
MineFED can be installed via the supplied internet link
Click Install
You get two security warnings
In each case, select Run
2.1.1 Database Configuration
You are ready to configure a database
In the discovered SQL Server Instances list
Click (local)\SQLEXPRESS
Click Select this Server
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Under Create a new, empty Database with this name: …
Enter a name for your database
Click Create New Database
Click Close
We’ve called our database SimpleDemo
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2.2 MAIN SCREEN
You are now in the application in your new database, ready to use MineFED
The main application screen is displayed showing an empty Project list
3.0 CREATING A PROJECT
All work in MineFED is done in Projects
Let’s create a Project…
In the Project List window
Click File > New
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The Project form is displayed…
Click OK
You are returned to the Project List screen…
Double click on Demo, or
Right mouse click and select Open “Demo” in a new form from the context menu
Note the list now contains the new Project
and any data fields that you entered in the
Project form
Enter any Project data fields as desired,
but you must enter a Project Name
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The full Project window for Demo is displayed
Note the three basic Materials supplied with MineFED. These can be added to and/or customised to
be either Project-specific, or used as is across the entire database
We will use the three default Materials as is
The Default SG values for the Materials are used
only when a Block data file contains no SG values
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4.0 CREATING A DATA SET
In the Tree, right click on Data Sets: (0)
Click the Create a New Data Set tag
Then change the name to Data Design 1
Click OK
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4.1 IMPORTING DATA
Now you need to import some data into this Data Set…
4.1.1 Importing Block Model Data
In the tree, click on Data Design 1
The full Data Set window for Data Design 1 is opened
The Data Set List of Links prompts you to import data by enabling the Import Data From File option
Click Import a data file into this Data Set…
The File Import Wizard is initiated
List of Links
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First, import the Block file Pit.csv
Click Open
Click Next
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Because this is the first time we are importing data into this database, we need to tell MineFED
about the file format. MineFED will remember the settings by creating an Import Definition
4.1.1.1 CREATING AN IMPORT DEFINITION FOR A BLOCK FILE
The file type definition screen is displayed, showing a preview of the first 50 lines of the file…
Under the Select the Definition: menu
Click the Importing a pit/stage with one row for each block button
Click Next
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The Material Types confirmation screen is displayed to allow any adjustments to Material Type
details
Click Next
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The full view of the mapping form is displayed…
Continue to scroll over to the right of the window
Click on the column down-arrow to select the closest matching column name for each data field
from the Block file to be mapped to MineFED
Click Next
Explore the Browse options if you wish
Click Finish to save
You are now at the point where the:
• Total SG, Volume and Weight values of each Material have been calculated
• Imported Block data has been saved to the database
Has Header Row is automatically detected and checked for us
Ignore import row if the following is true… (Leave blank for this file)
Some of the data column names are auto mapped…
….but for each column that is not auto mapped, you can select from the dropdown box
of data names at the top of each column
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4.1.2 Importing String Data
Now that the Block data is in your Data Set, you need to import the haulage route Strings…
Once again in the Data Set window, click the Import a data file into this Data Set… button
Click the button to bring up the Import Data File dialogue
Once again, we are returned to the file selection dialogue box…
This time, you need to click on the Files of type: selection box to be able to select All files [*.*] so
that you can access the .str file types
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Now both .str and .csv files are displayed…
We will import the OOP Strings together with the Pit Ramp String
Click on OOPsSBPlusRamp.str > Open
The file name we selected is now displayed in the text box…
Click Next
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The Select the definition menu has defaulted to Create a new definition because the file preview
does not match the existing definition that we just created (Single Row Block Import Definition)
So, looking at the file preview of the first 50 lines of the file…
We can see we need to create a different Import Definition to link these columns to the format
required by MineFED…
Note how this file structure differs from
the Block file structure -- the Import
Definition we created for the Block data
will not map these fields correctly
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4.1.2.1 CREATING AN IMPORT DEFINITION FOR A STRING FILE
Under the Create a new definition option
Click radio button Importing a string file > Next
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Note how each row of data
represents a Point on a String
Individual Strings are delimited
by a row of zeros which need to
be ignored
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As we did in the Block data import, click the dropdown selection boxes to map each field to a column
Click Next
Explore the Browse options if you wish
Click Next
Click Finish to save
So, if the first column (String Name) has a value of 0, the import is
to treat this as the end of a given String
Note that, unlike our Block file format, Surpac puts its Y
coordinate for a Point in the first column, preceding the
X coordinate
We must tick Has Header Row, or the file headers will be imported as String data
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Returning to the tree, expand the Strings node to show that you have imported six Strings
As part of the import process, seven Connection Points have been created. MineFED analyses all
haul route Strings in a Data Set to identify likely connecting points between them, and also to
mark them as origin and destination points of the String
Start and End Points (see String 11901) are
calculated by MineFED and defined as Connection
Points in the Haul Route
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4.2 VALIDATING A DATA SET
We now need to be sure that the data meets some very basic validation standards such as haul
routes being available to all Blocks; that the slopes are not too high for trucks to travel; that all
roads connect properly, and so forth. More detailed checks will be carried out later in the
Schedule Calculations
From the Data Set List of Links…
Click Validate Data Set
The Validate button is displayed
Click the Validate button
Click OK
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4.3 ASSIGNING DESTINATIONS
You are returned to the main Data Set window, where you are now ready to link Material Types to
Destinations, assign Destination Volumes and coordinate the Destination fill sequences
From the Data Set List of Links…
Click Assign Destinations
The Connection Points and a visualisation of the haul profiles and the Pit are displayed
All Data Set options are now enabled
To assist in identifying and naming
your Connection Points and
Destinations, when you click on a Point
Name, the Point is highlighted in the
Visualisation
Let’s begin by editing the Connection Point
names to give them meaningful Destination
names… It can be very tedious, otherwise, to
work with nothing but XYZ coordinates
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To follow our mining plan as described in the introduction, name all the Connection Points as in the
following list:
After the Points are named, Destinations can then be identified by converting the appropriate
Connection Point into a Destination…
Click on the Make into Destination box next to each Point
The Select Material Destination window is displayed…
Click the Material Destination radio button to identify it as a Destination
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The form now displays more fields to be entered about the Destination…
Click OK
We will choose to:
• Leave the system default Dump Time at 1.5000 minutes
• Set the Volume for this lift to 11,000,000 LCM
• Assign this destination to be filled only after the lower-
level lift Waste Dump 1195.000 has been filled
• And then…
…finally, we will check Waste as the Material
to go this Destination
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In the same way, continue to convert Connection Points to Destinations, assigning the following
values for the Waste lifts:
SB Waste 1185.000 is the connection point representing the centroid of the lowest lift in our dump.
We are assigning it the greatest Volume of 30M LCM, and leave Fill After sequence blank as we
wish to have this lift filled first
SB Waste 1195.000 is the connection point representing the centroid of the middle lift in our dump.
We are assigning it a lesser Volume of 24M LCM, and select Destination SB Waste 1185.000 for
the Fill After value
In turn, SB Waste 1195.000 becomes the Fill After value for SB Waste 1210.000, as described above
Now, assign the following Destination attributes for Low and High Grade materials…
Destination Volumes and Fill After sequences are not required for our Low and High Grade materials,
so we assign nothing more than a Material Type to these to Destinations, so that MineFED knows
where each material is going; Low Grade to GB LG Stockpile and High Grade to TB ROM
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Finally, In Pit and Pit Exit are left in their default status as Connection Points, as these are not
material Destinations: they merely mark the two points at which the Ramp begins in the Pit and
ends at the Pit Exit, and connect to all the OOPs
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4.4 REVIEWING STRINGS
Similarly to Assign Destinations, you may want to rename your Strings to something that is easier to
identify. The Review Strings function also allows you to assign the availability of a String to a given
Pit/Stage only. For example, this road could be a part of a future Stage, or perhaps be mined out
over time and therefore disappear
In our current set of data, all Strings are available to all Pit/Stages
From the Data Set List of Links…
Click on Review Strings
A list of Strings is displayed
We will change this String’s name to Ramp
1101… just edit it directly in its box
Click on a String Name to see it highlighted
on the visualisation
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Just for demonstration purposes, we will restrict the availability of Ramp 1101 to given Pit/Stage…
Click the button to the right of this String
The String/Pit Availability form is displayed
Click the check box for Pit stg5
Click OK
The Review Strings window now tells us to which Pit/Stages this road has been made available (Pit
stg5 – our only Pit/Stage)
The data in the Data Set is now complete. It is time to produce some results. First, you need to
create a Scenario…
We only have a single Pit/Stage defined at this time, but
we will assign the Ramp to this Stage nonetheless…
Now we can see to which Pit/Stages
Ramp 1101 has been made available
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5.0 CREATING A SCENARIO
The Scenario function allows you to capture a range of planning parameters such as Fleet
configurations and availability, and Pit/Stage mining sequences
Returning to the tree, click Scenarios > Create a new Scenario
The Create New Scenario form is displayed. This window allows us to add and modify some general
details about the Scenario…
Enter values as follows for:
• Scenario Name Baseline
• Scenario Period Type Month
• Effective Hours per Period 500
• Site Speed Limit (km/hr) 110
(We’ll leave the remaining values at their defaults for now)
Click OK
You are returned to the list view displaying the new Scenario…
Double click on the new Scenario name Baseline to begin setting up and working with some
parameters and constraints
The Scenario details you entered are also
displayed in List view
Scenario Period Type is selected from a
dropdown box
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6.0 SETTING UP AND WORKING WITH A SCENARIO
6.1 SELECTING A DATA SET
The initial Scenario window showing some of the detail we entered is displayed. Also displayed is
the Scenario List of Links
Note that only Select Data Set is enabled. This tells you that you need to select a Data Set for this
Scenario
From the Scenario List of Links…
Click on Select Data Set
The Select Data Set form is displayed
Click on the dropdown selection box to select a Data Set
(You have created only one Data Set, so there’s
only one in the dropdown list to select)
List of Links
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Once the Data Set has been selected, a confirmation message is displayed
Note that now the first three Scenario links are enabled
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Returning to the Scenario List of Links…
Click on Set Scenario Details
The Set Scenario Details form is displayed
6.2 SETTING SCENARIO DETAILS
This form allows you to refine or add to any of the data you entered or omitted when you initially
created the Scenario
(We’ll leave the values in this form as they are)
Note that all Scenario link options are
now enabled
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From the Scenario List of Links…
Click Set Bench Details
The Set Bench Details form is displayed
6.3 SETTING BENCH DETAILS
This option allows you to modify the Bench design of your Pit/Stage by resetting any of the values
that are enabled in this window. You might use this function to report in Bench Heights that do
not match the Block sizes of your Block model data, or to hypothesise the effects of a different Pit
Floor RL
Manipulation of the Block size to larger values allows the calculations to run more quickly, while
using smaller values will result in greater granularity of detail. Please note that if you make this
Block size too small, particularly on large models, calculations may take an unacceptably long
time, or memory requirements may get too large. When importing your own data, the
recommended starting parameters would be: 30m x 30m x your Bench Height
(Again, we will just leave these values as they are)
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From the Scenario List of Links…
Click Set Fleets
The Set Fleets form is displayed
6.4 SETTING FLEETS
This is where you set combinations of truck and loader types to evaluate suitable pairings
Click Create Fleet
The New Fleet form is displayed
Enter Default Fleet in the Fleet Name
Simply select the Loader Type and Truck Type from the dropdown lists of Trucks and Loaders
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Click OK
You are returned to the Set Fleets form
Click on Default Fleet in the Fleet list
The Instant Productivity Table for this Fleet is displayed
Click the Instant Productivity Graph tab
The Instant Productivity Graph is displayed
Our Fleet is now ready to be used
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From the Scenario List of Links…
Click Set Mining Sequence
The Set Mining Sequence form is displayed
6.5 SETTING MINING STAGE SEQUENCE
Allows you to split Pit/Stages and Benches to order the sequence of Stages, and also to assign
specific Fleets to mine these new Benches
So as not to complicate the results of this very simple Scenario, we are ignoring this function
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From the Scenario List of Links…
Click Show Bench Summary
The Show Bench Summary window is displayed
6.6 SHOWING THE BENCH SUMMARY
The Calculating Bench Summary progress bar is displayed
When it completes…
…a list of the volumes of each Material to be mined, within each Bench defined for each Stage, is
displayed for you to review prior to running the calculations
If you click back in the List of Links to Set
Bench Details, you can see that we let the
Bench Height default to the Block Size Z
value (15m), so this Bench was generated
based on the imported Block size
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From the Scenario List of Links…
Click Set Rosters
The Set Rosters window is displayed
6.7 SETTING ROSTERS
This is where you can vary, for given periods within the Scenario, the effective hours to be worked.
If, for example, mine operations take place in the north of Western Australia, it is foreseeable that
these will be restricted during annual rainy seasons. Such a restriction would need to be factored
into calculations using the Roster constraint
(We will not be setting any Roster periods for this demonstration Scenario)
At this point in building your Scenario, you would normally follow the order of the List of Links and
click on the Optimise Trucking function to run a Calculation and assign some trucking constraints
based on these results
But for the purposes of this demonstration, we want to be able compare the results of this Scenario
both before and after the optimisation process has been carried out
As all other parameters for our baseline Scenario are complete, it is now time to see the results so
far, and we will optimise the trucking as the final step in the demonstration
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From the Scenario List of Links…
Click Show Result Details
6.8 SHOWING RESULT DETAILS
This is where the Scenario calculations take place and reports are produced
First, the Calculating Schedule progress bar is displayed
When it completes…
…a window with four report tabs is displayed
The first report is the Schedule Summary
6.8.1 Schedule Summary
Provides a schedule for each Bench so that you can see the schedule period in which it gets mined,
and by which fleet. It also gives all the equipment usage summaries for that Bench to show
quantities moved and loader productivity
The total number of months
for this Schedule is 174
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Now, scrolling over to the far right of this report to Loader Productivity (the combined weighted
mean loader productivity for all Fleets with assignments to the Bench -- in this case, there is only
one Fleet)…
Let’s take particular note of these values prior to implementing some Truck optimising
These values show some reasonable consistency, ranging from 930 to 942 BCM for each selected
period
Having noted these values…
Loader Productivity
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Click the Quantity Schedule Graph tab
6.8.2 Quantity Schedule Graph
The default report for the Quantity Schedule is the Bar Graph
6.8.2.1 BAR GRAPH
Graphically represents the MineFED calculated schedule for each Material Type to give an
understanding of where and when the mine may be over- or under-producing
Next, within this Quantity Schedule report
Click the Line Graph tab
6.8.2.2 LINE GRAPH
Displays the total Material production quantities
You can refine the display of this
data by Period
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Click the Schedule Details tab
6.8.3 Schedule Details
For each Period (in this case, Month, as we selected for this Scenario), this report displays what each
Fleet is mining and with how many trucks, and how it is performing in terms of times and
quantities mined
It provides an understanding of the required resource hours that would be used in (ex-MineFED)
calculations of resource costs
As we will see shortly, this schedule is also used to assess Truck and Loader utilisation and
optimisation. When optimisation has been performed, the optimised Truck counts are reported
here
From the context menu
Click Export Selected Items (3) …
With screens containing large amounts of data, it is
very helpful to simply export it into MS Excel
To do this from any data list in MineFED, just right
mouse click on a list item to bring up a context
menu
Then choose to either export the only highlighted
item in the list (Export Selected Items), or to
Export All Items in the list
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Click Save to accept the default file name
The Excel report containing our three selected data rows is displayed
Once you have exited the Excel report…
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Click the Block Details tab
6.8.4 Block Details
The Block Detail report is the base data table showing MineFED’s most granular detail, containing
every available detail about the Material in a given Block as modelled in this Scenario, including
its:
• Calculated weight and volume
• Times and distances for in- and out-of-pit roads in the selected haul route
• Equipment (load/spot/dump/cycle) times and counts
This information provides the user with easily auditable results, and can be exported to CSV for
custom analysis in spreadsheets
To get a look at the full details for a single Block
Right click on a Block in the List view to display the context menu
Select Open …
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A one-page display of all the detail for a given Material type in a given Block is displayed
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6.9 OPTIMISING TRUCKING
A function allowing you to explicitly assign the minimum and maximum number of Trucks per Fleet
Still in the Show Result Details function, let’s exit from the Block Details and return once again to
the Schedule Details report…
Click the Schedule Details tab
From the beginning of the report, drag the Production Minutes and Month Number columns over to
the Truck 4 column
Then scroll over to the right and examine the Truck Usage minute columns for Trucks 4 to 7
We can see that until Truck 6 begins work, the Trucks are all generally working at a very reasonable
rate of roughly 26,500 minutes out of the available 30,000 Production Minutes (equal to the 500
Effective Hours per Month we specified in setting up the Scenario)
With Truck 6, however, the times earlier in the schedule become both very erratic and low indeed.
If you scroll straight down in the Truck 6 column, you will see that they only begin to consistently
approach more productive values later on in the schedule, at around Month 52
As we scroll down and still further to the right, we can see this pattern continuing as more Trucks
make their way into the schedule with some very low usage values – this makes it very expensive
to retain trucks and labour on site that are not as productive as they could be
This is where the ability to constrain Truck numbers to more productive levels can be of great value
This will be demonstrated after we have employed some optimisation on Truck numbers, bringing
the total number of Trucks available to be worked down to only five per Fleet until Month 52
Month 52
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Click Optimise Trucking
Click the tab for Default Fleet Trucking
Click Add an Item
The Add New Fleet Constraint form is displayed
Click OK
Enter the Start Period and End Period for which we wish the
maximum number of trucks to work:
Start Period 1 (from Month 1 on the schedule)
End Period 52 (until Month 52 on the schedule)
Min Truck leave blank
Max Truck 5
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The table of Fleet Constraints is displayed
Click Calculate
Again, the Calculating Schedule progress bar is displayed
When it completes…
…a new tab is now displayed next to Default Fleet Trucking
Click on the Schedule Fleets Result tab
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The results of the calculation incorporating this new constraint are displayed…
So you can see now, at Month 53, the usage of Truck 6 is far more productive, but with a
corresponding:
• Increase in the overall schedule, and
• Drop in Loader Productivity, as we shall see next
Click Show Result Details to see the new results of the calculations based on this constraint (5 Trucks
only in Months 1 to 52)
In the Schedule Summary report
Click Month Number to order the report by Month
Note that the Schedule has lengthened to now run until Month 177
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Now, scrolling over to the far right of this report to the Loader Productivity column…
Where the Loader Productivity values prior to the Truck optimising showed some reasonable
consistency ranging from 930 to 942 BCM for each selected period, they are now considerably
lower, ranging from 871 to 918 in the 55-month period (the period for which we constrained the
Trucks)
From this we can see that the gains to be made in employing Truck optimisation will necessitate
trade-offs in terms of both scheduling and productivity -- in this case, however, optimisation
seems to be warranted as the overall cost savings from having fewer trucks on site appear to be
justified by the relatively small changes in loader productivity
7.0 CONCLUSION
We have now covered some of the most basic functions of MineFED so that you can see and
understand some of the reports and results that it produces. Once optimisation is completed and
planning results are final, the Block Detail results can be exported and used as granular baseline
targets for operations. The results contain all the detail for assumptions made during planning,
such as the areas being mined during each period and the dumps to be used
The schedule details contain information about when loader productivity has been deliberately
truck-constrained for best long-term (cost) results. In addition to providing information for
operations, the exported results are ideal for use as targets as real-time systems become
implemented