Abstract
A mining complex or mineral value chain consists of a group of mines where raw materials are extracted and sent to multiple stockpiles, waste dumps, and processing facilities. The raw materials are continuously transformed to generate marketable products and are transported across the different facilities through interconnected material handling and transportation methods up to the clients. The traditional software solutions available in the market for the long-term production planning and forecasting of mining complexes are commonly deterministic and follow a sequential optimization workflow. Thus, these technologies only allow the input of a single estimated model of the mineral deposits, and various software tools are needed to define pit limits, pushbacks design, the sequence of extraction in the mines, cut-off grades, stockpiling and blending requirements, waste and tailings management, and so on. A new software technology is now available to the mining industry for the simultaneous stochastic optimization of long-term design and production planning and forecasting of mining complexes. This solution allows inputting simultaneously a set of geostatistical simulations of the mineral deposits, integrating the uncertainty and variability in metal content within the mineral deposits into strategic planning optimization. Its simultaneous optimization method also allows capitalizing on the operational synergies across the mining complex. A case study at a copper mining complex demonstrates that this new technology generates life-of-mine production schedules with substantially higher NPV while managing technical risks in meeting production targets compared to industry-standard software solutions. In addition, the solution simplifies the long-term planning workflow, reducing the need for many software tools and cumbersome iterations between them. Finally, joint supply (geological) and demand (commodity price) uncertainties can also be used for the risk management and assessment of the generated production forecasts.