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Strategy and Tactics in Mine Planning

Jon Barber, Vice President, Minex - Gemcom Software International Inc.
Brad Moore, GUI Designer, Gemcom Software International Inc.

WHITE PAPER
 Gemcom Minex™ - Strategy and Tactics in Mine Planning – J.Barber & B. Moore

The mining industry has traditionally categorised mine planning by time period. Job advertisements seek
“short or long term planners”. Gemcom, the largest global supplier of mining productivity solutions, prefer the
military or operations research terms of strategic and tactical planning. Generals and politicians decide
strategy; combat and field troops decide tactics.
Strategy and tactics are not new, Alexander the Great realised his goals by having his troops carry their food
and equipment and thus achieved army mobility unmatched in its day. WWII operations research focused on
tactics, such as bomb accuracy, equipment maintenance and troop deployment (1,2).
Camus has championed the importance of strategic and tactical mine planning: “In summary strategic mine
planning is concerned with those decisions that largely determine the value of the business, and tactical
mine planning is concerned with the tasks required to actually achieve that value. Both types of planning are
necessary; they can be looked at separately, even discussed separately, but they cannot be separated in
3
practice.”
Camus crystallises strategic and tactical planning with two figures. First, strategic and tactical planning are
part of a continuum. Strategic planning must be revised or reinvented yearly as markets, currency and
technology changes (Figure 1). Second, strategic planning determines business value (Figure 2).

Figure 1: Strategic and Tactical Planning and the life cycle of mining (Camus 2003).

Figure 2: Tactical and Strategic Planning (Camus 2003).

Copyright © 2011 Gemcom Software International Inc. Page 2 of 6

 Gemcom Minex™ - Strategy and Tactics in Mine Planning – J.Barber & B. Moore

Minex Planning
The Minex planning system is recognised in the international coal industry for its coverage of both strategic
and tactical planning. All planning is based on a sound geological model. Both good and poor planning can
be built on a good model, but good planning can never be achieved with a poor geological model. Camus
puts this slightly differently “An adequate knowledge of the mineral deposit is critical in mining, for all the
economic analyses and decision making about the deposits, fate must be made based on conjecture about
the true characteristics of the deposit and its behaviour during mining.”

Geological Modelling
Coal mining primarily dates from the industrial revolution in England, spreading to continental Europe, then
the United States, and later to Australia and India7. In most countries the easier geological deposits have
been worked extensively. Mining of the difficult, often faulted deposits is now more common. While Minex
software includes methods for modelling of simple un-faulted deposits, it also offers support for faulted
deposits, such as those found in India.
Minex builds a geological model using a time or chronological approach5, viz:
1. Model the fault surfaces and their associated displacements.
2. Move the seam picks to their pre-faulted positions.
3. Model the seams in un-faulted space.
4. Displace the seam models to their faulted positions.
This approach offers advantages for faulted geology, viz:
1. The method handles vertical, normal and reverse faults.
2. The method successfully models barren zones which have no data.
3. The model in un-faulted space is useful for fault interpretation and variography.

Figure 3: Example Minex coal Model in 3D and plan.

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 Gemcom Minex™ - Strategy and Tactics in Mine Planning – J.Barber & B. Moore

Strategic Planning
Strategic planning creates business value and tactical planning realises or achieves it. Strategic planning
decides issues such as:
1. Do we develop mine A or mine B?
2. Should the mine be contract or owner operated?
3. Should we use a dragline, a truck and shovel or an in pit crusher conveyor?
4. Should we mine from the north or from the south?
These decisions require imagination. The strategic planner’s vocabulary is one of scenarios, brainstorming,
alternatives, synergies; but the common thread is economics. Minex has two main economic or strategic
planning tools, pit optimisation and Minex Maximiser.
Pit optimisation determines the economic mining limit based on a set of costs and revenues4. Typically a
project is studied using various profits or margins. In Figure 4, the blue, green, grey areas make $5/tonne,
$10/tonne and $15/tonne margin respectively. A set of nested optimum pits, such as Figure 4, provides a
planner with concepts such as:
1. The ultimate economic pit limit.
2. The pit size for various margins and thus the business risk if prices fall.
3. A pseudo schedule that minimizes risk and maximizes profit. A maximum profit schedule would mine
grey, then green then blue (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Pit Optimization showing growth in pit size as profit or margin shrinks.

Optimisation however has some technical limits, particularly in regard to waste removal costs and blending.
Coal mining in the current commodities boom is economic at strip ratios as high as 20:1 bcm/tonne, subject
to other factors such as locality and coal quality. Waste removal costs are therefore the major mining cost.
However if waste is backfilled then its cost is lower than if is dumped out of the pit. The economic pit is a
chicken and egg issue; we don’t know the waste mining cost until we do a schedule. Blending poses a
similar problem; if a high ash coal can be blended with a low ash coal then more value may be available.
However the ability to blend is a scheduling or timing issue and the value of the high ash or low ash coal
cannot be correctly determined before scheduling. Minex Maximiser solves these issues using a life of mine
scheduling approach which uses linear programming to determine the best economic pit and its sequence.
Minex Maximiser can add substantially to project value by evaluating the blending and waste trucking issues.
Pit optimisation and Minex Maximiser clearly determines business value.
In summary, strategic planning uses imaginative process based on optimisation and blending tools to
answer how, when and where questions.

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 Gemcom Minex™ - Strategy and Tactics in Mine Planning – J.Barber & B. Moore

Tactical Planning
Tactical planning is focused on realising or achieving the business value. Strategic planning has provided
the how and when. Short term or tactical planners (engineers or surveyors) now need to achieve the results.
The tactical planner’s talks of control, rapid response, detail, communication. Minex approaches these users
and their needs with a task-centred focus.
For user efficiency the application must assist the user by collecting functions into wizards and reducing the
need for operator direction. Data and files also need task-matched contextual menus. For example, a string
can be dragged, coloured, split or joined. Similarly a surface or triangle can be contoured. The actions suit
the data. This focus aids speed and reproducibility. The blast explorer illustrates this approach. The explorer
allows the user to edit or create patterns, rows, or holes by use of an intuitive cascading menu system
(Figure 5).

Figure 5: Drill and Blast explorer gives user intuitive access to blast holes.

Wizards are invaluable for repetitive tasks. In the survey package data is entered via a PC port and read,
reduced and catalogued using a step through wizard. The process is rapid, reproducible, customisable and
easy to learn (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Wizard concept in the Minex survey package.

Conclusions
Mine planners and mine planning software must address both strategic and tactical planning. The
requirements for software in these two areas differ. Strategic planning software needs to address options,
scenarios and encourage imagination. Tactical planning software needs to provide speed, reproducibility and
communication. Both types of planning rely on a sound geological model. Planning built on a poor model is
not planning but fiction.

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 Gemcom Minex™ - Strategy and Tactics in Mine Planning – J.Barber & B. Moore

References
1. Elbrond J., “Operations research and the art of war by Sun Tsu”, Computer Applications in the
Mineral Industries, 2001, pg 845-846.
2. Elbrond J., “Evolution of operations research techniques in the mining industry”, Computer
Applications in the Mineral Industry, 1988, pg 3-7.
3. Juan P Camus. “Management of Mineral Resources” Subtitled “Creating Value in the Mining
Business” SME 2003.
4. Lerches, H. & Grossman I.F. 1965 “Optimum design of open pits” Trans C.I.M. Vol. LVIII pp 17-24.
5. Steven Zoraster, Landmark/Zycor Inc., Austin, Texas, USA, “Fault Representation in Automated
Modeling of Geologic Structures and Geological Units”, Ch 10.
6. Kelly M & Cram A., “Life of Mine Scheduling takes planning beyond Pit optimization”, International
Mining Engineer March 2001.
7. Freese B, “Coal A Human History”. Penguin.

This document gives only a general description of products and services and except where expressly provided otherwise shall not
form part of any contract. Changes may be made in products or services at any time without notice. Copyright 2011, Gemcom
Software International Inc. Gemcom, the Gemcom logo, combinations thereof, and Gemcom Minex are trademarks of Gemcom
Software International Inc. All other names are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of their respective owners.

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Copyright © 2011 Gemcom Software International Inc. Page 6 of 6