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A standard design finds the ultimate pit that maximizes total profits
You do this when you get the Ultimate Pit with MSOPIT
The Processing Plant and Mine Capacity are set in this was to be compatible.
The result is that a higher grade of ore is processed in the early in the mine life than would be possible just from adjusting the mining sequence
Last Move
VALP applies the theory of economic rent
For any time period there is an NPV of all the remaining material to mine Anything you process now puts off getting that NPV of future earnings
Any time you put off getting money you get charged interest That interest is an added cost added to the break-even cut-off grade
Early in the life of the mine the interest charge is high so the cutoff grade is high Later in the mine life the remaining material has little value so the interest charge is small and lower grade material makes sense The result is a declining cut-off grade that is optimized to maximize the NPV
Lets Try to Do It
Fire-Up MineSight Compass On the Menu Tab Pick the MSEP group (MSEP is for MineSight Economic Planner)
The First Panel Controls the Block Model and Areas Examined
Tell it where your block Model is that it will work With.
If your block model is Large compared to the Area where the pit is at You may want to limit Which parts of the block Model are examined to Speed up execution. (often in our cases we will Take the defaults which Are to look at the whole Block model).
This must be the specialized file 13 that contains your pit shell surfaces that Represent the push-back sequence you developed in MSOPIT.
When you ran MSOPIT you put each pit in your mining push-back sequence into A pit surface number from 0 to #51. List those surface numbers in expanding pit Order. (Note that you do not have to have numbered your pits any particular way)
Enter the number of pits that represent your development from the smallest Pit to your ultimate pit.
VALP will not let you unmine rock once you mine it (ok neither will real life). VALP thus requires that each successive pit contain completely all pits mined Before it. Depending on how you created the pits pushbacks it might be possible That you having a little rounding error where some material from a previous push Back is not 100% contained in a subsequent push-back. This will cause the program To crash. By checking the rationalize pits box you instruct the program to check All your pit surfaces and if any later push-backs unmine previously mined rock they Later pit will be adjusted so this does not happen. Its a good CYA maneuver to check
The weakness is that a MineSight block may well Be bigger than an ore Feature example a Block at the surface where 70% of the block is above The surface.
But what if someone clipped the blocks to topography ore we are mining a vein and we will leave the footwall and hanging wall waste behind?
Clipped Topography
If 70% of the block is already gone then the correct ore tonnage is 33% - not 10% If we are going to mine ore and leave the footwall and hanging wall behind we will only mine 33% of the block and leave the waste behind.
Tell it to Take Ore First. Then when it mines the vein it will get mining costs for 33% of the block and leave the rest behind. Or when 70% of the block is already Clipped away instead of doing rock%*ore% it will just use ore% to figure out how Much of the block to mine as ore.
Normally MineSight calculates the % of a block that is rock by looking at the Gridded surface in your file 13. But perhaps you used a smooth surface and stored The rock percent in your block model. Tell MineSight it can read the topo% (rock%) Out of the block model. Then tell it which variable in the block model has that rock percentage in it or should Be used by the routine to store the rock %.
Of course optional item means the program will run fine if you put nothing at all Down here.
How Sure Do You Have To Be Before Youll Make It Your Mine Plan?
You can tell VALP to only bet economics On ore you are sure about. Commonly You might say to only count on ore that Is clearly indicated. In other words dont Count on anything with a code greater Than 2. I can give this order by telling the program What parameter in my block model tells Me how sure I am, and then what is the Least certainty I will accept for planning Purposes. Note in order for me to have this option the people who built my block model have To have not only predicted ore grades for me. They must have coded into the block Model how sure they are of the result.
This might happen if I am surface mining coal that was previously auger mined or Room and pillar mined.
What If I Want to Make Sure the Routine Does Not Mine Certain Ground
With a little planning you probably Kept your pit shells out of no mining Allowed ground to begin with. If not you can tell it that it cannot mine Blocks that have a positive value. Just tell it which variable in your block Model contains a do not mine Restriction code (a positive number).
This Panel Is Exactly Like the One You Know and Love from MSOPIT
Since You Are Optimizing Cut-Off Grades You Need a Panel on CutOff Grades
The computer needs to know what grade item in your block model to use when it Evaluates Cut-Off Grades.
The program will systematically check economic results at a series of cut-off grades you pick
You will pick the lowest Cut-Off Grade The increment by which to increase the cut-off grade And the number of different Cut-Off Grades to try
A cut-off grade on one element would ignore the contribution of the other elements
A Problem Solution
Equivalent Grades
You may be able to convert the grade of one metal to a grade of another
There is a separate slide show on how to add equivalent grades to a block model
I Can Then Run a Cut-Off Purely on post mining profit per ton
Obviously in this Case I would never Set the base as Less than the 0 Break-even.
Note I have picked the block model item where I saved the value per ton as my Cut-Off Grade item.
Scheduled Tons
The computer will look to mine so many tons at a time for scheduling purposes. In General you will get the best balance of speed and precision if you pick about 1 weeks production. Suppose I mine 50,000,000 tons a year and run the mine 50 Weeks every year. 50,000,000/50 = 1,000,000 tons. But Wait! The blank asks For k-tons (ie thousands of tons). 1,000,000/1,000 = 1,000. This is the value I would Enter here in this case.
Most often the planning time unit for long range planning will be 1 year. (It could be A longer or shorter time). Take the interest rate for that standard time period and Enter it here. A common discount rate for Mining is 15% per year.
You Remember That In Order to Charge Economic Rent Each Year You Had to Know How Much the Mines Future Earning Were Worth
But you wont know that till youve done the calculation. MineSight does repeated Iterations till the results converge. You set the limit on the number of iterations. It will Most likely converge well before 2,000 is reached.
It includes the ability to do variable mining costs by bench which will activate Another panel
Actually all it is is where you tell the computer what capacity you have for your Various processes.
Its the same process list you filled Out on an earlier panel
You Need to Enter the Capacity of Each of Your Processes Per Time Period (usually 1 year)
You can pick the units for your process capacity and then enter the amount of Material each process can handle in each planning time unit (usually 1 year)
If you are using that process click the use check box (more on why you might Not check something coming up) Some processes have a lot of money invested and you want the full capacity of That process to be used each year (your mill and other processes that cost a lot to Build will likely be checked). Check this as a rate process.
Sometimes as the pit gets deeper you have to change the fleet capacity
For example total mining capacity might increase (to handle the increasing strip ratio) While ore mining capacity stays the same.
That makes sure you Get the real NPV of A particular scenario. But it does not change any of the optimizing procedures (because the optimizing Procedure is working on making NPV of earnings as large as possible). Capital Investment is not in any of those equations.
In optimizing cut-off grades the idea for improving NPV is to process high grade Material first to increase early year profits. Mother nature does not always cooperate. That early year high grade ore probably was accompanied by low grade ore. What Happens to that low grade? 1- You might just throw it in the waste pile 2- Or you might stockpile it for later processing after all the good stuff has had its turn first. - Thats what this Stockpile Panel is for!
Checking use means yes I will stockpile my low grade. No check mark means The low grade will be discarded.
Note that it would be hard to explain why one would have a stockpile for Material being sent to waste.
Finally when I process it later I will have to dig it out of the pile, load it in the truck and haul it to the mill
I know that not free (rehandle is seldom less than 25 cents a ton and often distinctly more).
Add up my net cost increase per ton for stockpile handling and recovery from the stockpile.
Ok I may end up splitting those costs between ore and leach or other involved Processes. The idea is that I will not keep a process open to process low grade Ore unless the low grade ore can generate enough money to pay the fixed cost Of keeping the process open.
Note That I Can Also Define Time Intervals for My Stockpile Operations
I might not have a mill stockpile If I had no mill? Enter the first year in which Some stockpile costs or Availability will occur Then enter the last year I can add additional time Periods as needed.
You can save for Every block What pushback It was in, what Process it went To, and what Year it happened (You dont have To save this).