Sequencing Mining

Operations with MineSight

2007 Dr. B. C. Paul

{Note The Name MineSight and the Program described are

property of Mintec Inc Tucson, Arizona}

Maximizing Returns
NPV is usually increased by bringing more
early earnings and delaying expenses
Sequencing pits for high grade ore with lower
stripping ratios tends to do this
We Need A Method of Finding the Best Grade
Ore to Mine First

How to Make That Happen

We try to Fake Out the Lerch Grossman Routine
Lerch Grossman will Find the Juiciest set of ore blocks
that keeps producing more value
Obviously this must mean that it either finds the
maximum metal pit or the most lucrative ore
Because not all ore is equally easy to process it is possible that
a set other than maximum metal will be selected

We Need to Get Lerch Grossman to Pick the Best of the

Best

To Do This We Perform What I Call A

Price Fake
We tell the computer we have a dismal
market and then ask it to find the ultimate pit
Under unfavorable economics only the better
grade ore will get included in the fake ultimate
pit
Lerch Grossman however has picked us the set
of blocks that yields maximum value per ton
which is just what we wanted.

We Will Gradually Raise Our Fake

Price As We Do Multiple Runs
Each Run will start with the previous pit in
place
Each Run will have the real final pit
surface as a limiting surface
The result will be a series of nested pits
that go from the best ore to ore of
progressively lower grade
We have just tricked Lerch Grossman into
telling us how to optimize our NPV by
sequencing our mining

The Pit Slope Problem

Our Ultimate Pit Was Calculated at Our
Final Pit Slope
Our Stage Pits will have to maintain a
working slope
We accomplish this by telling Lerch
Grossman to mine at our working slope, but
then we tell it that it must never cut blocks
beyond our ultimate pit.

MSOPIT Search Option #1

Start MSOPIT.

We Will Consider Only Screens for

MSOPIT unique to our use
My first cut will start with no
Pit but will limit things to
The area of the ultimate pit.

(Note that Pit 1 is the

Ultimate pit generated in
An earlier step).

We Manipulate Our Product Price to Try

to Guide the Program to Pick smaller pits
with the maximum pay metal
I varied copper and
Moly in proportion to
Each other setting copper
At 50 cents in concentrate
Instead of $1.05.

(only the highest grade

Material will be able to
Pay off so it should dig
Up the richest ore first)

Processing and Mining Costs are

Held Constant well Metal price is
artificially deflated
Leach copper was
Set at 60 cents

We should understand
That because our prices
Are fake our block values
Will be wrong. The function
Of this procedure is just
To pick off the richest
pits

This is the Leach Ore Screen

I Neednt worry about Waste Since

Recovery is zero.

Im Going to Need a More Limiting

Working Slope
Note that while I allow
57 degrees for my
Final slope I am only
Allowing 42 degrees for
Active working areas.

Again Select the Base Option

Specify the Pit to Store the Output In

and Any Limiting Pit Surface
I am going to put my first pit
In Pit 2
I am going to limit the pit
To be within Pit 1 (ie it cannot
Go out of the ultimate pit)

Order the Program to Run the

Procedure

Turning On and Looking We See A

Small Initial Pit

We Can Also Milk Some Data Out of

the Output Report on the Run
It appears to have taken
About 102,000 blocks
102,000*6000*1.308*1.9=
About 1.5 billion tons
It tells us about ore and waste
Blocks but we dont pay any
Attention to that because the
Price is messed up so the
Processing decisions are
Jibberish.

We Now Make A Second Run With a

Little Higher Prices (Resulting in a bigger pit)
This time we start our
Run with Pit #2
(our initial pit) already
Present.

I Will Beef Up My Cu and Moly

Prices
In my case I improved
Cu to 60 cents in
Concentrate and to
Keep moly in proportion
I went to 2.29

I will of course do similar things to my leach material screen.

I Will Again Use a Base Strategy and

Lerch Grossman

My Result Will Go In Pit 3 with Pit 1

(My Ultimate Pit) Still Being a
Limiting Surface

As You Can See I Moved Up Another

Increment In Pit Size

Ok I did a few things to get this display

I turned off Pit 2, turned on Pit 3 and then
On Pit 3s cut-offs option I went to properties
And picked blue as a global color

In fact the report indicates we mined an

Additional 1.4 billion tons of material

Now Ill Bump Up My Prices and Run Again

Set Cu at
0.7 and Mo
At 2.67

Instruct it to send the result to pit 4

Ill start with Pit 3

And use Pit 1 as a limiting surface

Turning On Pit #4 We Prepare to Do

My Color Trick
Select the Gray Area
(it will turn blue)
Then hit properties

Click on Global Color

Pick a Cool Color and then OK Your

Way Out of Things

There Is My Pretty Color Effect

The report assures me I have an additional 1.2 billion tons of material

We Run It Again With the Prices Set

at $0.8 Cu and $3.05 Mo
Note that
Some areas are
Now reaching to
The final pit slope

The report tells

Me I took another
1.1 billion tons

I Bet You Knew I Was Going to Do it

Again with $0.90 Cu and $3.43 Mo

815 Million
Ton taken
Out in this
phase

Well Do One More Step to The

Ultimate Pit with Cu at $1.00 Cu and
$3.81 Mo

An Additional 685 million tons was taken

And So We Can See Our Pit Advance

Starting With the Richest Ore First

Until the Pit Is Complete

We Can Get Resource Reports On

Our Sequence
Well start at Pit 0
(ie the undisturbed
Surface)

Well Set the Panes to Read the

Actual Projected Metal Prices
Note I have Cu set
At $1.05 and Mo
At $4.00
(or what ever you
Projected as the most
Likely price)

Now when I tell the computer to check the resource in a pit it will give it the true value and processing
Assignments.

Well Set It to Calculate Resources

for Pit 2

Then Well Launch the Run

Well Get A Report on What It Did

with the Material It Cut From Pit 2

Mill Ore Is 1.273 billion tons at 0.69 Cu and 0.082 Mo

Leach Ore is 8.2 million tons at 0.27 Cu
Waste is 8.7 million tons

We Can Put Our Figures in a Spread

Sheet

Next Well Do It For Pit 3

Start with Pit 2

Do Resources for Pit 3

And So On Through the Ore

Body

What We Know
Resources
About 900 Million tons Millable ore
About 200 Million tons to Leach

It is Also Possible to Get MSOPT to

Calculate Resources Between Pits
Directly
Instead of defining the starting surface
To be the ground surface define it
To be the previous pit

In this case I am defining it to be my

First small pit stored in Pit 2
(my undisturbed surface is Pit 0)
(my ultimate pit is in Pit 1)
(my pits from Pit 2 to Pit 7 get progressively
Larger)

Calculate the Resources for the Next Pit

Using the Design Strategy Screen
Note I put it into resource
Calculation mode
I ask it to do the reserves for
My second smallest pit
(remember pit 2 is my
Smallest and pit 3 is next)

I Order a Run

I Get a Report of Results

This phase will send 163.5 million
Tons of ore to the concentrator
And 22 million tons to leaching

It will take me about 5 to 5.5 years at around 32 million tons/year

We Did Lerch Grossman Price Fake

Manually to Get A Sequence
Can get the program to run a price-fake sequence
automatically

Bring Up MineSight Compass

With the economic planner
Menu.

Pick the Options Tab

Note that Multi-Run is
An option

Select New for a

New Multi-Run

Now tell it to open the

File to start the
Dialog.