A system for quality oriented mine production planning with MOLP

Mine production planning and scheduling as a production planning problem can be handled using Linear (Goal) Programming. This approach is particularly useful when the product quality is important. This has been shown for many mine planning cases. In the industry, the practical application of Linear Programming for everyday planning is still behind. Modelling of the LP depends very much on the infrastructure of the specific mine, and LP solutions tend to be rigid and difficult to use in practical planning. The geological model of the mine, the optimising algorithm, and the planner's preferences all have to play together. The Technical University of Berlin, Germany, and Surpac Software international, England, have developed a LP scheduling system for mine planning that meets these requirements. This system integrates a geological mine model with a model of the whole mine infrastructure up to the customer's requirements. This way, an arbitrary number of quality and capacity restrictions can be formulated and viewed in their semantic context The optimising algorithm uses a Multiple Objective Linear programming model (MOLP) which can be fine-tuned to closely represent the various preferences and priorities in a complex planning problem. The planner interacts with a three-dimensional geological model of the mine and a graphical model of the mine's operation. Special attention is paid to the monitoring of quality development over a longer planning period. Two industrial partners, Exploration und Bergbau GmbH, Germany, and Taylor/Woodrow Civil Engineering (Mining Division) Ltd, England, have joined the program to contribute their planning requirements and expertise. The system was tested with planning data of two of their mine sites, an open-pit iron ore mine and an open-pit coal mine, respectively. The project is funded by the European Community as project number IN10119I under the Innovation Programme of the Fourth Framework Programme.