Mining Activity Planner

23rd
Annual
Seminar Mining Activity Planner (MAP)
Introduction
Production at many mines often falls short of targets outlined in their mine planning
forecasts and schedules for various reasons; one of which is because mine planners fail
to plan with sufficient detail and realism. The MAP is a tool that allows mine planners to
examine mine schedules in a graphic format and to increase the level of realism of those
plans by incorporating additional operational detail in the form of activity based planning.
Accurate and precise mine planning is a business benefit to mining companies because
it allows then to accurately forecast and realize revenues and costs. The value of the
MAP software application is that it provides a tool which enables mine planners to easily
conduct activity based planning by converting production schedules into work plans.
These plans can range in precision from operationally oriented task based mine plans to
detailed location, crew, and equipment resource allocation schedules.
Mining Activity Planner (MAP)
MAP enables mine planners to schedule mining activities and mine resources.
Scheduling can be done that respects both resource availability and task precedence
constraints at a level of planning precision the users can choose. The MAP application
accomplishes this by implementing a Gantt chart in the form of a planning board.
The planning board enables the mine planner to create resources to model any object of
planning interest. Resources can represent items like mine materials, mining equipment,
mine infrastructure, or even just work locations. Resources represent things that are used
like equipment, or things that are consumed like broken muck. Drills, shovels, and truck
fleets are treated as resources which are used in a process while, mine material is treated as
a resource that is consumed in a process.
The application also enables mine planners to create activities modeling work tasks to
which both the material and equipment resources are allocated. An excavation activity, for
instance, could have material, loading equipment, and haulage equipment allocated to it
in order to model all the work of the task. The activity size, which is expressed in units of
production, combined with equipment productivity rates, determine the duration of the
work task. By arranging activities in a schedule, the planner assigns the work tasks to time
intervals and allocates resources to them.
For any given activity, the layout of the planning board simultaneously displays the
assigned time interval and the resources allocated to it. Resources are listed in the far
left hand side column and time runs along the top horizontal axis. Please see Figure 1,
Planning Board View Displaying Cuts Resources, and Figure 2, Planning Board View
Displaying Shovels Resources.

Figure 1, Planning Board View

Displaying Cuts Resources
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Figure 2, Planning Board View Displaying Shovels Resources

Notice that by changing which resource group is displayed on the planning board,
the planner can view all the resources from each type allocated to a set of activities.
Consequently the advantage of the planning board is that it enables the planner
to interactively manipulate the schedule along both a time and a resource axis
simultaneously.
MAP also enables the mine planner to look at the Gantt chart in a project outline format.
In this view, activity precedence relationships apart from resource availability constraints
can be established and viewed. Precedence relationships are modeled four different
ways—finish to start, start to start, finish to finish, and start to finish. Please see Figure 3,
Project Outline View.

Figure 3, Project Outline View

MAP enables mine planners to manually optimize a schedule for any objective. As an
aid, the user can choose to display a graph of key production values, planning parameters,
or resource utilization based on the activity timing and resource allocation in the schedule.
The application includes a graph view in which the mine planner can plot various values
and parameters associated with the schedule. The graph is synchronized with the schedule
so that it immediately updates to reflect changes made to the schedule as the planner is
interactively manipulating it. Please see Figure 4, Planning Board Graph View in which the
copper grade is plotted as a function of time.

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Figure 4, Planning Board Graph View

Production Forecasting
Production results at many mines fall short of mine planning forecasts especially longer-
range forecasts for various reasons one of which is insufficient planning detail and realism.
Indications that mine production is failing to achieve a mine plan not only includes missed
production targets, but more subtle indications are split mining phases, increasingly
narrow mining widths, phase cutoff grades, and increased unexpected equipment
deployment.
Mine planning is essentially tactical capacity planning based on estimates. Mine
planners can easily over estimate equipment availability, equipment usage, and production
performance. With the lack of activity based mine planning, mine planners don’t
sufficiently account for items such as equipment and infrastructure maintenance, shovel
moves, standby time, blasting schedules, power distribution issues, and conflicting support
activities such as dewatering, drilling and blasting, cleanup, providing bench access,
developing ramps, and mitigating slope stability problems.
The ultimate consequences of not systematically achieving mine plans include less
efficient and less flexible mine plans, the acceptance of higher levels of operational risk,
and greater pressure on operations, additional capital investment, and lower and slower
revenues. Activity based planning with sufficient detail can promote the estimation of
more realistic or realizable planning parameters and encourage the improvement of
operational plan implementation.
Improvement In Mine Planning
The inclusion of activity based mine scheduling is a key part of the mine planning
process and MAP facilitates the process by which a mine planner can finesse a mine
production forecast into an activity based plan from an operational view point. The
production forecast of material excavation for a particular period can be examined to
determine all the key activities that compete for location, infrastructure, equipment, and
personnel resources. The key activities can then be scheduled in MAP, assigned to time
intervals, and allocated to various resources. The planner can then examine the activity
schedule in terms of:
• The resulting production feed to ensure that it meets budgeted targets
• The mining activity interactions and access requirements including precedence
relationships to ensure that the plan is logical, feasible, and practical
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• The location, infrastructure, equipment, and personnel resource availability 23rd

constraints to ensure that adequate resources are available or where additional
resources might be required
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• The equipment performance, mechanical availability and utilization parameters to
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ensure they are reasonable and meet expectations
Activity based mine planning is the main method by which a planning engineer can
demonstrate and prove the viability of a plan from an operational viewpoint before
the plan is actually implemented. Additionally, the plan can be discussed, improved,
and agreed to by mining operations personnel in a collaborative effort. Equipment and
manpower resources can be optimally scheduled and “bottlenecks” of specific activities
identified.
The specific steps involved in using MAP to convert a mine production forecast into an
activity based mine plan are:
1. For a given mining period, obtain the Cut, Excavation, Blast Pattern, or Ore Control
shapes and generate reserve figures for those volumes.
2. Import the data into MAP where the data will be converted to both material resources
and the activities to which those material resources are allocated. Planners will most
likely consider the activities to be excavating activities, although drilling is another
possibility.
3. Schedule the activities by assigning starting times and allocating equipment resources
such as shovels, truck fleets, etc. The equipment resources will have their associated
productivity rates, which in turn determine task durations.
4. Arrange the primary activities in the schedule and verify that planned production
targets are being met in the schedule.
5. Create additional activities in the schedule to represent secondary activities, which
could include other unit mining operations, support activities, and maintenance
activities. Secondary activities include drilling and blasting, preventative and
planned maintenance, shovel moves, ramp development, etc.
6. Assign start times and allocate resources to the secondary activities. Note, the primary
activities may have to be modified or subdivided to accommodate the secondary
activities in the schedule.
7. Define any activity precedence relationships as required to enforce correct activity
execution order.
8. Evaluate the resulting schedule in terms of production targets, equipment
productivity, equipment and other resource utilization, and resource and activity
conflicts.
9. Repeat steps 3 through 8 until a satisfactory plan is achieved.
10. Prepare planning charts, graphs, reports, and maps.
For an example of a mine plan that has been converted, please see Figure 5, MineSight®
Interactive Planner view of a Mine Plan, and Figure 6, MAP view of a Mine Plan.

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Figure 5, MineSight® Interactive Planner view of a Mine Plan

Figure 6, Mining Activity Planner view of a Mine Plan

Value Provided by the Mining Activity Planner

The value that can be obtained by using MAP to improve the mine planning process can
include but are not limited to:
• Improved production forecasting – operations can realize the production targets as
planned.
• Improved resource utilization – existing equipment resources can achieve the plan.
• Planning estimates and production practices can both be evaluated through
reconciliation – how did operations deviate from the plan?
• Longer term effects of plan changes or operational upsets can quickly be evaluated as
activities can be projected into the future.

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• More efficient and flexible plans can be generated – avoidance of phase splitting and 23rd
narrow mining widths.
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• Plans can be generated that involve less operational risk.
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• Pressure on mine operations to achieve unrealistic plans is reduced.
• Improved estimation of revenue both in terms of amount and timing – ore production
realized on time.
• Improved estimation of cost both in terms of amount and timing – unexpected
additional equipment is less likely to be deployed.
Conclusion
MAP is a software application that supports activity based, operationally oriented mine
planning and scheduling. Planners can improve mine plans by converting production
forecasts into detailed feasible practical activity based operationally oriented plans. Mine
operations can more closely follow activity based mine plans because they are more
operationally oriented.

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