Haulage Calculation - MineSight® Haulage

Haulage Calculation - MineSight® Haulage

Introduction to MineSight® Haulage
MineSight® Haulage (MSHaulage) is a powerful tool that is used to generate haulage
profiles, cycle time files, and material routing reports. MSHaulage is accessed from the
Engineering Tools menu in MineSight 3-D (MS3D) (Figure 1).

Figure 1. MSHaulage is accessed from inside MS3D, on the Engineering Tools

menu.

MSHaulage utilizes Microsoft® SQL 2005 Server (or later) to store all haulage point,
polyline, and related data. The full SQL Server or the Express version may be used. The
SQL server can reside either on the computer where MSHaulage is being used or on a
dedicated SQL server. The Database Management Tool has been created to help with this
process. The Database Management Tool can be accessed from the Utilities | Database |
Database Management menu in MS3D (Figure 2). The Database Management Tool also
aids in the upgrading of existing SQL MineSight® Planning Database (MSPD) instances to
become MSHaulage capable.

It is important to note that the database must be setup prior to using the MSHaulage tool.

Mintec, Inc.
Global
Mining
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Since
1970

Figure 2. The Database Management Tool is accessed from the Utilities | DataBase submenu in MS3D.

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Haulage Calculation - MineSight® Haulage

New Additions
Several enhancements have been made to MSHaulage since it was introduced in MS3D
version 4.10.
MS3D version 4.50 (The version on the 2008 update CD)
• Subdivision of lifts into discrete subzones allowing for more detail to your
destination modeling.
Version 4.6
• The ability to use groups of phases has been added. Individual roads may be
assigned to a group of phases instead of just a single phase or ‘any’. This allows
roads to be shared within a select few phases without leaving it open to all phases
(Figure 3).
• The ability to use periods for availability of roads has been added. Roads can now
have an assigned period (or period group). Only the roads which have periods
matching a cuts period are considered in path finding. The ability to import periods
from any attribute in MineSight Interactive Planner (MSIP) has also been added
(Figure 3).

Mintec, Inc.
Global
Mining
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Figure 3. The Haul tab has been enhanced to allow for period and phase grouping.
Since
1970
• Splitting of atomic reserves is allowed. In previous versions an MSIP reserve was
limited in its ability to be routed to certain destinations and lifts because of its
capacity. If a lift could not accommodate the entire atomic reserve, it had to be
routed to the next available lift which did have enough capacity to receive the
entire amount. This has been changed so that the material can be split among
many destinations, lifts, and subzones. The tool will now fill to the capacity of

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 Haulage Calculation - MineSight® Haulage

the lift and route the remaining material based on capacity, precedence, and cost
(cycle time).
• Period can now be user defined for MSIP projects. Previously it used the build in
period attribute, now any custom attribute may be used (Figure 4).
• An MSIP grade may now be used for in pit stub cycletime. By default, the in
pit portion of the cycletime is calculated from the centroid of the cut to closest
available source route. Using this grade allows the user to calculate a more realistic
in pit route time on the block level and have it used instead in the centroid stap
calculation (Figure 4).
• We have allowed the use of a precedence custom attribute. This holds two
functions. The first is to define the order in which cuts should be routed. The
second is to give the ability to filter out cuts one does not wish to be considered.
Zero precedence will result in the cut not being routed by MSHaulage. The
remaining cuts will be routed in numerical order (Figure 4).
• We can now populate custom MSIP attributes with more detailed cycletime
information. Cycletime files provide times (and fuel burn rates) from every source
to every destination. They do not reflect the on bench time from the cut itself to the
source on the road network. These attributes, if used, will be populated with a cuts
‘on bench’ cycletime and the source it used to pick up the rest of the road network.
This allows other applications to have a more detailed cycetime picture than the
cycletime file itself allows (Figure 4).
• Global pit flat speed, Global lift max speed, as well as pit stub rolling resistance
have been added (Figure 4).

Mintec, Inc.
Global
Mining
Software
Solutions
Since
1970

Figure 4. MSIP attributes as well as

defaults help MSHaualge decide where to
route material.

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Haulage Calculation - MineSight® Haulage

• Routes have a new Must Go availability option. When these route segments
are encountered, all other routes of the same direction sharing an end node are
removed from consideration. This forces material to travel along this route when
encountered (Figure 5). Period and Phase availability are still respected.

Figure 5. Must Go forces this route to be taken when it is

encountered.

• Volume capacity, northing, and easting have been added to the lifts table. Volume
capacity and tonnage capacity are mutually exclusive. If you wish to limit a lift
by volume, then ensure the tonnage capacity is left at 0. If both are set, tonnage
capacity is used.
• The ability to merge cuts into existing database reports has been added. There is no
need to rerun the entire schedule if a user is just adding a single new cut. Instead,
the Merge Report option can be used to add the new cut to an existing report
(Figure 6).
• The material routing report can now be dumped in two new ascii formats,
Arena and FPC format. This allows better validation of schedules as well as
interoperability (Figure 6).
• A new Show Route option has also been added to the material routing table.
When a user highlights a record and hits Show Route button, a virtual element is
created representing the full route taken including a representation of the virtual
lift structure (Figure 6). Virtual elements can easily be converted to ‘regular’
geometry by using the Utilities | Virtual Elements | Move to Edit Object option.

Mintec, Inc.
Global
Mining
Figure 6. Many new reporting and validation options have been added to the material routing report. Software
Solutions
There are three types of output that can be provided by MSHaulage. They are listed in the
Report menu.
Since
1970
The first type is the network profile. The network profile is the geometry and physical
coordinates of the road network. The information required for this is the location
points, road segments, and equipment information. The Haul, Location Nodes, Route
Segments, Load/Haul Equip, Equip Sets, and Equip Speeds tabs must be populated
(Figures 5 and 6). The second type of output is cycle times. Cycle times are calculated
between every source point and every destination point. Note that stockpiles act as both

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 Haulage Calculation - MineSight® Haulage

a source and a destination. MSHaulage will calculate the quickest possible haul route
adhering to the road constraints (e.g., one way road segments, etc.). The additional
information required for this is the equipment specifications for speeds, incurred times
for a given cycle, and additional distances at destination points (e.g., dump lift distances).
The Network Editor, Load/Haul Equip, Equip Sets, and Equip Speeds tabs are used to
provide this additional information. The cycle times will be output to a cycle time file.
The third type of output is material routing. In order to route material, cuts (digitized
sections of material) need to be made and stored in the MSPD. MSIP is used to make cuts
and can calculate the cut reserves for the coal seam. The MSIP plan can have varying levels
of complexity with multiple seams. For the purpose of this article, strips cuts along one
seam will best illustrate the functionality of MSHaulage with MSIP cuts using a gridded
surface model. Cuts have been made along the active dragline strip (Figure 7). It should
be noted that while the dragline removes the overburden, trucks and shovels are used
to remove the coal and sometimes the partings. The mining cuts can be attributed in the
database for the mining area and period identification. Spoil piles have been included in the
pit modeling and have been made into solids. The cuts follow the north pit wall for strip
period four and progresses west to east.

Creating Profile and Cycletime Files

Setting up our road network is the first step in creating profiles, cyletime, or material
routing reports. The road network consists of points and polylines which represent roads,
sources (bench pickups), destinations (plants, leach piles, dumps, etc.), stockpiles (act as
sources and destinations), and tie nodes. Creation of these points and polylines is done
outside of MSHaulage with CAD tools provided by MS3D.
The first step is importing the location nodes. This is done on the Location Nodes tab. By
default they are imported with the type Tie-Node and should be changed to match there
intended function (Destination, Source, Stockpile). Changing of the locations type can be
done on the Location Node tab or by using the Network Editor tab which allows you to
graphically pick the nodes as you define them (Figure 7).

Mintec, Inc.
Global
Mining
Software
Solutions
Since
1970

Figure 7. Importing and defining location nodes.

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Haulage Calculation - MineSight® Haulage

Once we have our Location Nodes imported and defined, we need to import our routes
which connect them. This is done on the Route Segments tab. The direction of polyline
matters here as it defines ‘outbound’ from ‘inbound’ for use in single direction routes as
well as other functions. Upon importing the routes they should automatically associate
themselves with the location nodes imported in the previous step (if the end points are
coincident). Editing of the routes data can be done on the Route Segment tab or the
Network Editor tab as was done with Location Nodes (Figure 8).

Figure 8. Importing and defining route segments.

The next step is to define our equipment. This is accomplished on our Equip (Load/Haul)
tab. Here we need to create at least one Loading Equipment and one Hauling Equipment.
Equipment is used in distinct sets of one Loader and one Hauler. This association must be
done on the Equip Sets tab. To create any report we must have at least one equipment set
defined (Figure 9).
Mintec, Inc.
Global
Mining
Software
Solutions
Since
1970

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 Haulage Calculation - MineSight® Haulage

Figure 9. Equipment setup.

Once we have our equipment and network defined we can create profiles. This is under the
Report menu heading (Figure 10). You will be prompted for a directory. The directory will
be populated with csv files of point data representing the route from every source to every
destination and every destination to every source.

Figure 10. Report creation.

For cycletime file creation the user needs to choose a default phase and period on the
Mintec, Inc. Defaults/Override dialog (Figure 11). This will be the period and phase considered for
Global route availability. Lifts can also be used for cycletime generation and would be setup on the
Mining Network Editor tab after selecting the location node in question.
Software
Solutions
Since
1970

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Haulage Calculation - MineSight® Haulage

Figure 11.

Material Routing with MSIP

Material routing setup includes all the steps outlined for profiles and cycletime file creation.
In addition we must do some extra steps.
Destination types must be defined for every period we are using. This is basically
a grouping of atomic reserves from MSIP into a more manageable set which share
characteristics meaningful for assigning a destination. This is done on the Material
Destinations tab (Figure 12). An ‘import materials from IP’ button has been added for
convenience. On the left side of this dialog the user needs to create destination types (which
will be associated with destinations in a later step) and then assign specific materials and
cutoffs. There is also the ability to import a MineSight Schedule Optimizer (MSSO) material
mapping if you are working between the two tools. Mintec, Inc.
Global
Mining
Software
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Since
1970

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 Haulage Calculation - MineSight® Haulage

Figure 12. Mapping MSIP materials to destination types.

Once we have our materials mapped to destination types we need to associate them with
specific destinations. This is done on the Location Nodes tab (Figure 13). Each location
allows up to 10 destination types to be associated with it. When a material is imported from
a MSIP plan, these destination types tell MSHaulage what destinations are allowed for
the material and will pick the cheapest one (by cycletime) baring user overrides and other
availabilities and capacities.

Mintec, Inc.
Global
Mining
Software
Solutions
Since
1970

Figure 13.
Assigning
destination types
to location nodes.

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Haulage Calculation - MineSight® Haulage

Where a material goes can be controlled in multiple manners. On the Defaults/Overrides

dialog there is the ability to use MSIP attributes to control some of this. A MSIP attribute can
be used for Equipment Set, Destination, Network Source, Phase, Period, and Elevation.
There is also a Material Overrides tab where the user can force the material to use a specific
equipment set or go to a specific destination based on its destination type and period. The
Report tab is also interactive allowing the user to look over the changes and adjust them
manually if desired.
The Report tab (Figure 14) is very interactive and options have been added to both validate
and allow for interoperation with other tools. The Show Route option allows the user
to select a record in the table and create a virtual element of the route that material took,
including an approximation of the virtual lift routing. Both Arena and FPC reporting options
have also been included to allow for interoperation of validation using those products.
The Save IP Attrs option can be used to save the in pit stub portion of the cycletime back
to the cuts MSIP attribute (set in Defaults/Overrides tab). The Save DB button will save
the report data base to the IPHRESULTS table as well as to the haualge portions of the
IPRESERVES table. It should be noted that the IPRESERVES table contains atomic reserves
and thus any reserve that is split between multiple destinations will only show the first
destination the material was routed to and not all of them. The IPHRESULTS table will
include all destinations if routed to multiple destinations/lifts.

Mintec, Inc.
Global
Mining
Software
Solutions
Since
Figure 14. Material routing report.
1970

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 Haulage Calculation - MineSight® Haulage

Working with MSSO

Some specific enhancements have been done to interface with MSSO. The first is
importing of material mapping from MSSO. This has been added to the Material
Destination tab (Figure 15). The ability to order cuts by integer attributes uses the same
conventions as used by MSSO including 0 excluding a cut from being routed. The MSIP
attribute storing of bench cycletime and bench source is being provided to allow MSSO to
make routing decisions.

Figure 15. Material mapping from MSSO can be imported to ease setup in MSHaualge.

Mintec, Inc.
Global
Mining
Software
Solutions
Since
1970

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Haulage Calculation - MineSight® Haulage

Appendix 1

Mintec, Inc.
Global
Mining
Software
Solutions
Since
1970

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