Copyright © 2008 Gemcom Software International Inc. (Gemcom).

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International Inc. or its wholly-owned subsidiaries.

Contributors
Nico Lotheringen
Phil Jackson
Product
Gemcom Surpac 6.1
 Table of Contents
Underground Design Concepts .............................................................................................................. 4 
Longwall Underground Design .............................................................................................................. 4 
Overview .................................................................................................................................................................. 4 
Getting Started......................................................................................................................................................... 4 
Task: Setting the Work Directory ........................................................................................................................... 5 
Task: Setting the Profile ......................................................................................................................................... 5 
Task: Activate Underground Design ...................................................................................................................... 7 
What We Want to Achieve ...................................................................................................................................... 8 
What is Needed ....................................................................................................................................................... 8 
Step by Step Illustration ........................................................................................................................................... 8 
Task: Starting with a blank project ........................................................................................................................ 8 
Task: Setting up the input file .............................................................................................................................. 12 
Task: Add profiles ................................................................................................................................................ 15 
Task: Create design logic ...................................................................................................................................... 20 

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Underground Design Concepts
Overview
To create an underground mine design using Surpac requires an understanding of underground mining
terminology and concepts. This section will cover some terms used in this manual and some basic
concepts of underground mine design.

Requirements
Prior to performing the exercises in this chapter, some experience in underground mine design is helpful,
but not required. To create a practical/ optimum mine design and schedule in any software, extensive
experience is required as inputs to the design process and throughout the design process, either by the
user and/or by management, control personnel and the project team. Mine Planning Software must
enable mine planning personnel and cannot replace them.

Terminology

• Centreline – a line which represents the centre of a drive. The centreline can be used to create
solid models, or outlines for plan view plots. Note that wall period polygons created in Minesched
is created using the height and width or string profile specified in the profile definition.
• Drive – a tunnel excavation, also known as a drift which is usually on strike or over the length of
the ore body from where access can be established to the ore body.
• Stope – a 3-dimensional excavation (usually ore) which is to be mined or caved, depending on
the planning scenario. Stopes in reef and tabular type mining methods are usually relatively
consistent in the height of the mining cut or excavation over large areas. A single stope where a
single mining crew works, can also be referred to as a panel.

Summary
You should now be familiar with the concepts and terms used for the underground design process in
Surpac. Please review this chapter or consult the Online Reference Manual if you are unclear about the
definitions used in this section. The next section demonstrates the steps involved in creating an open
stoping underground design.

Longwall Underground Design

Overview
This particular example is of a longwall mining method.

Getting Started
A work directory is the default directory for saving Surpac files. Files used in this tutorial are stored in the
folder:
<installation directory>\demo_data\tutorials\advanced_underground_longwall_design

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Getting Started Task: Setting the Work Directory

where <installation directory> is the directory in which Surpac was installed.

Task: Setting the Work Directory

1. In the Surpac Navigator, right-click the advanced_underground_longwall_design folder.
2. Select Set as work directory.

The name of the work directory is displayed in the title bar of the Surpac window.

Task: Setting the Profile

1. Right-click in the blank area to the right of the menus at the top of the screen.
Select the “advanced underground design” profile as shown below.

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Getting Started Task: Activate Underground Design

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Getting Started Task: Activate Underground Design

Task: Activate Underground Design

1. Click on the Advanced Underground Design toolbar button.

This will activate the module which will appear as an autohide slide bar docked onto the right hand side of
the screen. There are two slide-out panels that make up the content of the Underground Design module
and both are used in conjunction with each other. You can open the Progress Map (Solution Explorer) by
hovering over the ‘Progress Map’ button and open the Design Flow-chart by hovering over the ‘Design
Flow’ button on the vertical toolbar on the right. The Properties Pane is used to display the characteristics
of the highlighted item in either of the two panels.

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What We Want to Achieve Task: Starting with a blank project

What We Want to Achieve

The design we are going to create is a typical Longwall design method and is similar to the image below:

Note: An understanding of the scheduling strategy and Minesched approach is highly recommended in the early
stages of the design process. This enables the user to make full use of automatic precedences and effective
resource allocations in Minesched.

What is Needed
The minimum data needed includes longwall.str.
This file is included under the \demo_data\tutorials\advanced_underground_longwall_design folder.

Step by Step Illustration

Task: Starting with a blank project

Once Surpac and Underground Design are running for the first time, no solutions are available to open.
1. Create a new solution by clicking on the first icon that says ‘New Solution’.
A form will then pop up to allow the user to enter the name of the solution.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Starting with a blank project

Call the new Solution ‘AdvancedUndergroundDesign’ as shown.

2. Right-click the solution and choose Add Project from the context menu.

This will activate the ‘New Project’ form.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Starting with a blank project

Note: The name of the project should be as descriptive as possible as this name will appear in the file name when the
project gets imported and exported later on. In this case we can call the project ‘AdvancedLongWall’.

3. Enter the name of the project and then set the working directory by clicking on the browse button.

It is suggested that the demo_data\tutorials\advanced_underground_longwall_design folder is

chosen. This is the folder that contains the.str file that will be used in this tutorial.
4. Click OK.
The progress map is populated with a project node containing Profile Definitions, References,
Design Charts and Dataset nodes.
5. Click on the project (AdvancedLongWall), which is the tree node just above the Profile Definitions
tree node.
That will then automatically change the working directory to the relevant directory in Surpac:

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Starting with a blank project

6. Click on the name of the project. It will be the node just above the Profile Definitions. This will
then display the Project Properties below the Progress Map in the Properties window:

The properties include the Default Naming Convention Collection, the Name, the Naming Delimiter and
the Working Directory. The Name and Working Directory was specified when the project was created and
the Naming Delimiter is by default ‘_’.
The default naming Convention of the project represents the order of the elements to be contained in the
naming convention of each heading of the design to be created. We are now going to specify the order by
clicking on the browse button of the ‘Default Naming Convention’ property.
On the left is the available elements and the right is the elements to be used.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Setting up the input file

7. Move these left and right and up and down to get the displayed order. The naming Convention in
this case will be ‘Design Area_Design Element Name_Numeric Increment’

Task: Setting up the input file

1. In Surpac, open the file longwall.str.
The segment displayed represent the location where our design will begin:

Before the design logic can be established, you first need to define the structure that you are going to use
to allow for an effective naming system.
Naming conventions are very important for use in Minesched to allow for easy and practical resource
allocations. Furthermore, good naming conventions enable you to extract usable and well structured
information from these schedules. The naming convention could include various text and number fields to
distinguish development in certain areas and even development within sub-areas.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Setting up the input file

2. Click on the button on the main toolbar of Underground Design above the progress bar.
This allows you to graphically assign the name of the segment currently in graphics.

A form is displayed.
3. Type the name longwall, and click Apply.

4. Click the segment in graphics and then press Escape.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Setting up the input file

Since this would be the first element in the design flow chart, it is important that you define which
segments the design would be based on. Notice that the point markers of the segments you selected are
displayed as you select them.
5. Press Escape to exit out of the segment selection.

The next step is to identify the areas.

6. Click on the button to graphically assign the area.

7. Enter the information as shown and then click Apply.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Add profiles

8. Click on the segment in graphics and press Escape.

9. Save the .str file. This is required because these operations were done in graphics, and are not
automatically saved.

Task: Add profiles

1. Go back to the progress Map in Underground Design, right-click on the Profile Definitions node and
choose Add Profile Definition.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Add profiles

2. Change the properties of the profile for the mains as displayed below. The color is a read-only
property, so it will be updated automatically as the String Number property is changed.

3. Add another by right-clicking on the Profile Definitions node under the project tree node.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Add profiles

4. Change these properties as displayed.

5. Right-click on the Profile Definitions node and add another profile.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Add profiles

6. Change these properties as displayed.

7. Right-click on the Profile Definitions node and add another profile.

8. Change these properties as displayed.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Create design logic

9. Right-click on the Profile Definitions node and add another profile.

10. Change these properties as displayed. These properties can be changed later by clicking on the
profile in the progress map.

Now we can start defining the logic of our design:

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Create design logic

Task: Create design logic

1. Add a design Chart by right-clicking on the Design Charts node in the progress map.

When a design chart is selected or added, the Design Chart window pops out on the left.
2. Click on the Auto Hide icon to keep the Design Chart visible.

The Input String Design is the .str file with the segment representing the beginning of our design.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Create design logic

3. Browse for this file by clicking on the browse button in the property grid.

4. Select the file longwall.str and click Open.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Create design logic

5. Click on the button with a cross saying ‘New Top Node’. That will create a node and display the
properties.

6. Change the name to whatever the input file contains. In this case it is longwall.

Note: It is important to realise that the design element names must match 100%.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Create design logic

7. Click and drag the Draw Line button onto the longwall node in the design chart and change the
properties as displayed below. After the properties are changed correctly, execute the design by
clicking the Execute button. The effects of our actions are then displayed in Surpac graphics.

8. To create the rest of the mains, click on another Draw Line icon and drag it onto the longwall
node again. Then change the properties similar to the image below.

Note: It is not necessary to execute the design again, but it is good to check the outcome of the design chart regularly.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Create design logic

9. To create the holings between the mains, click on another Draw Line icon and drag it onto the
Mains2 node. Then change the properties similar to the image below.

10. To create the first set of Gate roads, click on the Draw Line icon and drag it onto the Mains1 node.
Then change the properties similar to the image below.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Create design logic

11. To create the second set of Gate roads, click on the Draw Line icon and drag it onto the Mains1
node again. Then change the properties similar to the image below.

12. To create the holings between the Gate roads, click on the Draw Line icon and drag it onto the
Gateroads1 node. Then change the properties similar to the image below.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Create design logic

13. The next step is the Face Installs. Click on the Draw Line icon and drag it onto the Gateroads2
node. Then change the properties similar to the image below.

Note: To get back to the centre of the panel, we will create a segment from the end of the Face Installs to the centre of
the panels. We will call this node Dummy as it will not actually be mined.

14. Right-click on the Profile Definitions in the Progress Map and add a profile.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Create design logic

15. Change the properties:

16. To create the Dummy, click on the Draw Line icon and drag it onto the Face_install node. Then
change the properties similar to the image below.

Note: Now that we have the beginning point of the panel, we have to identify the end position. We will create a short
segment on the top mains. This segment should be same length as from the centre to the side of the mains to prevent
double-accounting for this area. This must be a unique string to ensure using string maths that these segments are then
eventually all deleted.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Create design logic

17. Right-click on the Profile Definitions in the Progress Map and add a profile.

18. Change the properties:

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Create design logic

19. To create the segments, click on the Draw Line icon and drag it onto the Mains1 node. Then
change the properties similar to the image below.

20. To create the Longwall Panels, click on the Connect Line icon (4th icon from the left) and drag it
onto the Dummy node. Then change the properties similar to the image below.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Create design logic

21. To specify which Dummy to connect to which Delete segment, click on the Design Element
Filters property’s browse button.

22. On the Collection Editor form, click on the Add button and change the properties similar to the
image below and click OK.

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Create design logic

23. The design logic has now been specified. Execute the design by clicking on the Execute button
(3rd button from the left above the Progress Map). The design created should be similar to the
design below.

24. Delete the segments that we no longer needed by using the String -> Delete function and click on
one of the small segments at the end of the Longwall Panel as shown below:

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Step by Step Illustration Task: Create design logic

Below is a close-up of the completed design.

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