February 2008

MineSched V6
Surface Production
Scheduling: Material
Movement
March 2009
Copyright © 2009 Gemcom Software International. All rights reserved.

Gemcom Software International publishes this documentation for the sole use of MineSched licenses.
Without written permission you may not sell, reproduce, store in a retrieval system, or transmit any part of
the documentation. For such permission, or to obtain extra copies please contact your local Gemcom
Office.
Gemcom Software International
Level 8 190 St Georges Terrace
Perth, Western Australia 6000
Telephone: (08) 94201383
Fax: (08) 94201350
While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this manual, we assume no responsibility for
errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damage resulting from the use of the information
contained herein.
All brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Contributors
Aaron Loffler
Gemcom Software International
Perth, Western Australia

Products
MineSched 6.0
Surpac 6.1
Document Release Date
March 2009
 Table of Contents
Overview........................................................................................................................................... 4
Data Storage and Familiarisation ....................................................................................................... 5
Task: Setup Data Management Hierarchy .............................................................................................................5
Task: Set Your Working Directory ..........................................................................................................................5
Data Review ............................................................................................................................................................. 5
MineSched Scenario Management ................................................................................................... 10
Opening a Scenario ................................................................................................................................................ 10
Task: Open a Scenario .........................................................................................................................................10
Material Movement ........................................................................................................................ 12
Stockpiles ............................................................................................................................................................... 12
Task: Add Stockpiles to the Schedule .................................................................................................................12
Analysing Stockpile Results .................................................................................................................................... 16
Task: Create the Schedule and View the Results ................................................................................................16
Optional Task: Create a Custom DTM for Animation ..........................................................................................19
Task: Report the Stockpiles .................................................................................................................................20
Changing the Material Network............................................................................................................................. 22
Task: Change the Material Movement at a Date ................................................................................................22
Task: Change the Material Movement at a Stockpile Event ...............................................................................26
Moving Material between Stockpiles .................................................................................................................... 28
Task: Move the Material between two Stockpiles..............................................................................................28
Stockpile Balances.................................................................................................................................................. 32
Task: Add Existing Stockpile Balances .................................................................................................................32
Processes ............................................................................................................................................................... 37
Task: Add a Process to the Schedule...................................................................................................................38
Task: Process a set Number of Ounces per Period .............................................................................................42
Where to Next? ............................................................................................................................... 48
Overview
Surface Production Scheduling can be challenging because many options are available to move
resources around the various locations of the excavation at short notice. The schedule is usually
designed to achieve a constant production rate, target grade at a process point or points or combinations
of both. This tutorial is aimed at the beginner to give a working knowledge of surface production
scheduling in MineSched without complex scheduling scenarios. This tutorial will be a brief exploration of
the concepts within MineSched used to initially set up a schedule. This tutorial is an extension of the
surface scheduling setup tutorial and it covers material movement, stockpiles and processes.
Subsequent tutorials in this series will extend the schedule further to look at targeting options, parameters
to make the schedule practical, short term polygon sequencing and different output result types.
Requirements
This tutorial assumes that you have a reasonably advanced knowledge of Surpac. If you are a new
Surpac user, you should go through the Introduction to Surpac tutorial, the Block Modeling tutorial and
the Mine Design tutorial before going through this tutorial. This tutorial is the second in a series of
tutorials designed to teach the common functionality within the MineSched Production Module. The
results of this tutorial will be used to complete the next tutorial. An understanding of surface scheduling
techniques is required to complete this tutorial. You must have completed the Surface Production
Schedule: Initialisation tutorial prior to attempting this tutorial
You will also need:

• To have Surpac V6.1 or higher installed on your computer.

• To have MineSched V6.0 installed into your version of Surpac.
• The data set accompanying this tutorial. You can use the data you finished with from the previous
tutorial or new data is supplied with this tutorial.
Objectives
The objective of this tutorial is to give you a basic understanding of how to set up a surface production
schedule and report on this. This tutorial focuses on the material movement aspects of scheduling. It is
not intended to be exhaustive in scope, but will show the workflows needed to achieve results. You can
then refine and add to these workflows to meet your specific scheduling requirements.
Workflow

Page 4 of 48
Data Storage and Familiarisation Task: Setup Data Management Hierarchy

Data Storage and Familiarisation

To complete the MineSched Surface Production Setup there are four basic requirements for data.

• The Pit Designs and Topography. These are normally as DTM’s. Note scheduling can also be
done with Whittle shells.
• A Block Model containing grades and material class definitions
• Any data files created to complete the previous tutorial in this series.
• The scenario file from the previous tutorial.
Many files are also created during the scheduling process such as reports, parameter files, log files and
animation files. It is for this reason that it is important to manage your data so that it is easy to locate,
access and analyse.
Some of the parameter options within MineSched allow the user to store filenames using a relative path
or an absolute path. Using relative paths means that the schedule data will be transportable between
various data storage systems and can be operated from several different locations. This makes it very
important to store your data logically to facilitate this functionality as well as assisting other users to
understand and locate your data readily.

Task: Setup Data Management Hierarchy

Unzip the tutorial data. The files required for scheduling are already contained in their designated
directory. The pit and topography dtms and string files are stored in the dtm directory and the block
model is contained in the mdl directory. The zip folder also contains a polygons directory which will
contain various string files we create for scheduling and a Scenario directory for managing the
MineSched production scenario. If you have your own files you can copy over the files here or create the
directory structure yourself as shown below.

Task: Set Your Working Directory

Change your working directory to the newly created “Scenario” directory. You may need to refresh your
navigator in Surpac to see the changes made in Windows Explorer.

Data Review
The data was also reviewed in the previous tutorial, however it is shown here again for reference.

Open the files pit_design1.dtm and pit_stage_a1.dtm. Using DTM properties, change the colour of the
stage A pit.

Page 5 of 48
Data Storage and Familiarisation Task: Set Your Working Directory

The files show a final pit design and an initial stage A for this pit. The Stage A subpit is developed first to
quickly establish cash flow for the project then the remainder of the pit is mined.

Now open the block model and display it.

Run a block model summary.

Page 6 of 48
Data Storage and Familiarisation Task: Set Your Working Directory

The block model contains four attributes.

Attribute Description

grade The quality value of the commodity

ore An integer value representing 0 for waste or 1 or 2 for ore
sg The specific gravity or density of the block
type The rock type. Either air, oxide, transition or fresh

Cancel the form when finished.

Graphically constrain the block model to show only the blocks where the grade > 1

Page 7 of 48
Data Storage and Familiarisation Task: Set Your Working Directory

To get an indication of grade distribution, colour the model by the grade attribute. Select a cutoff range
that corresponds to the mining grade ranges selected for profitability.

Grade Range Description

<1 Waste
1 to 3 Low Grade
>3 High Grade

Page 8 of 48
Data Storage and Familiarisation Task: Set Your Working Directory

Page 9 of 48
MineSched Scenario Management Task: Open a Scenario

MineSched Scenario Management

MineSched offers the ability to create and manage many scenarios related to the same data. Scenarios
are typically slight variations of the scheduling parameters for the same dataset. This may include a
comparison between using one type of equipment to another or re-assigning the sequence of mining.

Scenarios can be accessed through the Surpac Interface or through the MineSched interface. Best
practice is to have a single directory that stores your scenario files and multiple scenarios can be stored
in here. This methodology allows you to keep file references the same between scenarios and only vary
the parameters that are applicable to method of scheduling. When running MineSched, each scenario
will create its own Results folder which will also be stored under the scenario directory. As each scenario
stores a separate results folder there will be no overwriting of files relevant to each scenario.

Through this scheduling process we will produce several scenarios as we build the schedule up to a
complete functional schedule.

Opening a Scenario
For every schedule there must be at least one scenario file.

Task: Open a Scenario

1. In Surpac make sure your current working directory is set to ‘Scenario’
2. Use the Menus and go to Production > Open production scenario

Page 10 of 48
MineSched Scenario Management Task: Open a Scenario

MineSched will open the Scenario History Window which shows all of the scenarios that have recently
been manipulated.
3. Select the Surface Production Scenario 1 scenario file and apply the form.
MineSched will open the scenario and present you with the last screen that was presented when the
scenario was saved previously. In this case it will be the Dashboard view in the Create Schedule Step.

4. We will make a second copy as a new scenario in order to keep our previous scenario unedited
in case we need to return to it later. In the menu choose Scenario >> Save As

5. Save the scenario as Surface_Production_Material_Movement_1.minesched_prod

6. The new scenario is ready for use. MineSched has made a copy of the results folder to maintain
the data structure for each individual scenario.

Page 11 of 48
Material Movement Task: Add Stockpiles to the Schedule

Material Movement
Material Movement is handled in MineSched by the use of three location types; Stockpiles, Processes
and Fill locations. In this tutorial we will look at stockpiles and processes. Fill locations will be explored in
another tutorial. Each location type has its own properties and rules that must be observed when using
them.

In this tutorial we will add stockpiles for different material classifications, add a process plant and look at
the properties of these locations and the different ways they can be used.

Stockpiles
A stockpile location is defined as a place which has no specific spatial block locations, however the
stockpile as a whole can have coordinates which are used for animation purposes and reporting block
mining destinations. Material can be sent to a stockpile from a mining location or another stockpile.
Material movement through stockpiles is dynamic as material can be added and removed over time.

Material Movement Properties of Stockpile Locations

A stockpile location can have material sent to it from a mining location or another stockpile. Material can
be sent from a stockpile to another stockpile, to a process or to a fill location. Quality targets and material
ratio targets can be set on stockpile locations that are immediately downstream from mining locations.
Material ratio targets can also be set between stockpile locations and other locations if they are all
immediately downstream of mining locations. To set quality targets at further stages downstream from
the mining locations, i.e. multi-stage blending, process locations are used.

Stockpiles are created by dragging them onto the canvas in the locations section of the Setup Schedule
Step. The properties of the stockpile can be edited. Material movement rules are not defined until
material movement arrows are added to the canvas.

Task: Add Stockpiles to the Schedule

1. Drag three stockpiles onto the Canvas. These stockpiles will represent the three material types
we want to track through the schedule.
2. Rename the stockpiles to WASTE_DUMP, LG_STK and HG_STK. Change the colours to be
appropriate for the material classes.

Page 12 of 48
Material Movement Task: Add Stockpiles to the Schedule

3. Once the stockpile locations have been added to the canvas the material movement can be
defined.
4. Define the material movement by dragging an arrow from STAGE_1 to WASTE_DUMP. This will
automatically switch the properties panel to the material movement grid and add an entry.

Page 13 of 48
Material Movement Task: Add Stockpiles to the Schedule

5. The material movement rule has been automatically entered into the grid. Change the material
class in the grid entry to WASTE.

6. Notice that the arrow annotation has been changed to reflect the material class(es) that apply to
that material movement arrow on the Canvas.
7. Alternatively we can add a material movement rule to the grid which will update the canvas. Add
the following rule to the grid and observe the changes in the Canvas:

Note that the material classes label does not fit on the length of the arrow so MineSched will shorten it.
The material classes will be revealed if the length of the arrow is changed when the locations are moved.
Alternatively consider using the wildcard builder and change the entry to LG_*.

Page 14 of 48
Material Movement Task: Add Stockpiles to the Schedule

8. Complete the material movement by adding the arrows and/or grid entries to send the correct
material classes to the correct stockpiles.

9. Save the scenario. In the next section we will create the schedule and view the results by
creating a dashboard chart, looking at standard reports and graphically animating the stockpiles.

Page 15 of 48
Material Movement Task: Create the Schedule and View the Results

Analysing Stockpile Results

To see the results of the use of stockpiles the schedule must be created and results such as graphical
results and reports need to be analysed to determine the properties of the stockpiles at given points in the
schedule.

At this stage material flows only to the stockpiles and there are no targets, rules, or processes that will
affect this material movement.

Task: Create the Schedule and View the Results

1. Go to the Create Schedule Step and create the schedule. There should be no difference in the
schedule from that which was previously created in the last tutorial. In terms of mining, nothing
has changed, the only difference is the destination of the material has been defined. Previously
the material was not sent to any specific destination and only the material mined was reported.
2. Add a chart or charts to represent the grades and tonnages of the two ore stockpiles. An option
for a stockpile report is available.

Page 16 of 48
Material Movement Task: Create the Schedule and View the Results

3. The chart represents the balance of each stockpile at the end of the period. As material is not
being drawn from the stockpiles the balance of the stockpile will be ever increasing. Both Low
Grade and High Grade are shown separately.
4. Now go to the Publish Results step. We will look at graphical results and creating a custom
report which report the movement of materials through the stockpiles.
5. Create the Outputs for the Graphical results.

Page 17 of 48
Material Movement Task: Create the Schedule and View the Results

6. Go to the animations section and click on the Stockpile Tab.

7. This panel gives us the option of how we want to display the stockpiles during the animation.
The most important options are the shape to use and the coordinates of the stockpile in the
animation.
Shape
MineSched has two built in shapes called cone and flat cone. The flat cone is a standard cone with the
top cut off. Alternatively you can use your own dtm if you have a shape in mind. Note that the dtm
should be created and centred over the coordinates 0, 0, 0. If a custom dtm is used, the next field will
become active to allow you to choose the dtm file. Also the static volume of the stockpile should be
entered here for scaling purposes.

8. Fill out the stockpile animation grid as shown below:

Page 18 of 48
Material Movement Optional Task: Create a Custom DTM for Animation

9. Animate the schedule. Make sure you tick the box in the ‘what to display’ panel to animate the
stockpiles.

TIP: In the above image the schedule is animated with the file pit_and_topo1.dtm. This is done by
dragging the dtm file into the graphics window prior to scheduling. You can also create unique views
including splitting the viewports to give multiple views by making sure you clear the box to Rescale the
animation prior to scheduling.

In a later tutorial in this series the waste dump will be changed to a defined fill location.

Optional Task: Create a Custom DTM for Animation

1. Create a custom DTM with a less regular shape. Make sure it is centred around the coordinates
0,0,0.

Page 19 of 48
Material Movement Task: Report the Stockpiles

2. Enter the filename and the volume into the animation and re animate the schedule.

Task: Report the Stockpiles

In this part of the tutorial we will define a report that we can use to analyse the material at each stockpile.
This will be used to see the effects of different parameters and options that will be looked at later in the
tutorial. To facilitate this we will set up the report to provide results for locations that have not been
defined yet as well as those that are defined already.

1. Go to the Custom Reports section of the Publish Results step.

2. Add a new report and rename it to report_stockpiles.

3. For this report we need to see the type of movement that will occur at each stockpile. There is no
need to provide an overall report of all of the stockpiles at once as these values are already being
reported in the mining report.
4. Define the report to give the material added, removed and the remaining balance to each
stockpile (ignore the waste dump). We will also report the grade added to the stockpiles (the
dashboard view shows the grade of the overall balance so here we will look at the grade added
during each period). To report only the stockpiles, these need to be selected in the Global
Location Filter and to report for each individual stockpile tick the box to report each location
individually. Custom titles have been used here but feel free to investigate different title types.

Page 20 of 48
Material Movement Task: Report the Stockpiles

5. Once the report has been defined, create the report and view it. There is no need to create a
template or format the data as the report will change as we add more locations later in the
schedule. The report below has been formatted to make it easier to read here.

Page 21 of 48
Material Movement Task: Change the Material Movement at a Date

6. As there is nothing drawing material from the stockpiles, the columns indicating material removed
will be blank. We will use this report to view the outcome of changes we make in the schedule in
the next section.

Changing the Material Network

The material network can be changed at any time during the schedule. The changes can occur at dates
or at given events. We will look here at dates and at stockpile events (material flow can also be changed
at pit events for example when stage 1 is complete).

Task: Change the Material Movement at a Date

In this example we will change the material movement to redirect the low grade material class from the
LG_STK to LG_STH_STK from the 01/01/2010. This could be done for a number of reasons for example
after this date the northern stockpile becomes unavailable due to weather restrictions or other
environmental concerns. To begin with we need to create the new southern stockpile LG_STH_STK.

1. Go to the Locations section of the Setup Schedule Step and drag a new stockpile into the
canvas.
2. Change the name to LG_STH_STK and the colour of the stockpile to match the existing LG_STK.

TIP: Note that the naming convention we have chosen makes it easier to group locations using
wildcards. For example if we want to group the Low Grade stockpiles we could use LG_* or if we want to
group all of the stockpile locations we could use *_STK. If the new stockpile was named
SOUTH_STK_LG this would not be possible.

Page 22 of 48
Material Movement Task: Change the Material Movement at a Date

3. Define the material movement such that the low grade material is also sent to this new stockpile.

4. Add the date to these new entries to initiate the material movement to start at 01/01/2010. With a
blank value in the date/event field these rules would be considered from the start of the schedule.

5. Create the schedule.

6. Go to the Custom Reports section of the Publish Results Step. Edit the global location filter to
include the new stockpile.

Page 23 of 48
Material Movement Task: Change the Material Movement at a Date

7. Create and view the report. Have the changes we made had the desired effect?

8. The answer is no. It is important to realize that the rules we added are simply new rules that
come into effect at that date. The old rules have not been changed. At 01/01/2010 the Low
Grade material now being sent to both stockpiles at the same time.

TIP: In the example above when the same material is being sent to two different stockpiles at the same
time, it is sent at a defined ratio. In the report above you can see that equal amount are being sent to
both stockpiles each period. That is, a 1:1 ratio is being honoured. This is defined in the material
movement grid.

Changing this ratio will change the distribution of material to the two stockpiles.

Page 24 of 48
Material Movement Task: Change the Material Movement at a Date

9. To correct the schedule we need to stop material from flowing to the original LG_STK at the
same date. This is done by setting the ratio to zero for that stockpile at that date. Return to the
Locations section and add the following material movement rules. These will need to be done in
the grid, as they cannot be done graphically.

Page 25 of 48
Material Movement Task: Change the Material Movement at a Stockpile Event

10. Create the schedule, create and view the report.

Task: Change the Material Movement at a Stockpile Event

Common in some mining operations is that there is a limit to the size that a stockpile can physically be.
This may be due to the size of the ROM pad or for safety reasons. Material movement can be changed
when the capacity of a stockpile reaches a maximum.

We will use the same stockpiles created in the previous task. In this case we will change the material to
be moved from the pits to the LG_STH_STK once the LG_STK has reached a maximum capacity of
1,000,000 cubic metres (max and min capacity are always in cubic metres as tonnage can vary due to
variable specific gravities).

1. Set the maximum capacity of the stockpile. The maximum capacity is a parameter of a location
and is specified in the Parameters section of the Setup Schedule step.

TIP: When assigning parameters in this section you will notice that the parameter field will only show you
the parameters that are relevant to the location type you select. For example MAX_CAPACITY will not
appear in the list of parameters when a mining location is chosen. If you cannot find the parameter you
are looking for it is because it is not applicable to the location(s) you have selected. To see a list of all
possible parameters, choose the Parameter drop-down list when the Locations field is blank.

2. Change the material movement rules to make use of the MAX_CAPACITY specification. You
can use the Event Builder to assist with this. Once again, at the same time, material needs to be
stopped being sent to the first stockpile at the same time by setting the ratio to zero.

Page 26 of 48
Material Movement Task: Change the Material Movement at a Stockpile Event

3. Create the schedule and create the report and view it.

4. The average sg of the ore is approximately 2.8 (varies with oxide, transitional or fresh material)
so we can see that MineSched is changing the stockpiles over correctly. To truly validate this, try
changing the report to write the PROD_VOL instead of PROD_MASS and create and view the
report again.

Page 27 of 48
Material Movement Task: Move the Material between two Stockpiles

TIP: The MAX_CAPACITY event is currently a once off event. That is it is an event that is referenced to
be able to manually change the flow of material. It is desirable that the schedule is designed to minimize
the multiple handling or constant changing of materials flows. For more information on this please
contact your local support consultant.

Moving Material between Stockpiles

In some cases it is desirable to move material from a stockpile to another stockpile or to a fill location. In
this section of the tutorial we will look at how this is accomplished.

Task: Move the Material between two Stockpiles

In this example we can assume that the low grade material is mined to a stockpile which is local to the
mine, however it is then hauled several kilometers to another stockpile on the ROM pad near to the mill.
This is the most common example of where material is moved from one stockpile to another.

1. Change the canvas view to facilitate the new movement. The stockpile names can remain the
same.

2. Delete the previous material movement rules and create a single new material movement rule
that links LG_STK to LG_STH_STK as shown above. You can explicitly define the material class
that this material movement rule applies to, and indeed this is good practice, however, as there is
only low grade material on LG_STK, using * between the two stockpiles is still ok.

Page 28 of 48
Material Movement Task: Move the Material between two Stockpiles

3. As the material movement has now been defined, create the schedule, create the report and view
it.

4. As you can see no material is being added to the LG_STH_STK and no material is being
removed from the LG_STK even though the material movement has been defined to do so. This
is because a resource is required to move material between these two locations.
5. Go to the Resources section of the Setup Schedule step and add a new resource called
HAULAGE. This resource will have a capacity of 5000 tonnes per day.

Page 29 of 48
Material Movement Task: Move the Material between two Stockpiles

6. Drag the resource onto the LG_STK stockpile location to assign the production rate to it. The
MAX_RATE will be 5000.

TIP: Note that you cannot drag and drop the resource onto any other stockpiles. A resource can only be
assigned to a stockpile if a valid material movement rule exists that would make the use of a resource on
a stockpile applicable.

Page 30 of 48
Material Movement Task: Move the Material between two Stockpiles

7. Once the resource has been assigned, create the schedule and create and view the report.

8. Material is now being moved as expected. Create an animation for the schedule and include the
new stockpile. The new stockpile will need to be given coordinates for animating.

Page 31 of 48
Material Movement Task: Add Existing Stockpile Balances

9. Create the graphical results and animate the schedule.

Stockpile Balances
When a scheduling package is implemented on site some stockpiles may already exist. These stockpiles
will have an existing quantity and quality that needs to accounted for. Existing stockpile balances can be
entered against the individual stockpiles or they can be stored in a .csv file which can be referenced.

Task: Add Existing Stockpile Balances

1. First remove the LG_STH_STK we created earlier and any other functionality that we added.
Delete the location from the canvas. Delete the HAULAGE resource. Delete the
MAX_CAPACITY specification in the Parameters section.
2. Go to the Locations section of the Setup Schedule Step. The stockpile balances of any given
stockpiles are stored as a property of the stockpile.

Page 32 of 48
Material Movement Task: Add Existing Stockpile Balances

3. Select the HG_STK and make sure the properties panel on the right is active.

4. When a stockpile is initially created, the default setting is for there to be no starting balance.
There are two options for adding starting balances to a stockpile; they can be entered into a data
grid within the MineSched interface or they can be added to a csv file which is referenced within
the interface. We will look at both methods here.
5. Click on the Data grid option.

6. The data grid is populated like any grid in MineSched. A value must be entered for each material
class that can be stored on the stockpile and for each quality. This is the HG_STK so only HG
material classes can be added to this stockpile. Fill in the Data grid as shown below.

Page 33 of 48
Material Movement Task: Add Existing Stockpile Balances

7. There is a ‘copy settings to all’ button. This will copy the contents of this grid to both of the other
stockpiles, LG_STK and WASTE_DUMP. As none of the materials listed above exist in the other
stockpiles, there is no reason to copy these values to the other stockpiles.
8. Create the schedule and create the report and view the report. Before creating the report,
remember to remove the LG_STH_STK from the global location filter. Below is a comparison of
the previous report and the new report to see that the starting balances have worked correctly.
This was assembled using two reports and a template.

9. The starting balances have worked correctly. There was 952,500 tonnes initially in the stockpile
and then 6,840 was added in the first period which gives a total of 959,340 tonnes which
corresponds to the value reported in MineSched.

Page 34 of 48
Material Movement Task: Add Existing Stockpile Balances

10. Alternatively start stockpile balances can be handled using a .csv file. Go to the Locations
section of the Setup Schedule Step.
11. Change the HG_STK stockpile balances property from Data grid to External csv file.

12. A csv file is supplied with the tutorial dataset. Browse into the scenario directory and choose the
start_stockpile_balances.csv file.

Page 35 of 48
Material Movement Task: Add Existing Stockpile Balances

13. The format of the file is similar to that laid out in the grid except that the first column must be the
location. A Header line is acceptable in this file as shown here.

14. As this file contains information for more than one location, in MineSched click the ‘copy settings
to all’ button so the csv file will be references to the other stockpiles. Even though the waste
dump stockpile will have these settings, there will be no effect because the WASTE_DUMP is not
listed in the csv file. When you select this option, a warning will appear.

Page 36 of 48
Material Movement Task: Add Existing Stockpile Balances

15. Create the schedule and create and view the report.

The use of stockpiles in MineSched can be very dynamic and flexible. Targets can also be set on
stockpiles and this will be explored in the next tutorial in this series. Additional to material movement and
the use of stockpiles is the addition of processes to the material movement network.

Processes
MineSched differentiates between a stockpile and a process by the following definition: Material must be
pushed to a stockpile, but processes pull material from mining locations, stockpiles or other processes.
The quantities are defined by process rates. In this part of the schedule we will add a process and look at
some different options and properties of processes.

TIP: The difference in definition of processes and stockpiles sometime makes it more useful to model a
process as a stockpile or model a stockpile as a process. This can sometimes be a difficult concept to
grasp. Contact your local support office if this functionality is applicable to your schedule.

Page 37 of 48
Material Movement Task: Add a Process to the Schedule

Task: Add a Process to the Schedule

1. Drag a process into the canvas and position it, change the name of the process to MILL.

2. Define the material movement from the LG_STK and the HG_STK to the MILL. Defining the
material classes is optional as the two stockpiles only contain ore material classes.

Page 38 of 48
Material Movement Task: Add a Process to the Schedule

TIP: Material movement for Processes can only be changed at a date if the date is at the beginning of a
period. This is because it makes no sense to change the material movement mid-way through a
reporting period as there is no way to reconcile the numbers effectively as the number is a summary for
the whole period. If material movement needs to be changed for a process at a date that is part way
through a period it is recommended to change your period definition such that the date of the change is
also the date of the start of a new period. This means that the report can be utilized to reconcile the
amounts correctly.

3. The MILL throughput is defined in the properties of the MILL location. Go to the properties panel
and add a mill process rate.

4. There is now enough information defined to create the schedule, but first we will add a new chart
to the dashboard. In the Dashboard view go to the Add Chart dialogue and add the ‘Added to
Process’ chart.

5. Customise the chart by right-mouse clicking in the chart area.

Page 39 of 48
Material Movement Task: Add a Process to the Schedule

6. Create the schedule and view the results.

7. Create the graphical results and animate the schedule.

8. As material is now being drawn from the stockpiles the animation shows these growing and
shrinking as material moves through the stockpiles.
9. Go to the Custom Reports section and add the MILL to the global location filter for the stockpiles
report and create and view the report.

Page 40 of 48
Material Movement Task: Add a Process to the Schedule

10. The reporting fields for this report will not change. Create a suitable template like that shown
above.

TIP: When the Process rate is defined for a process location material is drawn from the source locations
at that rate. As can be seen in this example, the rate is split evenly between the two source stockpiles. If
a single stockpile did not have enough material then the shortfall would be made up from the other
stockpile if enough material was available. When targets are defined on the process location, material
will be drawn in the quantities required to best meet the quality targets. This will be explored in the next
tutorial in this series.

The rate is given as a 24 hour per day rate that works every day of the year. Global Holiday Calendars
are not honoured by processes as usually it is costly to shut a mill down for a period of time. When you
create a calendar and make it a global calendar, that calendar is not assigned to the MILL.

Page 41 of 48
Material Movement Task: Process a set Number of Ounces per Period

However, sometimes it is desirable to create a calendar that does influence the process. From time to
time a process may be shut down for servicing. In these cases a calendar can be specifically dragged
onto the MILL to assign it.

Task: Process a set Number of Ounces per Period

It is common for some mining operations to define their milling rate as a quantity of product per period.
This could be ounces of gold, tones of copper, tones of concentrate or any number of quality aggregates.
In this example, consider the following requirement.

• The operation requires a production of 300,000 ounces per year.

1. The MILL has a recovery factor of 90% which we have already accounted for in the User
Calculations panel of the Models section in the Define Geology Step.

Page 42 of 48
Material Movement Task: Process a set Number of Ounces per Period

2. Add a new calculation to provide the number of recovered ounces. On troy ounce = 31.1034768
grams.

3. The MILL rate can only be in the units of either VOLUME, MASS or any Aggregated Quality. In
this case, the only Aggregated Quality is GRADE_AGG so we cannot use the
RECOVERED_OUNCES user calculation we have just created. The RECOVERED_OUNCES
calculation will be used for charting and reporting.
4. The requirement is for 300,000 recovered ounces per year but this must be expressed as a daily
rate of grams that is unaffected by the recovery.

Daily Mill Rate of GRADE_AGG = 300,000 * 31.1034768 / 0.9 / 365 = 28,405

5. Add this rate to the MILL and change the Units to GRADE_AGG

6. Create the schedule. Change the Dashboard chart for the process to display the recovered
ounces.

Page 43 of 48
Material Movement Task: Process a set Number of Ounces per Period

7. In the Custom report, change the report to display the recovered ounces and grades.

Page 44 of 48
Material Movement Task: Process a set Number of Ounces per Period

8. The report is correct for the MILL and shows that exactly 300,000 ounces are being produced
each year.
9. What is wrong with this report?
10. In reality the report should show the tonnages for the stockpiles and the ounces for the MILL.
Change the report to allow this. This can only be done with two groups in the report definition.

Page 45 of 48
Material Movement Task: Process a set Number of Ounces per Period

Page 46 of 48
Material Movement Task: Process a set Number of Ounces per Period

11. Depending on how you formatted your template, this may need to be adjusted.
12. Save the schedule.

Page 47 of 48
Where to Next? Task: Process a set Number of Ounces per Period

Where to Next?
This concludes this tutorial. In this tutorial we have explored
• Adding Material Movement rules to MineSched
• The functionality of Stockpiles
o Material Ratios in Stockpiles
o Moving Material between Stockpiles
o Dates and Material Movement
o Stockpile Events
o Animating Stockpiles
• The functionality of Processes
o Adding Processes
o Processing with different process units
o The effects of calendars on Processes

The data for this tutorial will be used for the next tutorial in this series. In the next tutorial we will add
targets to this schedule and explore the properties of both quality targets and material ratio targets and
their effect on mining. The data used in this tutorial will be available in the next tutorial or you can use
your own by saving your data here and copying it over the data supplied with the next tutorial.

Page 48 of 48