Part 1: Using Premining and Surface Mining Rules in GEOVIA Minex

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GEOVIA MinexTM can be used in short-term scheduling to help mine planners effectively utilize mining equipment, consider dilution losses, factor in drilling and blasting time, and much more.

In this post, we will talk about the various aspects of drill and blast scheduling to help you better prepare a short term schedule. We have previously seen how we can add details in a Minex calendar for incorporating short term scheduling requirements like equipment maintenance and shift patterns.

In particular, using the Premining and Surface Mining rules in Minex can help you better visualize how your equipment will mine in the field. Follow the below steps to execute the Pre-Mining operation.

1. Tick the Premining and/or Surface Mining boxes in the Schedule Mining Rules dialog box.

1-premining-rule

2. Change the Mining Rate of your premining equipment to “0” and enter the Premining Rate as the hourly capacity of the equipment in BCM per hour.

2-premining-rate

3. Check that the Premining code for the layer in the reserves database is also set to PMIN or another four-character code that accurately represents the layer, such as RIPC for “RIP Coal”, to identify these activities rather than using the generic “PMIN”. This code needs to match the equipment allowable code.

Tip: To compute the volume capacity of a drill, multiply its vertical penetration rate by the spacing x burden of the drill pattern and de-rate the answer by a factor that will represent drilling efficiency, setup time, relocation time, and so on.

4. The Surface Mining option can be used in planning surface operations such as tree felling or ground preparation. To utilize this, turn on the Perform Surface Preparation rule. The surface mining equipment capacity or Surface Rate is in square units per hour.

5. Now that you have determined the Premining and/or Surface Mining rates, you can factor drill and blast into your short-term schedule to make it more practical. Note that it is good practice to save all data before turning on this rule. However, it is not necessary to complete the Premining and Surface Mining step for Drill and Blast Scheduling.

In the next blog post, we will talk about how to factor Drill & Blast into your short-term schedule to make it more practical. You may also find the post Using the Calendar File in Short-Term Scheduling useful. For any other enquiries about short-term scheduling, reporting formats or customized macros, please contact us at GEOVIA.Services@3ds.com.

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Ranajit Das

Ranajit Das

Senior Mining Industry Process Consultant, GEOVIA at Dassault Systèmes
Ranajit is a qualified Mining Engineer with over 22 years of experience in mine planning, consulting, operations, logistics, exploration and feasibility studies. Ranajit has previously worked for the Steel Authority of India, Santa Fe Mining in Chile and JSW Steel in India. He specializes in GEOVIA Minex and Surpac.