LAPSE:2023.11282
Published Article
LAPSE:2023.11282
Geometallurgical Detailing of Plant Operation within Open-Pit Strategic Mine Planning
February 27, 2023
Mineral and metallurgical processing are crucial within the mineral value chain. These processes involve several stages wherein comminution is arguably the most important due to its high energy consumption, and its impact on subsequent extractive processes. Several geological properties of the orebody impact the efficiency of mineral processing and extractive metallurgy; scholars have therefore proposed to deal with the uncertain ore feed in terms of grades and rock types, incorporating operational modes that represent different plant configurations that provide coordinated system-wide responses. Even though these studies offer insights into how mine planning impacts the ore fed into the plant, the simultaneous optimization of mine plan and metallurgical plant design has been limited by the existing stochastic mine planning algorithms, which have only limited support for detailing operational modes. The present work offers to fill this gap for open-pit mines through a computationally efficient adaptation of a strategic mine planning algorithm. The adaptation incorporates a linear programming representation of the operational modes which forms a Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition, nested within a high-performing stochastic mine planning algorithm based on a variable neighborhood descent metaheuristic. Sample calculations are presented, loosely based on the Mount Isa deposit in Australia, in which a metallurgical plant upgrade is evaluated, showing that the upgraded design significantly decreases the requirement on the mining equipment, without significantly affecting the NPV.
Keywords
geometallurgy, linear programming, metaheuristics, metallurgical plant, open-pit mine planning, Stochastic Optimization
Suggested Citation
Quelopana A, Órdenes J, Araya R, Navarra A. Geometallurgical Detailing of Plant Operation within Open-Pit Strategic Mine Planning. (2023). LAPSE:2023.11282
Author Affiliations
Quelopana A: Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, Universidad Católica del Norte, 0610 Angamos, Antofagasta 1270709, Chile; Department of Mining and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, McGill University, 3610 University Street, Montreal, QC H3A [ORCID]
Órdenes J: Department of Mining and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, McGill University, 3610 University Street, Montreal, QC H3A 0C5, Canada [ORCID]
Araya R: SNC Lavalin Inc., Mining and Metallurgy, 445 René-Lévesque Blvd. West, Montreal, QC H2Z 1Z3, Canada
Navarra A: Department of Mining and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, McGill University, 3610 University Street, Montreal, QC H3A 0C5, Canada [ORCID]
Journal Name
Processes
Volume
11
Issue
2
First Page
381
Year
2023
Publication Date
2023-01-26
Published Version
ISSN
2227-9717
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Original Submission
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PII: pr11020381, Publication Type: Journal Article
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LAPSE:2023.11282
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doi:10.3390/pr11020381
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Feb 27, 2023
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