Hexagon’s Mining division has announced the introduction of HxGN MinePlan Project Evaluator (MPPE), a strategic planning software tool that, the company says, optimises ultimate pits and life-of-mine strategic schedules.

MPPE is part of the Engineering suite of products in the MinePlan portfolio, which built on almost 50 years of development and is proven in mines worldwide, Hexagon said.

“Today’s release provides mine planners with the familiar methodology to generate ultimate pits, plus an abundance of new functionality when it comes to strategic scheduling,” the company added.

Featuring a modern interface, MPPE allows planners to consider multiple potential scenarios both in the pit optimisation and scheduling process using robust case management tools. Reports are integrated into the interface and can be exported to many formats for inclusion in other documents. Pit-by-pit graphs can also be quickly created to identify the ideal ultimate pit.

Dustin Meisburger, Product Manager, said MPPE begins a new era in the strategic scheduling space: “MPPE scheduling uses the same MILP (Mixed Integer Linear Programming) optimisation technology that has made MinePlan Schedule Optimizer the industry standard.”

He added: “Together, these solutions make for a formidable engineering package that enables pit optimisation and strategic scheduling to maximise net present value.

“Planners will be able to quickly generate a large number of mining schedule scenarios, with NPV optimised over the life of the mine using multi-period schedule optimisation. This will help to increase overall project NPV by ensuring the best mining strategy is selected.”