Tag Archives: mine scheduling

RPMGlobal introduces ‘industry first’ Hybrid Scheduling tool to XPAC Solutions

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RPMGlobal has unveiled its next evolution of mine scheduling software with the latest release of its leading suite of scheduling products, XPAC Solutions.

The latest release includes speed and performance upgrades and functionality and architectural improvements designed to provide the user with additional agility.

However, it is the introduction of Hybrid Scheduling in XPAC 3.1 that is already generating excitement, according to the company.

Hybrid Scheduling is, RPM claims, an industry first that provides users with the flexibility of manual scheduling, together with the time savings and ease of automated scheduling.

For many years, XPAC Solutions have allowed users to start scheduling manually then seamlessly transition to automatic scheduling at any point. With Hybrid Scheduling, users can define the high-level strategy, such as the timing of shovel moves or opening of a new pit and leave the AutoScheduler to work out the detail.

The Hybrid Scheduling functionality includes a major update to the user interface that completely turns the traditional iterative scheduling workflow on its head, according to RPM.

Users no longer need to process the entire schedule every time they make an adjustment to the configuration. They can now step through the schedule incrementally, pausing at key milestones and refining the schedule as they go.

With most scheduling software products on the market requiring users to choose one of either manual or automatic mode, XPAC Solutions’ Hybrid Scheduling functionality gives mine planners the best of both worlds – the ability to schedule both manually and automatically which can be used across all solutions in any combination, RPM says.

RPMGlobal Chief Technology Officer, Paul Beesley, said the release of XPAC 3.1 represented a major step-change in the industry’s approach to planning and scheduling.

“XPAC Solutions 3.1 gives mine planners more flexibility and capability than ever before which is critical for the dynamic environment in which mines operate,” he said.

“Key scheduling decisions can be made manually, while the detail of how those decisions will be achieved is determined automatically. Importantly, all three methods are performed simultaneously in an interactive, highly visual environment that integrates 3D animation, Gantt charts and task sequences.

“Planners can pause the schedule at any point and visualise the status of the mine and key equipment so it’s much faster to build practical, efficient dig sequences for all major equipment.”

The latest upgrade to XPAC Solutions includes major speed and performance enhancements across the process. Data compaction and caching techniques make it much faster to load complex 3D data into memory and virtually eliminates any further delays when the plot is revisited, the company says.

Among other improvements, the new version allows delays associated with equipment relocations to be inserted automatically with durations based on the distance that must be travelled.

Master Drilling takes stake in mining fleet management specialist AVA Solutions

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Master Drilling Group has announced a 40% investment in AVA Solutions, a specialist in data-driven mining fleet management solutions.

Founded in 2015 by Anton Fourie and Jason van der Watt, two engineers with over 25 years of combined mining industry experience, AVA has achieved significant recognition in South Africa by creating a captive market for its disruptive, hardware-agnostic and quick to implement Software as a Service (SaaS) model at much lower costs to other solutions, Master Drilling says. Currently, AVA’s digital platform analyses and tracks more than 1,800 load and haul vehicles across 28 different sites in five countries for a range of major companies including the likes of Anglo American, Exxaro and South32.

Danie Pretorius, Master Drilling CEO, said: “Technological innovation is a key priority for Master Drilling as we continue to support our clients to move down the cost curve, optimise their operations and increase safety. Our investment in AVA is aligned with our strategy to diversify our services and invest in opportunities in our existing target markets with low capital requirements and short return cycles.

“We believe that AVA has great growth potential, and we look forward to supporting them through our existing client base and networks internationally.”

AVA’s solution was shaped by the founders’ knowledge of the mining industry and understanding of the challenges faced in the production environment, according to Master Drilling. “By condensing multiple technology layers into a single interface, AVA ensures that equipment operates at its optimal level of performance with little to no additional capital investment,” it said.

Anton Fourie, Co-Founder and COO of AVA, said: “We have grown exponentially from a start-up five years ago to a recognised player with a proven technology for the mining industry. We have a clear strategy to provide an end-to-end solution that goes beyond the load and haul environment and across the entire mining value chain. Through our partnership with Master Drilling, we are gaining access to extensive experience that will support the ongoing development of our platform and a footprint that will accelerate our international expansion.”

The next developments for AVA’s scalable platform will focus on new elements including scheduling and logistics that will enable mines to not only improve productivity of the load and haul value chain but of the entire mining value chain, according to Master Drilling.

Minemax opens up access to mine scheduling software

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Minemax has released a new version of its integrated strategic mine planning and scheduling software, Scheduler, that brings advanced scheduling into its cost-effective Lite edition.

Minemax Scheduler 7.0.4 will allow Minemax Scheduler Lite users to model various strategic decisions, previously exclusive to Minemax Scheduler Professional users, according to the company.

“With this added capability, Lite users will be able to model more complex mine planning environments,” it said. Examples of this include modelling multiple processing plants, deciding optimal material paths to various alternative destinations, and determining optimal cutoff grades.

“In all instances, Minemax Scheduler’s scheduling engine analyses these decisions together with the extraction sequence, haulage, stockpiling and blending to generate a plan that honours all constraints,” Minemax said. “This gives mine planners a very powerful tool that evaluates numerous scenarios for their strategic mine plan, all within one single optimisation run.”

Minemax CEO, Joe Kraft, said: “We are very excited about this new development in Minemax Scheduler. With this version, we are making the premier strategic schedule optimisation software more accessible to a range of budgets. This product is a must-have for any mining business seeking to achieve maximum value from their mine strategy.”

In addition, Minemax Scheduler 7.0.4 includes functionality and efficiency enhancements in pit/dump group definition, 3D visualisation and reporting, the company said.

“With respect to performance, the previous CPU core limit has been removed from Minemax Scheduler’s optimisation engine, which can now utilise more CPU cores than before,” it added. “This may result in faster solve times for projects, allowing planners to achieve more in less time.”

RPMGlobal helps optimise bulk miners’ value chain with latest XECUTE update

Bulk handling, Coal technology, Communications in mining, IoT, Mining software, Steel and iron ore, , , , , ,

RPMGlobal has upgraded its advanced mine scheduling software, XECUTE, with a Demand Chain Optimiser (DCO) module that optimises the flow of material required to satisfy customer orders all the way back to the mine for those mining bulk commodities.

The company says it has been working with miners around the globe to bridge the gap between operational planning and customer demand, with this latest update taking the collaboration to a new level.

DCO, RPMGlobal says, removes many of the value chain challenges that can arise for miners with an integrated supply chain, such as coal operations or iron ore operations in the Pilbara.

The XECUTE short-term scheduling solution enables miners to maximise value through intelligent integration by connecting the mine plan to other departments systems, according to RPMGlobal.

RPMGlobal Chief Executive Officer, Richard Mathews, said the latest release of XECUTE was focused on bridging the gap between what the customer orders, and what the mine produces.

“Mining companies understand the risks of not having an optimised value chain in place, with bottlenecks and constraints that limit shipped throughput causing significant problems for both the miner and the customer,” he said.

RPMGlobal worked closely with a major Pilbara iron ore producer to develop the DCO module, with significant time spent refining the algorithms to ensure XECUTE fulfilled each customer’s order by blending product from many stockpiles.

The unique DCO functionality enables XECUTE users to define a list of specific product or cargo builds, the qualities and quantities required and the date by which the shipment must be completed. DCO’s optimisation algorithms then allow the quality of each build to converge to the target in time for completion, avoiding off-specification penalties and demurrage costs, it said.

The algorithms allow out-of-specification material to be blended to the required grade, increasing the quantity of saleable product available and maximising the net present value of the mining and supply chain operations, according to the company.

“By automating a process that was previously iterative and time consuming, mine planners see the downstream impact of changes to mining or processing and can react quickly to changing berthing schedules or unplanned events,” the company explained.

Mathews said: “In order to ensure continuity of operations in changing market conditions, operations need to invest in integrated systems and processes that maximise planning efficiency and satisfy customer orders which is exactly what XECUTE achieves.”

RPMGlobal has also made improvements to the grade control capabilities within XECUTE by integrating with an operation’s existing grade control process to allow rapid inclusion of grade control shapes and qualities. This ensures planners are using the most accurate information to plan, it said.

Planners have the option in XECUTE to use the grade control shapes directly as mining areas, but also have the flexibility to define mining areas independently to take multiple grade control shapes in the one task or include areas that do not yet include grade control information.

Mathews concluded: “Typical grade control processes force planners to use only the shapes that have already been defined, but don’t necessarily allow the flexibility to dig areas that don’t have those grade control shapes, and that’s what we’re doing in the latest release of XECUTE.

“Early feedback from clients has been positive as no other tool on the market provides the same level of flexibility and sophistication when it comes to optimising the customer demand chain.”

RPMGlobal acquires ‘cutting-edge financial mine scheduling optimisation solution’

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RPMGlobal has added mine scheduling optimisation capability to its expanding mining software remit with the acquisition of Canada-headquartered Revolution Mining Software.

Privately-owned Revolution Mining Software develops and sells its flagship Schedule Optimisation Tool (SOT™), a “cutting-edge financial mine scheduling optimisation solution”, RPMGlobal said.

SOT is the industry’s only strategic financial optimisation tool for underground mines that enables mine planners to improve productivity and profitability by optimising the net present value (NPV) of the mine schedule, according to RPMGlobal.

SOT emerged out of research undertaken by Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation (MIRARCO), a not-for-profit corporation of Laurentian University, in Canada, well known for solving complicated mining industry problems through innovative thinking.

“This scheduling program adds value to mining operations in several ways, including by generating life-of-mine schedules that adhere to all specified precedence and operational constraints, optimising NPV based on the user’s financial model,” RPMGlobal said.

RPMGlobal CEO and Managing Director, Richard Mathews, said RPMGlobal will invest in Revolution Mining’s scheduling optimisation tools to deliver even more innovative solutions that add real value for its customers.

“RPMGlobal was born from the belief that mine planning needs to be built on sound economics and the Revolution Mining products strategy is completely aligned with that core value,” he said.

Lorrie Fava, Revolution Mining’s President, said: “The entire Revolution Mining team is so passionate about the solutions we are delivering to the industry, so it was important to us that RPMGlobal also shared our vision and passion, which they clearly do.

“To be able to be a part of a company with RPMGlobal’s pedigree and history is a very exciting prospect for the team at Revolution Mining. We look forward to joining the RPMGlobal team and are convinced that the Revolution Mining Software product suite will benefit from increased investment and the sales and marketing support that RPMGlobal can offer these products right around the world.”

As part of the acquisition, RPMGlobal has also acquired Revolution Mining Software’s Attain™ and SurfaceSOT™ software solutions.

Attain is a software solution that, RPMGlobal says, ensures operational mine planning is systematically aligned with the long-range plan. “This approach ensures the company has optimised short-range schedules that are feasible and aligned with the long-range schedule,” it explained.

SurfaceSOT is a solution that will work for all types of mining operations to maximise their NPV by optimising their long-range schedules, including management of stockpiles and product blending while minimising the re-handling of materials, the company added.

“The acquisition of the SOT, Attain and SurfaceSOT solutions extend the strategic capability of RPMGlobal’s scheduling solutions,” RPMGlobal said. “RPMGlobal’s sophisticated mathematical modelling tools for short and mid-range planning amplify the benefits its customers receive from these optimisation and schedule alignment tools.”

Following completion of the transaction, all of Revolution Mining Software’s employees and management will move across into the RPMGlobal business, the company added.

RPMGlobal provides a remote MinVu

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RPMGlobal says a new dedicated app is set to transform the way miners collaborate, receive and analyse information.

The launch of the MinVu Shift Manager app comes as the industry continues to adopt mobile technology to increase operational efficiency and collaboration in an “inherently dispersed and complex environment”, RPMGlobal said.

Richard Mathews, RPMGlobal CEO, said making MinVu Shift Manager compatible with mobile would provide real-time data directly in the hands of the decision maker, wherever they are located.

“RPMGlobal has listened closely to our customers and we know that miners are continually looking for ways to leverage digital solutions in order to optimise and streamline the way they work,” he said.

“Shift Manager is an integral component of the digital mine and a connected workforce, so it made sense to make this web-based software available in the form of an app to enable planning and supervision form anywhere.”

MinVu Shift Manager is a short-term planning and execution solution, which RPMGlobal acquired at the end of 2017. The tool is a unique industry-built software solution that enables users to collaborate and communicate through a single, integrated plan to drive more effective on-shift decision support, according to the company.

“The new mobile interface merges MinVu and MinVu Shift Manager into one, easy-to-use platform,” RPMGlobal said. “With the app, different departments and personnel have complete visibility of equipment and equipment status, underpinning the ability to plan intra-shift activities and break through operational silos.”

As remote-enabled solutions, both MinVu and MinVu Shift Manager enable remote teams to collaborate across the value chain, it added.

Users will be able to create any Shift Manager task in the app, such as addressing a possible hazard, checking the progress of diggers and schedule maintenance tasks. Importantly, end users can collaborate and share information from anywhere, whether they are underground on site or in the corporate headquarters, according to RPMGlobal.

RPMGlobal’s mobile applications now extend across its established suite of integrated solutions, which encompass mine scheduling, simulation, finance, maintenance, operations and design.

XECUTE — RPMGlobal’s short-term scheduling solution — only recently underwent an upgrade of its app, according to the company.

Along with user interface and CAD enhancements, the latest XECUTE release comes equipped with enhanced mobile functionality, thereby supporting the real-time data feeds from fleet management systems, the company said.

Mathews explained: “You will be able to see on the mobile device, not just what your plan is, but also how you’re progressing against that plan in real-time.

“With the app, mining personnel will be connected to vital information at all times. For example, a mine planner who is on the bus heading to site can log in to the XECUTE app and catch up with what has happened on site overnight before he even arrives for the shift.”

According to Mathews, enterprise integration is a key enabler for technology, as is the mobile application stack.

“Mobile compatible software is a key component of the digital mine whereby data is connected from central systems to dispersed mining personnel, therefore amplifying the abilities of key decision makers within a business,” Mathews said.

“With RPMGlobal’s enterprise approach, we are helping mine sites increase productivity across the value chain. We are giving them the tools to make better decisions thereby creating an insight-driven mining organisation.”

GEOVIA MineSched 2020 receives the 3DEXPERIENCE

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The new GEOVIA MineSched 2020 comes with the ability to publish results to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform with MineSched POWER’BY, and allows users to update the starting point of all development and production activities for underground workflows and more, according to GEOVIA.

The results of a MineSched schedule can be uploaded to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to analyse and share schedule data, the company, owned by Dassault Systèmes, said.

“With report authoring and analytics, users can gain insights and knowledge about the tactical schedule,” GEOVIA said. “More importantly, with dash-boarding and collaboration, you can share those insights and knowledge with other stakeholders.”

Users can quickly and easily update the starting position of the schedule based on survey results and development reports with the new Development Progress Tracking tab, as well.

Mining Locations, created as part of the Surpac Stope Shape Optimizer (SSO), can now be directly imported into MineSched via the SDM Model process. To enable this workflow, a new Locations type option has been added to the Location Grouping workflow, and the option to select Stopes is available.

In addition a schedule can be quickly and easily updated based on survey results and production reports with the new Production Progress Tracking.

Additional enhancements or defect fixes that improve work performance include changes to Location names in Spreadsheet View; changes to Material Movement rules while performing stockpile blending calculations; performance improvements while using the Evaluate Headings process; and replacement of the Spreadsheet tools with a more modern solution.

RPMGlobal goes beyond the pit with XECUTE short-term scheduler

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RPMGlobal says it has released several upgrades to its advanced mine scheduling software, XECUTE, designed to underpin “increased optimisation across the entire mining value chain”.

XECUTE is RPM’s short-term scheduling solution to enable miners to maximise value by using intelligent integration to connect planning with other departments within a mining operation.

RPM has experienced a significant uptick in the adoption of XECUTE in the past 18 months, with the solution now operational across iron ore, coal, oil sands, manganese, gold and copper mines, it said. One of the major reasons for this adoption is the Product Optimiser functionality, which according to RPM, determines the optimal way to process, blend and stockpile products to maximise value from what is about to be mined.

The latest XECUTE release includes upgraded optimiser functionality providing further enhancements when integrated as part of the short-term schedule, the company said.

RPM’s Chief Technology Officer, Paul Beesley, said XECUTE’s expanding customer base had led to these product changes.

“The increasing sophistication of XECUTE’s functionality means XECUTE is now capable of going beyond simply planning extraction from the pit. It can now provide optimisation across the entire value chain,” he said.

XECUTE, according to RPM, provides planners with a set of tools that allow users to make dynamic adjustments to mining operations and visualise the impact of these adjustments to mine production as well as the entire downstream value chain. This means a planner can make decisions based on the impact of planning decisions on not just production in the next shift but also alignment to longer-term plans on processing, transport, and shipping.

As part of the new additions, RPM’s coal customers will have increased support with the introduction of coal wash plant features. “This functionality allows the planner to schedule the whole way through the plant rather than stopping at the run of mine,” RPM said, adding that this feature is particularly valuable in a multi-product operation and is currently being implemented at one of the “world’s most sophisticated coal blending and processing operations”.

XECUTE’s architecture means real-time data is made available through any connected source, according to RPM.

“By enabling users to have a better understanding of the economic value produced from a commodity, miners are better placed to make decisions about crucial impacts that are generally outside their control,” the company said.

For example, XECUTE facilitates short-term planners visualising changes in the pit through live integration to fleet management systems/high precision GPS and drill systems. Deviations from the plan are, therefore, identified immediately, allowing planners to adjust if required.

On top of the Product Optimiser enhancements, other key areas of focus include XECUTE’s User Interface and CAD functionality.

“Unlike many other linear programming engines, XECUTE has a highly intuitive, user-friendly interface that allows planners to spend more time analysing results, instead of learning how to program the inputs,” the company said.

“There are also significant enhancements to speed and usability within this XECUTE upgrade, including an 80% improvement in geology and reserving processing speed.”

XECUTE mobile improvements enable users to use integrated data feeds from the pit in a mobile application to quickly compare the short-term plan with actual production, according to the company, giving planners and supervisors a plan compliance tool on the move. Information such as drill holes, bucket positions and machine positions are fed straight to the mobile user.

Hexagon MPPE brings about new era in strategic mine scheduling space

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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.”

Technology developments at BHP Innovation Centre start paying off

Equipment maintenance, IoT, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , ,

Developments at BHP’s Innovation Centre during the miner’s 2019 financial year have led to the take up of several new technology-based solutions, BHP explained in its just released annual report.

This included a live mine scheduling tool that enables mine schedulers to deliver faster and higher-quality schedules and decisions for mine load and haul operations. It works by analysing disparate data sets consisting of real-time and contextualised information, the company said.

After the successful application of live mine scheduling at its Eastern Ridge innovation mine in the Pilbara of Western Australia, the company has scaled and deployed this solution at its Whaleback mine, also in the Pilbara, it said.

In addition to this, the company says, in its 2020 financial year, live mine scheduling will be scaled across all its iron ore operations, which is expected to result in better mining fleet utilisation and visibility throughout the BHP iron ore supply chain.

This is not all though. Another technology tested out at Eastern Ridge – the real-time payload distribution display – was implemented during its 2019 financial year.

This display is a visual tool enabling BHP’s digger operators to “precisely and efficiently distribute and deposit payload onto trucks”, the company said. The technology is expected to improve operators’ ability to accurately deposit the target payload onto trucks, enabling lower equipment maintenance costs.

Lastly, the company has made advances in its adoption of what it calls “pedestrian avoidance technology”. This sees a video and audio detection and alert system provide forklift operators with 360° detection of personnel near forklift machinery, reducing safety incidents that have previously occurred due to poor visibility.

Developed and tested at BHP Innovation Centre’s Welshpool facility, pedestrian avoidance technology was piloted at Eastern Ridge, Port and Nickel West in July 2019, the company said.