Inclusion of the geometallurgical variable specific energy in the mine planning using direct block scheduling

Abstract

In mining projects, it is necessary to have a wide knowledge of the main variables of the mineral deposit before strategic mine planning takes effect. In the meantime, the application of geometallurgy has allowed the modeling of parameters related to the lithologies present in the deposit, such as the specific energy in comminution. This work intends to carry out a mine planning case study with the Direct Block Scheduling (DBS) methodology implemented in the MiningMath software and using the Marvin block model. The results indicate that the processing time of each block required more complex decision-making from the DBS algorithm to fulfill the objectives of mine planning. It is also noticed that the algorithms prioritize the extraction of blocks more released in the first years of the mine, anticipating profits and leaving, for the second half of the life of the project, the intensification of development, aiming to release more blocks for mining.