Open-Pit Mine Truck Dispatching System Based on Dynamic Ore Blending Decisions

Abstract

In the production process of open-pit mines, trucks are applied in the production process of open-pit mines for transporting ores and rocks. Most open-pit mines are equipped with dozens of trucks. It is important to plan the dispatch of trucks in the production process so that the transportation process can be the shortest in distance, the lowest in cost, and the most efficient. At present, many open-pit mining enterprises have realized the use of dispatching systems to schedule trucks to complete production tasks. However, these methods are mostly designed to deploy trucks to reduce production costs without considering the blending problem of the selected ores, and therefore it cannot meet the dual need of ore blending and dispatching. In order to solve the above technical problems and meet the actual needs of the current open-pit mine for ore blending and dispatching, this paper proposes an open-pit mine truck dispatching system based on dynamic ore blending decisions, supported by a 4G/5G wireless network, Beidou positioning, and Internet of Things technology, which can not only realize the optimized truck dispatching of open-pit mine production, but also meet the requirements of downstream concentrators for ore dressing grade. The system has been applied in the Ansteel Group QIDASHAN mine for one year. The proportion of trucks dispatched through the system reached more than 70%. The trucks’ capacity were upgraded from 3.79 to 4 million ton km per set per year, and the efficiency was improved by 5.5%. The limitations of the proposed system and method mainly include the possibility of inaccurate measurement of ore output and the lack of combination with unmanned driving.