Optimizing short-term production schedules in surface mining: Integrating mine modeling software with AMPL/CPLEX

Abstract

Short-term production scheduling is the operational basis for mine production over time spans of days, weeks and months. Short-term schedules concentrate on making long-term mine plans operationally feasible and ensuring a steady flow of product for both meeting gross production targets and blending ore. Mathematical programming techniques have been applied to optimize short- and long-term production schedules, but widespread application of these techniques has been limited by the use of routines that are opaque to the end user or difficult to implement. Several examples are provided to illustrate the advantages of using the math modeling language AMPL in conjunction with Techbase, a popular mine modeling package. The strengths of MIP methods as applied to production scheduling are discussed, as are techniques for coping with the limitations of these algorithms.