Concentrators, Smelters and Refinery Plants

Planning, Scheduling, and Optimisation of Concentrators, Smelters and Refinery Plants

Processing ore to extract valuable metals and minerals is a costly and asset intensive part of the mining value chain. Each final product, whether copper, lead, zinc, nickel, rare earth metal, etc., requires a unique extraction and refining process, and specialised expertise and processing. Synchronising the flow and output of concentrator, smelter, and refinery processing with the other value chain processes is critical to achieve maximum throughput and profitability.

Variability in the ore quality at the front end of the supply chain, as well as variability in concentrator, smelter, and refinery processes, creates challenges for predicting yields and meeting target specifications. Many mining operations must master post-processing blending - and global replenishment - to satisfy customer demands due to this variability.

SolveIT Software's Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) system is an enterprise-wide planning and scheduling application that can be configured to optimise mineral, mining and metal processing. Through SolveIT Software's work in vertically integrated supply chains and complex processing industries, SolveIT Software has developed a specialisation in "global" or "cross-silo" optimisation. This approach optimises across all known processing operations, with their unique business rules, constraints and variables, to provide a "business best" outcome, rather than a "silo optimised" result.

In addition to planning, scheduling and optimising processing operations, SolveIT Software's Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) system can be configured to include planning and scheduling of maintenance, shutdowns, workforce, FIFO, site accommodation, emissions, as well as providing scenario based modelling, management dashboards, cross-enterprise communications, and customer communications. By integrating and optimising all operational forecasting, planning and scheduling functionality into one application, SolveIT Software delivers a "one-version-of-the-truth" suite of capability for management, planners, and schedulers within any mining organisation.