Mining Solutions | Mine Optimisation

Integrated Planning, Scheduling & Optimisation for Mining Organisations

Mining organisations are adopting integrated planning and optimisation frameworks in similar ways to manufacturing 20 years ago. Barriers to this adoption have been many, but the primary reason is the variability and uncertainty at all levels of planning in mining supply/demand chains. Probabilistic information abounds, from the primary asset in-situ resource to the inventory quality throughout the value chain. This variability and the unique operational requirements of mining have resulted in the development of in-house custom applications and the proliferation of spreadsheets to fulfil planning and scheduling requirements.

Optimised integrated planning and scheduling requires synchronisation of data from multiple sources, both within and outside operational systems that manage the traditional supply chain network of mine, process plant, transport network, port and trading desk. The broader organisational influencing factors on an optimal plan or schedule may include workforce variability, market conditions, maintenance and asset management, accommodation and staff resourcing, and market factors. This complexity, and the importance of drawing information from all of these functional silos to achieve an accurate integrated plan illustrates the criticality of a centralised planning and scheduling horizon in a mining application blueprint as illustrated in the example below:

SolveIT Software's applications for Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS) and Supply Chain Network Optimisation (SCNO) provide mining organisations with a "One-Version-of-the-Truth" enterpise environment for integrated planning & scheduling. No other mining solutions provider can match SolveIT Software's depth of domain knowledge in mining supply chain optimisation, planning, and scheduling. Our customers include BHP Billiton Iron Ore, Rio Tinto Iron Ore, Rio Tinto Simandou, BMA Coal, Fortescue Metals Group, Xstrata Copper, Xstrata Zinc, Pacific National Coal, and Xstrata Coal, among others.

SolveIT Software's enterprise applications enable faster, more holistic strategic and operational decisions for:

• Mine planning & scheduling (including open pit and underground)
• Mine-to-port logistics (including rail, stockpile, and port planning & scheduling)
• Concentrator, smelter and refinery planning & scheduling
• Exploration Managemen

Implementing SolveIT Software's enterprise applications for integrated planning, scheduling, and optimisation delivers seamless decision support across your organisation, with one system linked to all departments and time horizons, capturing as many planning functions as possible. This centralised optimisation horizon means that the impact of decisions made in one part of the business can be immediately measured against others.