DISPATCH® Simulation Study in Rio Tinto Iron Ore’s West Angelas Mine West Angelas Unlocking Project Roberto Urzúa – Specialist Mine Engineer - Modular Mining Systems, Chile Samuel Lawrance – Mining Systems Specialist - Rio Tinto, Australia [email protected]
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Simulation Study in the Rio Tinto West Angelas Iron Ore Mine
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DISPATCH® Simulation Study in Rio Tinto Iron Ore’s West Angelas Mine
Simulation DefinitionIt’s a useful tool to obtain conclusions about the behavior of a system (mine) by studying a model of it
Objectives Evaluate the behavior of a system (mine) under
various operating conditions Obtain a measure of a system (mine) in terms of
performance to determine the best operating strategy comparing different alternatives (scenarios)
Anticipate events before they happen ...
How much increase in production can be generated by adding a new shovel to the operation of the mine?
Is this increased production enough to justify the cost of acquisition of the new shovel?
Will the existing trucks be enough to take full advantage of the now increased number of shovels?
Simulator – What is it?
Simulator – How it works?
DISPATCH® Simulator is an application/module that emulates amining operation in real time.
Use the same philosophyof DISPATCH®
DatabasesOptimization algorithmsDispatch® reports Interaction with other modulesEtc…
MINE1 MINE2
t1 t2
simulation
The Simulation Module simulates theoperation of loading and haulingunits for a period of time using the"shift" as the basic unit.
Simulator – How it works?
Some Benefits
Help in making decisions (making decisions in
advance to save time and money)
Ability to generate multiple tests with little effort
Applicable to short, medium and long term
planning
Evaluation of potential scenarios (what-if)
Possibility to verify operating strategies
Some Applications
Calculation of optimum equipment fleet
Equipment performance
validation/estimation (KPI’s)
Analysis of mine design
Compare fixed/dynamic systems
Dispatchers training
Capacity modeling
Mine Plan modeling
West Angelas Simulation Study
Scope of work
RTIO to nominate 5 historical shifts for calibration
MMS to calibrate the simulation utility
– Recorded material movements are within 5%
– Within 8% variance against individual loading units
Run the shifts in a "locked" scenario (calibrated shifts)
Run the shifts in an "unlocked" scenario (simulation scenarios)
Report on
– the impact - material movements, production KPI’s and truck management metrics, loading unit wait on truck (calibrated vs. simulated)
Inputs:• Pitdatabase
• Shift Databases
• Site visit Operation feedbackWest Angelas
Location: 110km from Newman, West Australia. Operation: Open pit operation with site-based processing facilities. Capacity: 29.5 million tonnes total railout per annum Products: Pilbara Blend Lump and Fines. Geology: Marra Mamba Bedded Iron Deposit.
Assets Mobile fleet:• 14 x 730E Komatsu (190t) haul trucks.• 24 x 830E Komatsu (220t) hul trucks.• 9 x loading units (3 excavators, 2 shovels, 4 front end loaders).
Crushing and screening plant.Train loadout capability.Relaimer and stacker.(Information as of Dec 2010)
PIW Simulation- Methodology
I. Building the Virtual Model
II. Base Case Calibration
III. Optimized Model
IV. Analysis of Results
Virtual mine constructionLayout, grades, dump and loading locations, equipmentparameters, events handling, etc.
Setting the virtual mine set in the previous stage to theoperational reality of the mineSimulation results are obtained in the expected range(production, productivity, KPI, etc..). The simulationsrepresent reality
Operational optimizationThe simulations consider a less restrictive environment,using Dispatch® optimization tools (unlocking truck toshovels)
Reporting systemsThrough Dispatch® report utilities the results obtained withsimulations (production, equipment productivity andothers) can be analyzed to facilitate decision making
The unlocked scenario was run in an open mode, this means that all the locked trucks to shovelconditions were erased so any truck was available for assignment to any shovel
The operational status changes for all loading, haulage, and dumping locations occurred at the sametime, according to the events specified in data from the historical shifts
Dump locks were used for excavators to ensure the representative cycles were respected
The pit layout was identical to that used in all other simulation cases
The potential gains were only due to a better truck assignment
Variance between the base case and real shifts is significantly small so itcan be establish that the base case is representative for West Angelasoperations, therefore the potential gains from an unlock scenario weremeasured with confidence from this model
As expected, each unlock case provided further increases inproductivity, this is a direct result of reducing the constraints on thesystem. As the constraints are removed, the algorithm is provided withbetter optimization opportunities
For all shifts in the unlock scenario there is more material movement interms of loads and tons (increasing the TKPH as well), and also there isless queue time of trucks at shovels which means a better managementof the haulage fleet
PIW Simulation - Conclusions
This improvement is representative of the real improvements availableto West Angelas through a less restrictive situation.
Even better results are expected than presented in this analysis, dueto a potential better interaction between the dispatcher and thesystem optimization tools according to different operating conditionsof the operation
Simulation analysis should be used by mine planning departments inorder to support the decision making process
The above could involve: design changes, adding new equipment,benefits quantification of operational changes, among others
Simulations tools help to make informed decisions and minimize risk,avoiding significant loss of time and money
…adding value!
Thank You
Questions?
DISPATCH® Databases
The pit database contains real time continuous data. It contains an “image” of themine at any given moment. The DISPATCH® system continuously revises thisdatabase as it receives and updates data.
The Pit database is used to make real time operational decisions.
The Shift database is also a real time database until the end of shift when theDISPATCH® system then stores that database as a shift file with the shift date andcreates a new shift database for the current shift.
The Shift database contains all statuses, events and information that occurred for that shift.
DISPATCH® Optimization Algorithms
In order to perform optimal allocation assignments,
DISPATCH® operates as a real-time problem solver tool using
three models (mathematical algorithms)
This is the determination of the bestavailable path between two points andworks on shortest distance as thecriteria.
It allocates haulage resources toexcavating activities based on truck-dependent loading rates andmaximization of overall truckproductivity.
D.P. works to achieve “balance andsynchronization” while meeting theL.P. flow rates. D.P tries to achievethe L.P. “Master Plan”