MINING SOFTWARE
projects being developed all over the world,
from Wafi-Golpu in PNG to New Afton in Canada
and Argyle in Australia.
A new strategic panel caving product
developed by Maptek “targets the most cost
effective underground mining method in a
transparent, analytical way while maximising
productivity.” Panel, or block caving, is widely
considered the ‘new frontier’ as mining
operations move towards underground
methods.
Maptek CaveLogic allows engineers to more
effectively plan and reduce the financial risk
associated with this subsidence mining method
that involves massive volumes of material and
large investment. “The Maptek solution quickly
and easily simulates multiple scenarios for
identifying the best option,” said Vice President,
Maptek South America, Marcelo Arancibia who
previewed the new tool at the recent South
America Users Conference in Viña del Mar.
“Dynamic analysis using CaveLogic considers
the economic environment and generates
practical production plans quickly, easily,
accurately and interactively. The point of
difference with the Maptek approach is the
flexibility for handling project complexity and
individual customer needs.”
“CaveLogic incorporates operational and
geotechnical constraints and takes dilution into
account by generating multiple scenarios for
assessment. Unlike other panel caving systems,
results are readily visualised for determining
sequencing and are auditable for confident
decision support,” said Arancibia.
“Because the projected promised economic
value is associated with realistic plans,
operations will also benefit from tighter
integration between planning and operational
areas. Importantly for users, the calculations in
CaveLogic are transparent. The planning
engineer is in total control of tracking all of the
variables and processes. This leads to better
strategies with direct implications for improving
business outcomes.”
This latest Maptek development references
globalised environmental values and targets the
natural trend toward underground mining where
automation is the key to unlocking productivity,
safety and efficiency. The system works directly
with Maptek Vulcan™ mine planning systems.
CaveLogic is applicable to greenfield and
brownfield projects. It can also guide
management decisions at open pit operations
where feasibility studies are required to
evaluate the transition to underground mining.
For decades, mining companies have already
trusted GEOVIA PCBC’s footprint finder
application to quickly and effectively evaluate
the footprint of block cave operations. Now
PCSLC (for sub-level caving) has its own tool to
60 International Mining | FEBRUARY 2018
Footprint Finder for SLC (FFSLC) has been
designed to quickly evaluate
sub-level caving scenarios
using minimal inputs for
simplicity
rapidly evaluate
sub-level cave
scenarios to determine
which option will be the
most attractive and
robust.
Footprint Finder
for SLC (FFSLC) has
been designed to
quickly evaluate sub-level
caving scenarios using minimal inputs for
simplicity. The application converts a column of
blocks above a level into “rings”, and evaluates
the economic footprint for each SLC level.
Extraction percentages can be set to defaults or
can be optimised using the Footprint Finder
application.
A basic face shape can be set by azimuth, and
a rate of face advance used to determine the
sequence of mining. These parameters are
easily modified so that multiple SLC scenarios
and strategies can be modelled and compared.
The FFSLC determines the economic footprint
within a clipping boundary and applies the
extraction percentage profile based on the
number of levels (blocks/rings) that are above
the current level. In the image above, blocks on
the first level are all coloured in blue; these
blocks are all given an extraction percentage of
60% from the Excel extraction profile input
because there are no rings above these blocks.
On the level below, there are both green and
blue blocks.
The green blocks sit directly below the first
level, and will be given the extraction
percentage of 80%, while the blue blocks on the
second level have no blocks/rings above and
will be given the extraction percentage of 60%.
Thus FFSLC is able to quickly model a desired
extraction percentage profile.
Furthermore, the FFSLC is able to optimise the
extraction percentage profile by using the
minimum and maximum extraction percentages
suggested to run multiple iterations and return
best result. The aim of the FFSLC is to achieve
the highest value, which it accomplishes by
minimising dilution and maximising ore recovery.
It is able to do this by adjusting the extraction
percentage of each column of blocks to match
the shape and grade distribution of the orebody.
The level spacing can be quickly modified and
tested for sensitivity as the minimum and
maximum elevation for each level can be easily
set within Excel. Mining levels are designated
with the type M, while block rings and external
material use the designation B and X
respectively. The results can be displayed
graphically with X, Y and Z offsets so that
levels can be shown side by side.
Grade elements are used f or
tracking Primary, Secondary,
Tertiary and Quaternary material
movement. These grade
elements can be plotted to see
where material is coming from
on each level. Individual clipping
boundaries can be used for each
level to further restrict to
footprint shape as desired.
The sequence is easily
controlled by integers set
within the sectors attribute of
the block model. The desired face shape
can be created as an XY Curve and these curves
can be applied to each sector at a specified
azimuth.
The table sheet controls the period, target
tonnes, max active levels, and the maximum
advance distance for a given period. These all
combine to produce a production schedule for
the desired SLC scenario.
Christina Ludwicki, GEOVIA CBU Senior
Application Consultant at Dassault Systèmes,
concludes: “The FFSLC is exciting new tool
which can be used to rapidly evaluate and
analyse a wide variety of sub level caving
scenarios, quickly and efficiently.”
In another development, Dassault Systèmes
and Alford Mining Systems (AMS) in 2017 signed
a distribution agreement that will see the AMS
Stope Shape Optimizer (SSO) software
embedded and distributed within GEOVIA
Surpac in 2018. The AMS SSO software
generates optimum stope shapes for a range of
underground mining methods and produces
stope inventories from a block model that
spatially represents the location of the
mineralisation. SSO provides a stope shape that
maximises recovered resource value above cut-
off grade whilst also catering for practical
mining parameters such as minimum and
maximum mining width, anticipated wall
dilutions, minimum and maximum wall angles,
minimum separation distances between parallel
and sub-parallel stopes, and minimum and
maximum stope heights and widths. Integration
of the SSO software within Surpac will benefit
underground mining customers and facilitate a
seamless user experience.
In June 2017, Hexagon Mining introduced
Stope Optimizer, a strategic mine planning tool
for underground. It automates the design of
stope shapes for a range of stoping methods.
Using constraints and design parameters, Stope
Optimizer provides the optimal stope shape
design to maximise the value of an orebody. The
outputs (stope wireframes, coded block model,