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Optimal material handling equipment selection using mixed integer linear programming approach to meet long-term production schedule requirements
Yaman, Burc
Yaman, Burc
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2023
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2024-10-18
Abstract
Selection of materials handling equipment needs to be carefully conducted as a critical component of mine planning and economics of mining operations. The earth moving operation constitutes almost half of the total operating expenses in an open pit mining application. Maximum operational efficiency and minimum unit cost of mining can only be achieved by selecting an optimum material handling equipment fleet. This study investigates the existing equipment selection problem to provide an optimal solution. This is accomplished by comparing the total ownership and operating costs as well as the unit mining costs of suggested on-highway and off-highway equipment fleets. The reason for evaluating the on-highway and off-highway mining equipment together is to determine the profitability of contractor mining and owner mining methods. To create the dataset, Excel spreadsheets, AutoCAD 3D, MinePlan, and AMPL software were utilized in the data preparation and problem modelling processes.
Given the nature of open pit mining (multiple periods, commodity flow, and locations), a mixed integer programming model was developed to determine the optimal material handling equipment fleet with minimum ownership and operating cost for the entire life of the mine. Several constraints were employed to meet operational requirements set by the mine owner, such as satisfying production demands, equipment compatibility, and the unavailability of the pre-existing equipment fleet. To generate the annual dispatching schedule of the optimum equipment fleet, continuous decision variables were employed in the programming model for calculating the number of trucks and excavators, expressed in fractions, required to produce certain material types.
A case study was introduced for an open pit gold mine, currently in operation in Turkey, to simplify the decision-making process of the mine owner in choosing the optimal mining equipment fleet for the rest of the operation. The optimum result of the case study was achieved by selecting an on-highway equipment fleet with a total ownership and operating cost of $171 million and a unit cost of $0.89 per ton of material handled over the entire mine life. With the utilization of on-highway trucks and excavators, overall ownership and operating cost savings between $80 and $90 million were achieved compared to other proposed off-highway equipment alternatives.
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