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Large-scale underground mine planning including heat and ventilation considerations
Ayaburi, John S.
Ayaburi, John S.
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2024
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Improvement in computational power and the need for informed decision-making have increased demand for operations research in underground mining. Production schedules determine the sequence of extraction for ore and waste materials subject to production goals, resource limitations and spatial precedence. As operations progress deeper into the earth, heat accumulates and, if not accounted for, affects the health and safety of mine workers. We develop large-scale optimization models. First, we formulate a large-scale medium- and short-term production scheduling model to aid in both tactical and operational decision-making while considering transient heat effects. Second, because diesel engines account for approximately 70% of heat accumulation in the underground environment, we formulate an optimization model to determine a (near-)optimal fleet transition plan from diesel to battery vehicles. That is, we examine the trade-offs between fleet electrification, refrigeration and productivity so that mine planners can make environmentally friendlier strategic decisions. Lastly, state-of-the-art mine scheduling software tools are limited because they are not only expensive but also inflexible with respect to parametric analyses. We address these scheduling challenges by developing and implementing an integer-programming model that is adaptable to various underground mine operations. The optimization program, which we code in Python, incorporates our industry partner's objective(s) and accounts for all mine-specific constraints, resulting in realistic and operationally feasible block schedules.
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