Uncertainty modelling in underground mine planning and scheduling
Project Member(s): Gu, H., Memar, J.
Funding or Partner Organisation: Datamine Australia Pty Ltd
Datamine Australia Pty Ltd
Start year: 2022
Summary: Operations Research (OR) has been extensively applied to underground mining at the strategic, tactical and operational levels. Recently, optimisation techniques that can deal with uncertainties are attracting the attention of the underground mining industries which are currently more relying on mining experts' experience and insights. In this research project, we will work with Alfred Mining System (AMS) to investigate the scope and practicality of the application of stochastic programming techniques for underground mining. Research directions will be identified for further collaboration with AMS in the future. Motivation – stochastic scheduling would explain slippage and bottlenecks found in deterministic scheduling but no software solutions are available in the mining industry (see “Crimes against Mine Planning”) The specific objectives of the project are: • To assess the state-of-art of uncertainty modelling in underground mine planning and scheduling • Develop a prototype based on two-stage stochastic programming for stochastic RCPSP with grade and duration uncertainty • Identify and make recommendations for future research directions.
FOR Codes: Primary mining and extraction of minerals, Operations research