Discrete event simulation to design open-pit mine production policy in the event of snowfall

ABSTRACT

Snowfall can lead to the cessation of production in a truck-shovel mining system. A snow road removal procedure that is performed simultaneously with the production operation is introduced to avoid this situation. A discrete-event simulation model is built to evaluate both operations under different configurations. An operation policy is designed based on the simulations results. This policy defines the manner in which production and snow removal operations are conducted depending on the intensity of the snowfall. The operational policy demonstrates that production can be maintained at high snowfall intensities.

KEYWORDS:

• Discrete-event simulation
• open-pit mines
• truck-shovel mining system
• operational mine planning

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge CODELCO for sharing data and their valuable contribution in this work. They also express they gratitude to Nicholas Barrentine and Enrique Jélvez for his support in the revision of this document. This work is part of a PhD research, which was supported by the Advanced Mining Technology Center and the CONICYT Basal Project under Grant FB0809.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Advanced Mining Technology Center and CONICYT [FB0809];