A Theoretical Paradigm Shift for Compliance of Strategic and Short-term Block Caving Mine Plans towards Sustainable Mineral Development

当今采矿业的经济状况使得各大矿业公司都在增加大规模采矿方法的使用。这对该行业来说是一个阶段性的变化，从传统的露天开采转向地下开采。因此，不断的研究必须突破有前途的技术的极限，创新仍然是这一领域研究的前沿。在现有的地下采矿方法中，崩落法因其成本低、生产率高而受到青睐。块体崩落法是深部露天矿关闭后继续开采的最佳解决方案之一，但由于经营上的不利影响，产量可能会大幅下降，影响收入、时间和成本。块状洞穴开采作业对满足作业生产调度目标构成了挑战。乐观的长期和中期计划以及不确定性和业务层面故障的协同效应，造成与生产计划目标的重大偏离。另一方面，数据可用性和高计算能力的大幅增加，以及实时监控系统的创新，使采矿业的技术改造成为可能。拟议的研究符合该倡议的目标，即避免项目中断，并制定可行和可靠的矿山开发计划以吸引投资。拟议的研究计划建立在我们过去对块状洞穴矿山长期规划的研究和发现的基础上，以开发一个综合框架，能够产生可行、可靠和可实现的块状洞穴采矿计划，以避免项目中断；提高运营效率以产生最大的经济回报；并在可接受的社会、法律和法规约束下运营。建立分段崩落法长期采矿计划与短期生产计划的对接，使采矿作业的战略目标按计划实现。总体目标是将最佳战略采矿计划与短期生产计划联系起来，并遵守所有技术采矿限制。本研究直接为块洞短期生产计划创造新的知识和创新的技术。本研究侧重于运筹学、模拟和数据驱动方法在地下矿山短期规划中的应用。预计这项研究将通过资源行业的原型开源软件应用程序向从业人员和最终用户传授知识，从而有助于负责任的资源开发。此外，这项研究还将有助于为加拿大的研究和实践培训高素质的矿业专业人员，并将提供一种提高资源经济效益和产品供应的手段。

The economics of today's mining industry is such that the major mining companies are increasing the use of massive mining methods. It is a step-change for the industry, from the traditional open-pit to a move underground. Therefore, continuous research must push the limits of promising technologies by innovation remains the forefront of research in this area. Among the underground mining methods available, caving methods are favored because of their low cost and high production rates. Block-cave mining is one of the best solutions for continuing the operation after shutting down the mine in deep open-pit mines; however, the production rate can drastically decrease due to adverse operational setbacks affecting revenue, time, and cost. A block cave mining operation constitutes challenges to meet operational production scheduling targets. The optimistic long-term and medium-term plans along with uncertainty and the synergistic effect of the failures in operational levels, cause a significant deviation from production plan targets. On the other hand, the substantial increase in data availability and high-computing power, and innovations in real-time monitoring systems enable the technological transformation of the mining industry. The proposed research aligns with the initiative's objective to avoid project disruptions and create feasible and reliable mine development plans to attract investment. The proposed research program builds on our past research and findings on long-term block-cave mine planning to develop an integrated framework that can produce feasible, reliable, and achievable block-cave mine plans to avoid project disruptions; improve operational efficiencies to generate maximum economic returns; and operate within acceptable social, legal, and regulatory constraints. We will establish alignment between long-term mine plans and short-term production scheduling in block caving so that the strategic objectives of the mining operation can be realized as planned. The overall objective is to link the optimal strategic mine plans to short-term production schedules and to honor all the technical mining constraints. This research directly contributes to creating new knowledge and innovative technologies for block-cave short-term production planning. This research focuses on applications of operations research, simulation, and data-driven approaches in underground mine short-term planning. It is anticipated that this research will contribute to responsible resource development by transferring knowledge to practitioners and end-users through prototype open-source software applications in the resources industry. Also, this research will contribute to training highly qualified mining professionals for research and practice in Canada and will provide a means to enhance resource economic performance and product supply.