Mining Business Optimisation 101

What do we mean by optimisation?

Whilst there is varied usage of the word ‘optimisation’, the one thing in common is a desire to seek improvements impacting the bottom line of the mining business. The SAIMM two day optimisation conference with 12 papers and 23 presentations covered the analytical hierarchy from top to bottom and the mining value chain from end to end. Presenters from the ranks of mining technical services professionals, industry consultants and academia gave us a good mix of both theory and practice. There were shared practical experiences aplenty, highlighting tools and methodologies along the way.

For those of you interested in a more disciplined look into the area of optimising the mining business you would do well to get a copy of “Cut-off Grades and Optimising the Strategic Mine Plan” authored by Brian Hall and published by the AusIMM. Three of the authors presenting at our conference referenced this same body of work.

Presentations by MineRP and IBM showcased some breakthrough tools and techniques for managing multi-disciplinary input data, focusing on the business objective, analysing results and making them visible in 3D. The process works, it’s scalable and repeatable.

Happy to engage with interested parties on the topic of mining business optimisation.

Mike Woodhall, mwoodhall@minerp.com