Nickel - IMC Mining

SLN

location

New Caledonia

Deposit Style

Laterite

Client

SLN

Commodity

Nickel

Société Le Nickel (SLN) operates five major mining hubs spread across the East and West coasts of New Caledonia. SLN produce high-grade ferronickel from the Doniambo smelter in Noumea. The project requires complex planning and logistics across all mine sites to maintain a consistent and chemically balanced feed to the smelter. However, there are over 300 individual pit phases to schedule and integrate into a single holistic business plan that must also be tactically achievable by production teams at each site. The complexity of the problem is increased by social, environmental and political influences on the timing and sequencing of operations that are often outside the control of the company.

IMC Mining worked closely with the client in Noumea to develop a mathematical model of their operations which accounted for all key operational and economic drivers in the value chain. IMC developed a unified scheduling data preparation methodology using the Python programming language that aggregated all inputs and streamlined the validation process. IMC simplified the incumbent model utilised by the client to decrease schedule solve times and allow for more operating scenarios to be tested quickly. We developed a technically practical plan that would ensure that the correct blend of ore from all mine sites was provided to the smelter to maximise productivity and minimise costs.

Contact us now to learn more about how we can help you with multi mine scheduling.

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Integrated pit, dump and haulage network optimisation for mine scheduling – a linear programming approach

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Mogalakwena

location

South Africa

Deposit Style

Platreef

Client

Anglo American

Commodity

Platinum group elements, gold, copper, nickel

The Mogalakwena mine is a large open pit mine located in South Africa that produces a variety of products, including platinum group elements, gold, copper and nickel. Anglo American required a pre-feasibility study to evaluate the expansion of current concentrating capacities on site.

This involved the development of a complex integrated model that could reflect the numerous processing paths onsite, number of off-site downstream smelting and refining constraints and revenue streams from the various payable elements.

IMC Mining, in conjunction with the client, developed a holistic model that tracked the flow of material through the entire process from pit to port and could make dynamic decisions to drive value. The model was developed using linear and nonlinear programming optimisation software that was multi-mine and multi-destination and considered all revenue streams and cost centres.

Over a thousand individual modelling scenarios run to ensure all possible permutations were analysed. IMC was able to demonstrate to the client the most value-adding options for increasing concentration capacity on-site, while balancing the mines output with other sites owned by the client in the same region.

Recommendations of focus areas were provided for key downstream smelting and refining processes could become bottlenecking in the future to improve overall business value.

Contact us now to learn more about how we can help you with multi mine scheduling.

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Integrated pit, dump and haulage network optimisation for mine scheduling – a linear programming approach

Ambatovy Mine

location

Madagascar

Deposit Style

Laterite

Client

Ambatovy Joint-Venture

Commodity

Nickel, Cobalt

Ambatovy mine is one of the largest nickel laterite mines in the world, producing approximately 60,000 tonnes of nickel and 5,600 tonnes of cobalt per annum. The mining operation is required to provide beneficiated ore to the HPAL plant within a tight chemical specification to minimise processing costs and maximise metal production. Consequently, the mine planning team on site have to manage a set of complex blending strategies, combined with limited stockpiling capacity and many possible mining areas. The client approached IMC Mining to assist with developing an integrated plan from the pit to port which would maximise the plant productivity and ensure a consistent ore feed from the mining operation.

An initial site visit by engineers from IMC Mining identified many possible opportunities for improvements in grade control and tracking of grade data through the material flow system that would increase the planning accuracy at the mine. After working closely with the client to implement these recommendations, IMC Mining utilised industry best-practice linear programming optimisation techniques to plan and integrate mining activities on-site with the requirements and operation of the smelter over the medium and long-term planning horizons. The work completed by IMC Mining fostered a holistic approach between the mine and downstream smelting operations, and aided in reducing silos between inter-related planning departments.

Using our industry best practice techniques allows IMC to schedule complex deposits with range of complex constraints also taking into account the political realities of mining. Contact us to find out more about how we can help schedule your asset.