An Analysis: Mine Scheduling with NPV Scheduler and Minemax Scheduler

Since the Minemax team joined the Datamine Group earlier this year, we have had many questions on how Minemax Scheduler fits with NPV Scheduler and how the products compare.  Like with many products offering solutions to complex challenges, it’s not always possible to compare side by side. In this blog we thought we would share in more detail some of the specific situations in which Minemax Scheduler or NPV Scheduler work together.

Recently, Damian Gregory, Solution Manager at Datamine shared his insights into some projects where he had the chance to utilise the two products. “I enjoyed a few unique opportunities to work on projects that required many iterations of optimised pits, optimised pushbacks and optimised schedules. Generating optimised pits and pushbacks with NPV Scheduler is more or less straight forward but the scheduling part is usually more involved and requires multiple runs trying to find the optimal sequence. When using Minemax Scheduler this trial-and-error part is not required. Below are a few recent examples I had to deal with and my opinion about the interaction between NPV Scheduler and Minemax Scheduler:”

Limited Mill Capacity

“In a project with limited Mill capacity I need to find the optimal mining rate considering different loader fleets. Minemax Scheduler made this is a very simple task, while with NPV Scheduler I had to make many scheduling scenarios including MAO to compare different KPIs and identify the best mining rate.”

Brownfield Projects

“In a brownfield project it is unknown whether it is best to use Mill process, Leach process, or a combination of both with different processing capacities and CAPEX. Again this is not a problem for experienced Minemax Scheduler users. If you are to do the same with NPV Scheduler you would need an expert to set, run, and analyse hundreds of processing and scheduling options in search for the optimal combination.

In a brownfield project it is unknown what truck / loader fleet to use. The processing plant capacity is known.  I did the work with NPVS over several weeks as it involved multiple ultimate pits, pushback designs and a lot more scheduling and MAO runs. If I had access to Minemax Scheduler at the time I would make the pits and pushbacks in NPVS and have Minemax do just three scheduling runs – one for each fleet size.”

Prior to using Minemax Scheduler we will still need optimised pits and phases – this is where we need to take advantage of NPV Scheduler.

Additional Note: A customer that has both NPV Scheduler and Minemax Scheduler suggested we add an option in NPV Scheduler to export the cycle times to all destinations in a model to be used by Minemax Scheduler. Earlier this year this was implemented and is now available in NPV Scheduler v4.30.145.

For more insights into how NPV Scheduler and Minemax Scheduler work together, or understanding the better fit in complex situations, reach out via email to sales@dataminesoftware.com or connect with Damian Gregory on LinkedIn.