Manual Blends

• Manual Blends
• • Blend Date
  • Blend Location
  • Destination Stockpile
  • Source Stockpiles
  • Blend Results
  • Process Flow
  • Blending Transactions
  • Stockpile Surveys
  • Editing Existing Manual Blends

Note: MineMarket has two blending modules. See also Calculated Blends.

In a manual blend, you select source stockpiles at a single stock location and specify quantities of material to blend into an existing or new stockpile at the same location. The source stockpiles can be weighted-average grade (WAG), first-in-first-out (FIFO) or last-in-first-out (LIFO) stockpiles. An existing destination stockpile can be WAG, FIFO or LIFO. A new destination stockpile is always WAG.

MineMarket creates the transactions and underlying process flow if required. You can also create stockpile surveys during a manual blend if you need to update the mass and quality of the stockpiles.

Blend Date

The blend date is used not only as the date of transactions, but also for displaying stockpile mass and quality, and for optional surveys. There are several restrictions for the blend date, which:

• Cannot be a future date
• Cannot be after the Closing Date of any selected destination or source stockpile
• Cannot be before the Opening Date of an existing destination stockpile or any selected source stockpile
• Cannot be a date that is before the latest archive date (See Enable Archiving.)

Blend Location

A stock location is required for manual blending. If you open the Blend Editor from a stock location, that location is preselected.

Manual blending is only within a single stock location.

Destination Stockpile

Only one stockpile can be the destination stockpile. You can use an existing WAG Stockpile, FIFO Stockpile or LIFO Stockpile or create a new WAG stockpile if required. The stockpile can be in any stockpile category at the selected blend location.

You can select the unit of measure (UOM) and mass basis (wet or dry) for the destination stockpile. This selection does not affect the stockpile itself, but rather determines in which UOM and mass basis the masses for the destination and source stockpiles display for the blend.

MineMarket displays the mass and quality of the destination stockpile at the selected blend date. You can control which analytes display by selecting an analyte group or all analytes. The moisture analyte (H2O) displays if any analyte group is selected, even if it is not in that analyte group.

Source Stockpiles

When searching for source stockpiles, you can use the stockpile name, material type and associated despatch orders as search criteria. If searching by material type, the material type must be specified on the applicable stockpile screen. The current product of the stockpiles is not considered. A stockpile is associated with a despatch order if the stockpile is the destination of unloading transaction(s) associated with the despatch order(s).

Stockpiles with a negative or zero balance are excluded.

You can select as many stockpiles as required as the source stockpiles. The source stockpiles can be in different stockpile categories at the selected blend location.

MineMarket displays the mass and quality of the source stockpiles at the selected blend date. You can control which analytes display by selecting an analyte group, all analytes, or none. The moisture analyte (H2O) displays if any analyte group is selected, even if it is not in that analyte group. You can override the mass and analyte values to create a source stockpile survey.

For each selected source stockpile, the entire mass of the stockpile is blended by default; however, you can specify a mass to blend. The mass to blend is entered in the mass basis selected for the destination stockpile.

Blend Results

The blend results display:

• The selected mass to blend and the quality of each selected source stockpile at the blend date.
• The calculated state of the destination stockpile if the blend is saved:
  • The wet mass, dry mass and moisture. You can override any two of these values to create a destination stockpile survey.
  • The dry mass is the wet mass minus the percentage of moisture.
  • If the Base Assumption of the process flow is Assume Source, the analyte values are the weighted-average of the initial and source values. You can override these analyte values to create a destination stockpile survey.

Process Flow

If a process flow already exists from the blend location to the blend location, MineMarket uses it for the blending transactions.

However, if there is no process flow with that source and destination, MineMarket creates the process flow in the BlendEditor process flow category when you create a blend. The Base Assumption of the new process flow is Assume Source; that is the source quality is taken, and calculated as an average, weighted over the amount of tonnage from each source stockpile. MineMarket also creates the BlendEditor process flow category if it does not already exist.

For more information about process flows and other quality assumptions, see Material Flows.

Blending Transactions

When you save a blend, MineMarket creates the transactions from the source stockpiles to the destination stockpile, using the applicable process flow and the blend date. These transactions can be viewed and edited via the Transaction Explorer or the Activity tab of the applicable stockpile screen.

Stockpile Surveys

You can use the Blend Editor to create stockpile surveys when creating a blend. This method is an alternative method to the steps described in Enter Survey Data for a Stockpile. These surveys can be viewed and edited via the Surveys tab of the applicable stockpile screen.

MineMarket assigns Interim Survey as the Reason Code for the surveys. You should ensure that this list item exists in the Survey Reason Code text list in the List Editor.

Surveys display in green text in the Blend Editor.

For source stockpile surveys:

• You can specify the mass and analyte values in the Source Stockpiles table.
• The mass is entered in the mass basis selected for the destination stockpile.
• MineMarket uses the blend date minus 10 seconds as the survey date.

For destination stockpile surveys:

• Use the Results table.
• For the wet mass, dry mass and moisture, you can select which value is calculated by MineMarket and enter the other values.
• You can specify the analyte values.

Editing Existing Manual Blends

A blend is editable if the blend date is after the latest archive date.

If you are editing an existing blend:

• You can change the blend name.
• You can change the destination stockpile or create a new destination stockpile. MineMarket deletes related transactions and surveys for the previously selected destination stockpile.
• You can select or deselect source stockpiles. If you deselect a stockpile, MineMarket deletes related transactions and surveys.
• You cannot change the blend date to be a future date; or after the Closing Date of any destination or source stockpile; or before the Opening Date of any destination or source stockpile; or before the latest archive date.
• Changing the blend date changes the transaction and stockpile survey dates, but not any manually entered masses or analyte values of those transactions and surveys.
• If you clear the manually entered masses and analyte values of a stockpile survey, MineMarket deletes the survey.