Mine Plan Concepts

A Mine plan is a schedule or timeline of mining transactions that can potentially occur during the mining process. Mine Plans are used to measure the performance of a mining department or division by measuring actual against the planned target. Reconciliation can help to improve mine plan operations by identifying mistakes and optimising planning.

Plans are also used to promote confidence to prospective or existing shareholders of what the mining operation will be producing and how much revenue they will make.

Mine Plan Types

Reconcilor assumes four types of mine plans by default, it also supports up to three additional custom Mine Plan Types per your request.

The standard mine plan types are defined as follows:

  • Life of Mine – The Life of Mine plan type refers to a planning period from a starting date up until the end of the mining operations life. This can range anywhere between 1 to 30 years depending on the operation. This plan type typically has varying planning period increments, where it might start with a 1-year planning period for the next year, followed by five year estimates up to the end of life.
  • Long Term Plan – The Long-Term plan type (or Annual Plan) refers to a long-term view for the mine. This varies from operation to operation but typically encompasses a yearly period. This plan type typically has varying periods starting with monthly/quarterly/annual for the first year and varying ranges for the next 1-5+ years.
  • Short Term Plan – The Short-Term plan type (or Monthly Plan) refers to a monthly view for the mine. This plan type varies from operation to operation but typically encompasses either a quarter or month. The plan will almost always have monthly planning periods.
  • Weekly Plan – The Weekly Plan refers to a weekly view for the mine. This plan is not always used for reconciliation but is typically always done at an operation. The weekly plan will almost always be broken down into daily planning periods for the week.

Mine Plan Transactions

A mine plan is a schedule of transactions, from blasting to movement, and processing. Mine plans rarely specify exact sources and destinations for these transactions, so Reconcilor uses generalised transactions for mine planning (actual transactions are used for actual mining).

Reconcilor requires that a Mine Plan transaction always has the following characteristics:

  • A period (date range) the transaction falls in.
  • A measure of the mass or volume of material planned in the transaction.
  • At least one of the following:
    • A source to define where the material is coming from.
      • The source entity type (e.g. model cell or block), defining where the material originates.
    • A destination to define where the material will be delivered.
      • The destination entity type (e.g. stockpile, crusher or plant), defining the destination for the material.

Using the above criteria, Reconcilor uses Comparison Value Type (CVT) Rules to define logical groupings of mining transactions that are directly comparable to actuals. These groupings are calculated by the Mine Plan Comparison Value Calculator (MPCVC) and stored as comparison values.

Mine Plan Comparison Value Types (CVT)

  • Planned Mining – Planned Mining is the most common mine planning comparison value type. By default, it is any mine plan transaction where the source entity type is a block or model cell. This CVT is often used to compare against Mine Production and Block Model by Survey CVTs. It is also used for the calculation of Planning Compliance and Mining Compliance.
  • Planned Stockpiling – Planned Stockpile is defined as any mine plan transaction where the destination entity type is a stockpile and the stockpile has an ore Material Type. This CVT is directly comparable to the Stockpiling CVT that deals with ore transactions to stockpile. It can also be used with Planned Rehandle to look at the proportion of stockpiling to rehandle.
  • Planned Rehandle – Planned Rehandle is defined as any mine plan transaction where the source and destination entity type is a stockpile. This CVT is directly comparable to the Rehandling CVT.
  • Planned Crusher Feed (Mine Delivered) – Planned Crusher Feed (Mine Delivered) is defined as any mine plan transaction where the destination entity type is a crusher. This CVT is directly comparable to the Crusher weightometer (Plant Received) CVT.
  • Planned Direct Feed – Planned Direct Feed is defined as any mine plan transaction where the destination entity type is a crusher and the source is a block. This CVT is directly comparable to the Direct Feed CVT.
  • Planned Stockpile Feed – Planned Stockpile Feed is defined as any mine plan transaction where the destination entity type is a crusher and the source is a stockpile. This CVT is directly comparable to the Stockpile Feed CVT.
  • Planned Waste Movement – Planned Waste Movement is defined as any mine plan transaction where the destination has a waste material type. This CVT is directly comparable to the Waste Movement CVT. It is sometimes used with Planned Crusher Feed and Planned Stockpiling to check the ratios of Feed, Stockpiling and Waste Movement.
  • Planned Plant Feed – Planned Plant Feed is defined as any mine plan transaction where the destination entity type is a plant. This CVT is directly comparable to the Plant Feed CVT.
  • Planned Plant Product – Planned Plant Product is defined as any mine plan transaction where the source entity type is a plant and destination material type is ore. This CVT is directly comparable to the Plant Product CVT.
  • Planned Plant Reject – Planned Plant Reject is defined as any mine plan transaction where the source entity type is a plant and destination material type is waste. This CVT is directly comparable to the Plant Product CVT.

Summary: Any act of mining in the mine plan is automatically categorised so we can compare with actuals later.