Lexicon of terms and acronyms

Flexible Material Scheduler (FMS): optimizes allocation of Inputs to Destinations using Mixed Integer Programming.

Activity: a collection of consecutive blocks from the input OES, subject of scheduling.

Input: one of the following material resources:

Mine production from one or more pits subdivided into rock types and “grade classes”.
Stockpiles.
External sources.

Destination:one of the following material destinations:

Processing method.
Blended product (defined as a pseudo processing method).
Stockpile.

Feasible Solution:a solution that meets all the user defined targets.

Optimal Solution: a feasible solution that maximizes the profits.

Grade Class:ore (raw material) mass with mineral elements content satisfying one of the following criteria:

Grade (quality) of a selected element falls within certain limits; for example, Au grade is between 1.8 and 1.85 grams per ton.
Weighted value of all products per ton. more...
Value of a formula defined function of elements falls within certain limits; for example Lime Saturation Factor (LSF) (=100*CAO/(2.8*SIO2+1.1*AL2O3+0.7*FE2O3)) is between 2.3 and 2.4

Stockpile: place where ore (raw material) of a given type is stored and from which it can be later reclaimed for processing. In and out flows can be controlled with:

Maximum storage capacity.
Quality (grade) targets
Grade constraints
Maximum reclaim rates and rehandling costs.

External source: external source of ore (raw material).

Processing Method: actual economic model processing method like Mill, Leach, Kiln etc. or a pseudo-method defining a blended product.

Blended Product: ore (raw material) blend satisfying predefined quality targets. For example, Iron Ore H: 67% <Fe <68% and 2% <Mg<3% and Iron Ore L: 64% <Fe<65%.

Quality Target: a rate or ratio of element grades that must be maintained within specified limits; for example Cu>0.8% or Silica Modulus between 2.3 and 2.4.

Global Target: a rate or ratio of inputs and destinations in mass units that must be maintained within specified limits.

FMS tables: Datamine files generated by FMS containing:

mining blocks divided into categories
dependencies between the mining blocks
scheduling results for each category
scheduling results for each destination
scheduling solution
stockpile evolution details

Input Parcel Model: parcel model built by FMS from geological model and economic settings containing original sub-cell grades and end economic data for all processing methods. Whenever possible, the same input parcel model is used in consecutive FMS runs and even shared between FMS case studies.

Result Parcel Model: parcel model containing all results of FMS optimization, in particular:

Parcel destination (processing plant, stockpile, or waste dump).
The period when it will be mined.
The sequence number in the FMS Optimal Extraction Sequece (OES) .
The revenue from the parcel and the costs of processing.
The products recovered from the parcel.

The model information can be added to the original sub-cell model and saved as a .dm file or exported to other formats.

Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) Model: FMS MIP Model is setup in terms of the following basic variables:

Input-Destination; for example 'OXID-MILL', 'SULF-LEACH', etc.
Input-Destination-Element; for example 'OXID-MILL-AU', 'OXID-MILL-CU', 'SULF-LEACH-SIO2', etc.
Input-Destination-Product-R; for example 'OXID-MILL-AU-R', 'OXID-MILL-CU-R', where 'R' stands for “recovered”.

The optimization objective and the constraints are linear functions of these variables. Most commonly used constraints like processing capacity limits and quality targets are formulated internally. If needed, you can define other constraints directly in terms of basic variables as “global targets".

	Related Topics
	About FMS FMS Quick Start MAO MFO Settings: Optimization

JMN 20065_01_EN