Frequently Asked Questions

Below you will find answers to the most frequently asked questions about SimMine's mining solutions.

Do I need programming skills to use SimMine for planning and scheduling of underground mining?

- You need no programming skills to set up and simulate your mining activities, there are already predefined functions, logic, tables and many other functions that will allow you to set up and simulate your current and future mines. There is probably better that you have mining experience then programming skills, because it is better you understand what you want to do then you understand the programming code behind this program and the difficulty level to use this program, and the time it takes to set up your model, is very low, especially when you consider that you can simulate the whole production/development and material system for the life of mine. You will have the ability to create your long term plan for production/development and make the selection of what equipment and workforce to used and how your material handling system should be design with quite good accuracy. And together with our SimSched (a short term scheduling tool) you will get operating schedules for every operator down to shift livel, that will tell them what to do, when to do it and where to do it, and also will let you make continuously changes to handle situations that will affect your plan and then re-simulate for new updated schedules. You will be able to export back from SimSched to SimMine your current situation and the changes you have done to see the long term affects of your changes and to see what you will need to do to get back on track to reach your set goals. SimMine is an excellent program to start with when you are doing a feasibility study as a management tool and when the mine starts SimMine could be used for short term planning and scheduling as engineering and planning tool, this not only save times and gives a accurate results but it also minimize errors from shifting data between different programs.

Can I use SimMine for both existing and future mines?

- You can both use SimMine for existing and future mines. SimMine is an excellent tool to be used in a feasibility study, because of its use of discrete event simulation engine. This gives the program the ability to set up and test the mining system (production, development and material handling) in time because of the simulations ability to be proactive in comparison to traditional spread sheet planning tools reactive way. It is easy to test if you should use decline haulage or hoist, if you use incline haulage, what capacity do you need on your fleet, traffic rules and so on, and if you want to use hoist, then you also will need to know what capacity you need, how many loading pockets, can they be used for both ore and waste and so on, or use a mix system with both trucking and usage of conveyors, you can test with what ever combination you want, and compare which combination is best based on haulage capacity, handling future production volumes, cost and other things. Things like this can be done on all the systems to find the best configuration and the use SimMine to plan your production and development.

The same with existing mines, you can use SimMine to see how you will handle your plans and what you need to do if you not can, you also can try out new ideas and system improvements or future investments before in time with out risking your ongoing productivity or money. If you are planning for deeper mining you can easily investigate how this will affect your material handling with out interrupting ongoing business or risking to making wrong investment decisions. SimMine can both be used as an management tool or as an engineering/planning tool, SimMine is easy to use an charged with a powerful engine that will allow you to examine what ever question you have at any level.

What can SimMine do?

- SimMine can be used for doing feasibility studies , create plans or test plans that has been created in other planning programs ahead of time to see if targets can be met or what needs to be done to be able to meet the set targets. Compare different mining scenarios, ask what if questions and identifying critical paths and start dates etc. I think the best thing that SimMine can do, that other commercial spreadsheet programs not can do, it is to allow the user to be proactive and in time be prepared for doing necessarily changes before problems accur, and not when you are in the middle of it.

Can I simulate different vehicle settings?

- You can test different fleet sizes or combinations, you can determine the effectiveness of changing fleet size, either by acquisition or removal of equipment. Reduce bottlenecks and equipment conflicts, best shift schedule, cost, what maintenance schedule too use, analyse delays due to equipment downtimes etc.

Can I simulate operators?

- You can test different group sizes. If you should have a reserve group and the sizes of this group, to be able to handle absence. If operators should be specialized or able to work on all vehicles, what shift they should work, how availability of the operators affects productivity etc.

Can I see simulation in 3D environment?

- You can watch ongoing operations animated on the screen to validate equipment assignments and section priorities, animate daily operations, animate mining progression and equipment movement etc.

Can I simulate material handling with SimMine?

- You can simulate material movement from stope to surface, what material system to use, how it should work, what combination of objects (conveyor, silos, crusher, LHD/trucks, ore pass, bins and more) you should combine to handle your material flow now and in the future. Capacities of the various object you want to use in your system, working schedules of how they are going to be used, maintenance schedules, advanced availability settings, what material they are allowed to handle and what they can mix and many more things.  You will also be able to simulate cost which will allow you to compare best material handling solution based on capacity and cost criteria. There is no problem to simulate what material handling system you should use or when to update it for the whole life of mine, what you need today may not be the same what you need in 10 years, and you don’t want to find out in 10 year you have out grown your current system and that could have bean avoided if you only have done this and that, but now you maybe will need to do a more expensive solution because of this and that, the same goes for knowledge, it is better to know in advanced what will happened and when and not when the problem is all over you, it must be better to be prepared for an event than being surprised by one, this is not something you can do with today’s traditional spreadsheet planning programs, but with SimMine and its simulation engine it is an easy task and I guarantee that this type of things will not go unnoticed by you.