Discrete mine-system simulation in Europe

George N. Panagiotou
National Technical University of Athens, Greece

ABSTRACT: This paper traces, to the best of the author's knowledge, the evolution of
discrete mine-system simulation in Europe with emphasis on surface mining systems.
Although European engineers have been pioneers in mine simulation since the late
1950s, the dramatic reduction in large-scale mine development in recent years, due to
environmental issues and lack of profitable deposits, had an impact on the application
of simulation studies in mining projects.

1 INTRODUCTION

System simulation is an increasingly popular technique for planning and analyzing

newly designed mining operations or for modifying and improving existing ones.
Simulation techniques allow mine-planning engineers to study the behavior of mining
systems before they actually are built or introduced in order to evaluate design
alternatives, obtain improvements, eliminate problems or justify cost figures. System
simulation, particularly when matched with animation (the visual presentation of the
simulated system), is a handy tool that can be used by the engineer to convince mine
management that certain goals can or cannot be realized.
Simulation of a system or an organism is the operation of a model or simulator that
is representative of the system or organism. The model is amenable to manipulation,
which could be impossible, too expensive or impractical to perform on the entity it
portrays. The operation of the model can be studied and, from it, properties
concerning the behaviour of the actual system can be inferred (by Shubik, in Harris,
1976).
A discrete-event system simulation is one in which the state of the model changes
at only discrete, but possibly random, set time points known as event times, while, in
continuous-system simulation, the state of the model changes continuously over time.
Simulation has become established as the only technique that can handle complex
mining systems, which are stochastic in nature, change dynamically over time and
space and operate within a variable economic environment. While the most common
applications of simulation in mining are in system optimisation and dimensioning or
decision making, another area of application is that of personnel training-particularly
in training on how to take the right decisions in unusual or extreme situations.
It should be clear that simulation does not solve any problem directly, but provides
information about how a mining system does work and then how it should work when
certain selected parameters are changed. Furthermore, modeling and computer
simulation of a mining system may lead to new understanding that would not follow
directly from the original knowledge about the system. A simulation study of a mining
system may show oscillations or even surprising behaviour that would not be
deducible from the knowledge of its elements and their individual interconnections
alone.
2 MINE SIMULATION STUDIES IN EUROPE

The first mine simulations appear to be work done by various investigators in the late
1950s at mines in northern Sweden which were done by hand. One of these studies is
a model of the train-transportation system for the Kiruna underground iron mine of
KLAB. The system consists of five independent parts: the trackway plan, the bins for
storage of ore, the signal system, train movement and dispatching. A plot of the
transportation capacity vs. number of trains is given. With 20 trains in operation, the
simulation takes place at a speed 200 times faster than actual train speed (Elbrond,
1964).
In 1970, Wilke reports the development of a simulation model to study the train
transportation in underground coal mines in Germany. The object of the model was,
by using Monte Carlo simulation, to optimise the underground traffic from three
mines (or mining areas) to one shaft. The output was 10,000 tons of waste per shift
and 15,000 tons of coal per shift. Each locomotive had 24 four-ton cars. The model
was used to study where, when and why delays were occurring and numerous
different criteria were tested. This was only the second application of GPSS, a special
simulation language extensively used today for discrete mine-system simulation
studies (Wilke, 1970).
A package known as SIGUT, developed in Germany for modeling underground
coal operations, is capable of handling the stochastic nature of mining data. The
layout of the mine needs to be provided and no changes to the layout can be made.
The program is concerned with the flow of materials from the mining face to the
exterior of the mine, and both belt systems and truck haulage can be handled
(Redling, 1975).
Wilke et al, 1976, described work carried out to determine whether dispatching
criteria for underground train haulage (both loaded and empty) would improve the
efficiency of the system. The model allowed event-to-event calculations as well as
time-step simulation, and it could handle up to 6 different types of locomotives, 4
different types of mine cars, 4 shafts with 10 loading points and 6 different coal
qualities. Two examples are given which represent typical German coal mines with
productions of around 10,000 tpd.
The National Coal Board (British Coal) in the U.K., has been active in OR
research and applications since 1948, and the various models developed for the
underground-transport activities of NCB's collieries were presented by Hancock et al,
1984. A number of FORTRAN simulation programs (SIMBELT2, SIMBELT4,
SIMBULK) were described which model face production, conveyor belts and
bunkers, shafts and drifts.
It is characteristic of these early simulation studies in Europe that all of them
modeled the operation of underground haulage systems.
Panagiotou developed a series of FORTRAN IV programs to simulate,
stochastically, opencast lignite mines operating with BWEs, conveyors and stackers.
This work is based on his master's thesis at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in
the UK, which contained detailed descriptions of the model with flow charts giving
the logic of the program and the various sub-routines that needed to be written
(Panagiotou, 1979). The work was further extended by developing the programs
SIMKAR (Panagiotou, 1982) to simulate the Kardia opencast lignite mine in northern
Greece, in which six BWE's and two stackers with about 40 Km of conveyors were
under operation, and SIMPTOL (Panagiotou, 1983). The purpose of these programs
was to select and match the equipment to fit mine profiles and material
characteristics, while meeting production requirements, and to serve as a tool for
production scheduling.
Opencast lignite mine continuous-mining operations, the predominant large-scale
operations in Europe, also were simulated by other workers writing programs in
FORTRAN. These workers included Pavlovic (1997) and Lazic et al (1998) at the
University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia and Mevorach (1994) who developed a simulator
that is used extensively by the Public Power Corporation of Greece in designing new
or modifying existing lignite operations using BWEs, stackers and belt conveyors.
Agioutantis et al, 1998, described the development of a simulator to study the
performance of surface-mining equipment at the Northern Field lignite mine in
northern Greece, which includes six production subsystems (BWEs), excavating
lignite and waste material, a number of conveyor subsystems and five dumping
subsystems. A visual simulation package called Micro Saint, which allows fast model
development as well as animation, was used.
Shovel/truck or wheel-loader/truck systems are the dominant material-handling
systems used in hard-rock open cast mining, quarry or earthmoving operations.
Simulation has been used as a tool to answer a wide range of <what if?> type
questions in order to evaluate alternatives before building or modifying the actual
system, to test the behaviour of different operation tactics and forecast the economic
and operational performance of various strategies.
Wilke, 1982, described the development of a computer program to simulate the
Bong Mine in Liberia. The main purpose of the program was to minimize truck
haulage costs. This involved determining the optimum fleet haul size, the optimal
organization of the haulage system, the best dispatching scheme and, finally,
determining a reliable maintenance and servicing system. Since the deposit was
irregular, it was necessary to use a dispatching criterion that sent an unloaded truck to
the shovel that was 'behind" in its blending ratio, with preference given to loading ore,
if possible. The simulation was fully stochastic, including breakdowns for all the
equipment in the system, and the program was used also for testing other dispatching
criteria.
Vagenas et al, 1992, described the development of METAFORA, a simulator for
dispatch control of truck/shovel systems in surface mines. The program was written in
Turbo Pascal and included CAD facilities for creating haulage networks and
animation procedures for displaying truck movement. A modified version of
METAFORA, adapted to meet mine-specific requirements, was used to simulate the
operations at the AITIK open-pit copper mine in northern Sweden.
Panagiotou et al, 1997, presented a suite of computer programs (STRAPAC2) that
were developed to assist engineers in planning and analysing shovel-truck operations
in opencast mines and quarries. It has a modular menu-driven structure and consists
of a series of deterministic and stochastic discrete-event simulators capable of
simulating the performance of shovel-truck systems with various complexities,
equipment combinations and work site layouts. Post-processing animators are also
available which provide a visual display of the operation of the shovel-truck systems
that had been simulated. Each simulator consists of a data input pre-processor and a
simulation report post-processor, written in MS-Visual C++, while the simulation
engine-model was written in GPSS/H.
Medved et al, 1997, described the development of a simulation model written in
GPSS/H to study the truck-transportation system at the Zirovski Vrh. uranium mine in
Slovenia. The model was used to run a number of alternative scenarios in order to
study traffic patterns, truck utilisation, operation costs, etc.
 Erdem et al, 1997, presented a series of computer simulation models that have
been developed as part of an expert system for dragline and stripping method
selection in surface coal mines. The simulation module, which is embedded into the
expert system, covers six basic dragline-stripping techniques and is capable of
simulating one or two dragline systems working the same seam. Special emphasis
was placed on the synchronisation of the two-dragline systems. Simulation results are
presented both in text and graphics mode.
Research at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, U.K., into decision-
making tools for mining engineers included the development of simulation models
using object oriented design techniques, which permitted construction of reusable
simulation components which could be used by non-simulation experts. Mutagwaba
et al, 1993, described the development of such a model, written in C++, for simulating
mine transportation systems. Tsiflakos et al, 1992, presented an interactive method for
modeling mining systems by simulation which uses object-orientated modeling and
graphic visualization of the model by building a model of the system on the screen
interactively, the main building blocks being object-orientated graphical primitives.
The widespread and global use of the World Wide Web and the rising acceptance
of Intranet-based applications are currently having a positive impact on simulation.
Web-based simulation is quickly emerging as an area of significant interest for both
simulation researchers and simulation practitioners. Web-based simulation models
represent a convergence of computer simulation methodologies and applications
within the WWW, and they can be used either globally or within defined domains of
the network. A survey of web-base simulations is available at
<http://ms.ie.org/websim/survey/survey.html>.
At the University of Magdeburg, Germany, web-based simulation and animation
has been the subject of several projects, including mining engineering applications
(Ritter et al, 1998). In these projects specific Web support and presentation of
simulation and animation have been implemented. The Mining Systems Simulation
Unit at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece is working on a similar
project that will enable remote users to run shovel/truck simulation models and to
write and run their own GPSS/H simulation programs
<http://www.metal.ntua.gr/msslab/>.

3 SYMPOSIA & CONFERENCES ON MINE SIMULATION

The APCOM (Application of Computers and Operations Research in the Mineral

Industry) symposia have been the major forum for presentation and discussion of the
application of computer methods, including simulation, in the mineral industry for
nearly four decades. The APCOM Proceedings produced for these symposia are
useful references for application developers and users
<http://www.smenet.org/apcom/>.
Three APCOM symposia have been hosted in Europe by the University of
Clausthal (Germany), the Technical University of Berlin (Germany), and, in 1998, the
Royal School of Mines (United Kingdom). In addition, the first two regional APCOM
symposia were hosted in Europe. The first regional symposium was held in 1995 in
Ljubljana (Slovenia) and the second was held in Moscow (Russia) in 1997.
The International Symposia on Mine Planning and Equipment Selection (MPES) is
another forum where simulation studies on mining systems are presented with
emphasis on mining machinery and planning of mining operations. Two of the seven
MPES symposia were hosted in Europe [Istanbul, Turkey (1994) and Ostrava, Czech
Republic (1997)], while the Ukraine is hosting the 8th MPES symposium in June
1999 and the 9th MPES symposium will be organised in the year 2000 in Athens,
Greece. The MPES Proceedings are published by A.A. Balkema
<http://www.balkema.nl/>.
The First International Symposium on Mine Simulation via the Internet was
organised by the Department of Mining Engineering and Metallurgy of the National
Technical University of Athens - NTUA (Greece) and the Department of Metallurgy
and Mining of the University of Idaho (USA), and it was held in cyberspace from 2-
13 December 1996.
The symposium was run using a Web-page arrangement, set up and maintained by
the Mining Systems Simulation Unit (MSSLab) at NTUA. It was the first such
symposium for any area of mining and mining-related topics. MineSim ’96 was a
virtual symposium in the truest sense of the meaning. The basic concept in designing
MineSim ’96 was to model, in the form of a Web-page lay-out, a conventional-type
symposium. It had all the elements of a conventional conference, with a registration
“desk” (a personalised symposium badge was sent to each registrant via the Internet
upon registration), welcoming addresses, technical sessions, sponsors' exhibit, even a
spouses’ tour-sightseeing to the Acropolis of Athens and Mount Athos. Over the
symposium period, participants were able to use the symposium’s WEB-site to tune
in, or tune out and in again, many times, any time over a two-week period; to read and
download papers, to write in their comments, queries and criticisms. Papers’ authors
defended their theses and offered comments to queries or criticisms. A wide range of
high quality papers from Europe, North and South America, Africa, Australia and
Asia were attracted, and eighty-two papers were accepted for presentation.
During the course of the symposium, there were 2,188 “hits” and 406 registrants
from 35 countries submitted a non-compulsory registration form. It is hoped that a
symposium such as MineSim ’96 contributed to mine-system simulation's growing
popularity and proposed a new way of organising symposia on specialised topics in
which the limited interest does not justify the organisation of a regular symposium
due to the high costs involved from both the organisers and the participants.
The organisers of MineSim '96 believe that it was “… a milestone in modern
approach to mining techno-symposium” and is “… the way of the future” as
participants commented, and they continued to support this way of organising mining
symposia.
In 1997, NTUA organised MineIT ’97- The 1st International Conference on
Information Technologies in the Minerals Industry (via the Internet) which was held
from 1 - 12 December 1997.
The proceedings, the permanent records of these "virtual symposia", were
published in two volumes with companion CD-ROMs (Panagiotou et al, 1997 &
Panagiotou et al, 1998) and are available from A.A. Balkema
<http://www.balkema.nl/>.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The application of simulation models for studying complex mining systems under
real-life conditions is well accepted today by modern mine management, especially in
the design and planning phases of new mining projects. Unlike other industries, the
mining community has not been quick to embrace simulation studies. The dynamic
and stochastic nature that characterises practically any mining system makes
simulation the only reliable method for manipulating such systems.
High performance and low-cost desktop computer systems, available today in any
mine site or quarry, and sophisticated simulation-modelling languages that permit
quick model construction, easy changes and updates as the mining operation changes,
make simulation models a handy tool.
The following extract from A.M. Wildberger's column "AI & Simulation" in
Simulation summarises the present status and the future potential of simulation as an
engineering tool (Wildberger, 1998):
"After of 50 years as the 'method of last resort,' computer simulation is finally
achieving respectability! Multimedia has made it glamorous, and cheap computer
power has made it widely available. Neither animated films nor computer games can
exist without it. The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and all airline magazines preach the
use of business simulations as 'flight simulators' for industry executives. Even
mathematicians are now accepting simulation, albeit reluctantly, both as a valid
method for use and as a subject for study in itself… After 50 years as stagehand,
computer simulation has suddenly become a star."

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