Scheduling in iron ore open-pit mining

Abstract

During the last few years, most production-based businesses have been under enormous pressure to improve their top-line growth and bottom-line savings. As a result, many companies are turning to systems and technologies that can help optimise their supply chain activities. In this paper, we discuss a real-world application of scheduling in the mining industry. This is a highly constrained problem with some of the constraints changing over time. The objective is to generate a plan that meets the quality and tonnage targets by utilising the provided equipment and machines. The mathematical model is described in detail, and a three-module complex algorithm based on computational intelligence is proposed. The main software functionality is also described. The developed software is currently in the production use.