Annual Meeting Preliminary Program - Full Brochure (PDF) - SME

TECHNICAL PROGRAM
ops, tours, and a varied curriculum help to diversify and expand ones knowledge.
Starting a full-time career in operations came with many challenges. It is easy to
see a great amount of knowledge and expertise leaving the industry as engineers
and management retire. A rotation through various aspects of the mining system,
paired with a push for continued education, has helped me grow as a mining engineer
and gain the confidence needed to excel.
9:25 AM
My First Five Years in Operations
M. Orsulak; Walter Energy, Inc., Brookwood, AL
Academia alone cannot prepare a mining engineer to have the tools necessary to
be successful in operations. There is a great difference between learning applications
from a textbook compared to real-life situations. A well-balanced mining
engineering program should include real-world problem solving and field work as
part of the curriculum. Another challenge that many graduates face is understanding
how to communicate and supervise people with various education levels.
Working in operations has taught me that there is no substitute for hands-on
knowledge gained by working with industry veterans. One aspect that helped my
transition from school to the industry is the time I spent in operations during my
internships. Internships not only give you an idea of what to expect in real-world
applications in the industry, but they are also a great networking tool. SME membership
is also a great resource that provides opportunities to meet different people
in the industry and build relationships with fellow colleagues. Working in operations
continues to be a constant learning process on a daily basis. Although
there are many challenges, the experience can be very rewarding.
9:45 AM
My First Five Years in Operations
J. Stefanic; Walter Energy, Inc., Brookwood, AL
The transition from a mining engineering program to the industry has consisted of
both positive and challenging aspects that lead to a life changing experience. Most
of the challenges are a result of moving from an educational standpoint to a realworld
environment. In operations, there are many more variables to consider
which make it difficult to deliver solutions to the problems that arise. Another
challenging aspect of the transition into the industry is working with people with
varied levels of experience and education. When in college, it was typical that
peers were on a leveled field of knowledge; this is not the case in the industry. This
contributes to active learning and teaching on a daily basis, which can also provide
a significant challenge. Work experience gained through internships can familiarize
students with the basic principles of what happens at mine sites. Additionally,
receiving insight and guidance from seasoned veterans of the industry can provide
a feeling of community. Opportunities to engage in conversations about various
aspects of mining are a constant reminder of the value of this work.
10:05 AM
My First Five Years in Operations
B. Fredrickson; Rio Tinto Minerals, Boron, CA
Many companies are interested in the quality of the first five years of a new engineer’s
experience in the mining industry for recruiting and retention purposes.
This study will show some of my personal experiences in my first five years in the
mining industry after graduating with a BS in Mining Engineering. Included will
be the time that I spent working for a mining software company as well as my
time in a mining operation and the differences between those two experiences.
10:25 AM
My First Five Years in Operations
M. Mowry; Walter Energy, Inc., Brookwood, AL
As the mining industry continues to hire young professionals to supplant the
growing number of retirees, a well-developed engineering curriculum can prepare
mining engineering graduates to make meaningful contributions in the industry.
Successful companies can be measured not only by their reserve base and annual
production, but also by their retention of mining engineering graduates with zero
to five years of operational experience. A well-developed mining engineering curriculum
should include coursework and materials that are current and involve
real-world examples of ventilation, pumping and drainage, mine design, and operations
planning. While mining engineering graduates have a responsibility to
maintain an attitude of learning after joining the workforce, mine operators must
also recognize the need to continue to challenge graduates by granting them opportunities
to accept appropriate levels of responsibility. This progression should
be closely evaluated and monitored by operations managers and human resource
personnel. Maintaining the balance between challenge and reward involves educators
and mine operators alike.
10:45 AM
My First Five Years in Operations
R. Hespen; LaFarge Cement, Tulsa, OK
Now, more than ever, companies are looking for new ways to attract young talent
who can generate the next great idea or spawn the next great innovation that will
improve the bottom line. In order to obtain new ideas and fresh faces, a company
has to understand what motivates a young engineer and what drives them to succeed.
This paper will show a summary of my first 5 years in the mining industry
with a BS in Mining Engineering. In this study, I will discuss my time with the
company and the things I have learned and realized as a young engineer that
have helped propel me in my career.
chair:
Mining & exploration:
operations: Strategic Mine Planning
9:00 AM • Wednesday, February 27
9:00 AM
Introductions
R. Dimitrakopoulos, McGill University,
Montreal, QC
9:05 AM
Revisiting the Nevada Optimizer
C. Meagher; Mining Technology, Newmont Mining,
Greenwood Village, CO
In 1999 a paper describing a mixed integer linear program used to optimize
Newmonts Nevada mine plane was presented at the SME. We revisit the Nevada
optimizer over a decade later and discuss how advances to MILP solvers have
helped in the Nevada mine planning process by allowing more strategic options
to be solved in much less time. Due to the complex processing options Newmont
has available in Nevada, the original mixed integer linear program (MILP) suffers
from an inability to accurately model material doing from a mine or stockpile
to a mill to produce a concentrate and then the concentrate being split up to be
further processed at multiple locations. Sending the concentrate to multiple
processes introduces non-linear mixing constraints into the MILP model. We discuss
work to try and solve this more complex model to produce solutions that are
more realistic.
9:25 AM
Mining Supply Chain Optimization Under Geological Uncertainty
R. Goodfellow 1 and J. Cloutier 2 ; 1 Mining and Materials Engineering,
McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada and 2 Mineral Resources
and Mineral Reserves Group, Vale Base Metals, Mississauga,
ON, Canada
Mining operations can be modelled as a supply chain from the sources of raw
material through processing streams to saleable products. Existing research in
mine design optimization has focused on the extraction sequence of materials
and neglects the impact that optimal processing paths have on the economic viability
of a mining operation. Additionally, the vast majority of existing models
neglect the opportunity to blend material together to prolong the life of the resource
and generate higher cash flows. This paper addresses the issue of selecting
the optimal block destinations and processing streams throughout a mining supply
chain. The proposed formulation is solved using a particle swarm optimization
algorithm, and clustering is used to substantially reduce the size of the problem,
leading to more efficient solution times with minimal loss in quality.
Additionally, clustering permits generating complex destination policies for material
extracted from a mine under geological uncertainty. This method is tested
at Vales OnÁa Puma nickel laterite deposit, in Par, Brazil.
9:45 AM
Using Real Options to Manage Technical Risk in Life of Mine
Planning: Application at Chuquicamata Underground Copper
Mine, Chile
J. Botin, M. Del Castillo and R. Guzman; Ingenieria de Mineria,
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
Traditional risk quantification methods provide little information on the sources
of risk, and tend to produce static over-conservative evaluations, which do not ac-
This is the Technical Program as of September 1, 2012. IT IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
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