Medium term planning with Evolution : Comparison with current method at LKAB Svappavaara

Sammanfattning: This thesis looks at the medium term mine planning process and tools in the Leveäniemi open pit mine operated by LKAB Svappavaara. The current planning process uses software, Chronos, which was previously used successfully to perform medium term planning for the Gruvberget mine, which is also operated by LKAB Svappavaara. Because of scale and geological differences this method is much less successful when applied in Leveäniemi, which has created the need to investigate other possible methods. Since the Maptek scheduling solution Evolution is already available for use, this is the first candidate to be investigated. This report uses a case study approach, where both methods are evaluated in their intended operating environment. Results obtained indicate that Evolution could be a viable replacement to conduct medium term planning. Testing indicates that Evolution is able to produce a schedule satisfying the planning criteria to the desired standard. The fact that Evolution is able to produce schedules with longer time horizons without having to sacrifice detail means that it could also improve the integration between long and medium term planning. Besides replacing Chronos it was demonstrated that there are also some things that can be done using Evolution that are not possible using the Chronos module. From what has been demonstrated it can be concluded that there is a possibility to achieve significant benefit using these extra functions.