A Two Phase Simulation-Based Optimization of Hauling System in Open-Pit Mine

One of the key issues in mining is the hauling system. Truck and shovels are the most widely used transportation equipment in mines. In this paper, a two-phase simulation-based optimization is presented to maximize utilization of hauling system in the largest Iranian open-pit copper mine. In the first phase, The OptQuest for Arena software package was used to solve the optimization problem to provide an optimal production quantity. In the second phase, the haulage system problem in the open-pit was modeled by bi-objective optimization programing by means of meta-modeling approach. Meta-modeling approach could estimate the exact total production quantities, and solved the problem by determining the optimal value of shovels using the design of experiments. The efficient solution of the bi-objective problem was obtained using Ɛ-constraint method. The results of the proposed approach were compared with the current situation, where the total production had increased by 21% (equivalent to 10K tons) through the proposed approach. Therefore, calculations in this mine show that how the proposed framework can improve the production and productivity of haulage system.