Discrete Rate and Event Simulation in the Automation Development of Mines

The mining industry is undergoing a tremendous revolution, as an increasing number of components are being automated, which presents unresolved engineering challenges. The current proposal is to develop quantitative frameworks to evaluate modern control and automation strategies, simulating the impacts of uncertainty in ore tonnages and system-wide automated responses that would mitigate these impacts. The proposed framework considers flows of material, energy and information, including continuous flows represented by discrete rates, as well as intermittently discrete flows, represented by discrete events. Moreover, this combination of Discrete Rate Simulation (DRS) and Discrete Event Simulation (DES) will be extended in confronting the opportunities and risks that constitute the automation of the Devlin Mine, owned by Dore Copper. This mine has a favourable orebody geometry to become a relatively low-risk testbed for technology and automation strategies. The proposed quantitative methods will complement and enable the developments at Devlin, which can then be adapted to the other nearby mines that are owned by Dore Copper, which may become leading examples for other mines throughout Canada, and internationally.

Faculty Supervisor:

Alessandro Navarra;Ilija Miskovic

Student:

Partner:

Doré Copper Mining Corp.

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

Mining

University:

McGill University; The University of British Columbia

Program: