Geometallurgical Simulation and Multicriteria Risk Evaluation

The evaluation of mining projects depends on modern computational techniques. There is a demand for increasingly sophisticated techniques, due to environmental considerations and the drive toward increasingly complex ores. Without these techniques, projects may be wrongfully held back or abandoned, leading to severe socioeconomic consequences in the surrounding communities. Conversely, mining projects may be wrongfully approved, causing unfortunate environmental and socioeconomic consequences. Engineers, geologists and other experts may indeed be pressured to support ill-fated projects, despite their technical opinions; yet they rely on the rigour of their methods to defend their conclusions. The current proposal consolidates multidisciplinary perspectives within a new computational tool for mining project evaluation. It extends geostatistical techniques, by incorporating system dynamics (in the form of discrete event simulation) and the behaviour of financial decision-makers. Behavioural finance simulation is an innovative approach to integrate the technical, environmental and socioeconomic risks that are inherent to mining projects.

Faculty Supervisor:

Alessandro Navarra

Student:

Javier Alejandro Órdenes Alegría

Partner:

Watts, Griff and McOuat Limited

Discipline:

Engineering - other

Sector:

Mining and quarrying

University:

McGill University