How Advanced Simulation Tools Can Address Operational Challenges in Underground Mining
Underground mining, especially in large and long-established mines, becomes increasingly complex as operations grow over time. Mines that have been operating for 5, 10, or even 30 years face logistical challenges, which can make day-to-day management difficult. The logistics of coordinating people, equipment, and work across different locations compound this complexity.
Supervisors and managers in these mines are responsible for allocating resources—typically limited equipment and personnel—at the start of each shift. In simpler environments, this can be managed with paper-based shift plans, Excel, or basic scheduling software. However, as mine complexity increases, these tools become inadequate.
The Growing Complexity of Mining Operations
In complex mines, the sheer number of variables—where to send workers, how to allocate equipment, and how to prioritize tasks—increases the risk that daily operations will not achieve the desired results. The ultimate goal of any underground mine is to bring ore to the surface, the primary source of revenue. Any inefficiency in planning and resource allocation leads to increased costs without corresponding revenue.
When the wrong instructions are issued in a complex mine, the risk of missing production targets increases, resulting in significant financial losses.
The Role of Simulation
This is where advanced simulation tools, like those under development at idoba, prove invaluable. Unlike a digital twin, which mirrors real-time operations, simulation allows mining operators to project potential future outcomes based on various scenarios and inputs.
With simulation, operators will be able to test the effectiveness of their plans—whether for a single shift, a week, or even a quarter—before committing resources. These simulations help ensure that the right resources are allocated to achieve production goals, reducing the risk of costly mistakes.
Transforming Decision-Making in Mining
Time-to-decision-making is critical in underground mining, which has traditionally been a reactive industry. When unexpected incidents occur, operators must quickly decide how to recover and stay on track. Simulation will enable mine operators to test potential outcomes rapidly and proactively, leading to better, faster decisions without the risks associated with real-world trial and error.
For example, mine managers may wonder if adding another truck to their fleet will help meet production targets. In theory, more trucks should increase productivity, but in an underground mine with limited space, more equipment can create congestion, causing delays and reducing efficiency. Simulation helps test such scenarios, ensuring that decisions like these are based on accurate data, not assumptions.
Another frequent question mine operators face is how to pair loaders and trucks efficiently, and whether adding a stockpile would improve operations. These decisions are costly to experiment with in the real world, but with simulation, they can be tested digitally. Operators can determine the best locations for stockpiles, how large they should be, and whether they will actually improve productivity—without the financial risk of building unnecessary infrastructure.
Benefits of Simulation in Mining
One of the most significant benefits of using simulation in mining is the reduction of commercial risk. Mining is a highly capital-intensive industry. Large investments, sometimes in the billions of dollars, are required upfront, and often for years before the first revenue is realized.
“There’s significant uncertainty around whether a mine will generate the expected revenue after such a massive investment. This uncertainty directly affects the confidence that investors and lenders have in a project’s return on investment.” ~ Dave Andrews
Simulation tools allow miners to test the likelihood of achieving long-term, multi-period plans, helping reduce this uncertainty. For instance, if a mining company can simulate production outcomes over several years, it gives decision-makers much greater confidence in their capital investments. By increasing the certainty of successful outcomes, simulation has the potential to revolutionize how investment decisions are made in mining, particularly when bringing new mineral production online.
Simulation tools enable mining companies to:
Predict and optimize resource allocation: Test how various resources like personnel, equipment, and stockpiles interact to improve productivity.
Reduce commercial risk: By modelling long-term plans and outcomes, simulation helps ensure the best possible return on capital investment.
Improve decision-making speed: Simulations allow for rapid scenario testing, helping mine operators make better decisions in real time.
Avoid costly mistakes: Rather than building infrastructure or deploying resources without certainty, mines can use simulations to avoid costly errors that may negatively impact production.
The Benefits for Decision Makers
For mine managers and C-suite executives, simulation tools provide a higher degree of certainty in operational and investment decisions. These decision-makers, who often communicate production targets to the market and investors, need to be confident in their ability to meet those goals. Simulation offers a powerful tool to test and optimize complex operational plans before execution, significantly reducing the risk of failure.
Conclusion
As underground mines grow in complexity, traditional planning tools are no longer sufficient to handle the many variables involved in daily operations. Advanced simulation tools like those currently being developed at idoba provide a way to test operational plans, optimize resources, and reduce the risk of costly mistakes.
Simulation transforms decision-making from a reactive process to a proactive strategy, enabling mine operators to make faster, better-informed decisions.
Simulation also plays a critical role in reducing the commercial risks associated with mining’s capital-intensive nature. By testing multi-year production plans before executing massive investments, mining companies can increase the certainty of success, revolutionizing how investments are made in the industry. In today’s increasingly complex underground mining environments, simulation tools are no longer just a helpful addition—they are essential for staying competitive and driving success.
David Andrews
Principal Mining Innovation
20+ years experience
A geology and engineering professional with over 20 years of mining experience, integrating the technical disciplines at underground mine sites to ensure enterprise risk mitigation and enterprise value optimization are completed at the design stage. Pairing the technical, with hands on operational experience, commercial and legal negotiations, Dave is experienced in mine design support, commercial insight, techno-economic modelling, business development, and business options analysis. Dave is passionate about strategic thinking, integration, business transformation and finding simplicity on the other side of what can be very complex vertically integrated value chains in the mining industry.