Increasing throughput at Olympic Dam by effective management of the mine bottleneck

Abstract

A systematic process of debottlenecking the mine at Olympic Dam has resulted in an 18% increase in production rate over the past 24 months, and has resulted in the mine establishing an annual production record of 9·7 million tonnes in FY08. This process was based on classical constraint theory, and the steps of identification, support and stabilisation, exploitation and elevation of the bottleneck are described in this paper, together with examples to support implementation of the plan to increase throughput. Key initiatives within the plan are described and include increasing developed, drilled and broken stock levels, providing sufficient stope sources, developing stockpile bays at each orepass tipple, providing adequate resourcing of trucks and loaders for stope production, and increasing the reliability and instantaneous capability of the hoisting shafts. The influence of process variability at the bottleneck is also described together with strategies to manage this variability in order to increase throughput at the bottleneck.