Incorporating waste management into oil sands long term production planning

Abstract

In oil sands mining, providing ore to the processing plant and tailings containment at the right time are the main drivers for profitability and sustainability. This paper introduces a mixed integer linear goal programming (MILGP) mine planning model to: determine the order and time of extraction of ore, dyke material and waste over the mine life that maximises the operation's net present value; and determine dyke material destination that minimises dyke construction cost. To implement an efficient MILGP model, an initial production schedule was generated and used as an input for the optimisation process. The model created value and a sustainable operation by generating a practical, smooth and uniform schedule for ore and dyke material. The total net present value generated including dyke construction cost for all pushbacks and destinations is $26 987M for a total mined tonnage of 7377 Mt.