D. Beck, C. Lilley
Beck Engineering

Open access to forecasts of mine performance by all members of the mine planning team, in the form of open databases of technical or financial simulation results has been considered risky in the past, with a concern that the results will not be understood or will be misused. However, some modeling techniques allow very high similitude forecasting of performance and the results can potentially be presented in a form that is unambiguous and which all engineers can be more easily trained to understand. With some effort, sufficient reliability and quantifications of error are possible to overcome many of the issues.
Allowing more members of the planning team to have direct access to forecasts of mine performance – across rock mechanics, economics, geology and production – will promote awareness of the issues across disciplines and will act as a mechanism for improving mine designs. The models will also be more easily integrated into quality assurance programs, by providing a framework for understanding measurement results.
The sufficiency requirements for undertaking Simulation Aided Mining Engineering will be presented, included some conclusions about requirements for training, quality standards and software development.

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