The proposed Lihir open pit gold mine is located on Lihir Island in New
Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea. The mine will be located within a
volcanic caldera, part of which forms the adjacent Luise Harbour.
Kennecott Corporation started engineering design work in 1988 and
ended in 1993 when a Feasibility Report was submitted to the Papua New
Guinea government by RTZ/Kennecott. The project will be managed by
the Lihir Management Company. The mining operation will produce approximately 350 Mt of waste and
62 Mt of low-grade ore over the life of open pit mining. Landforms and
traditional land use by Lihirians preclude storing mine waste and some of
the low-grade ore on land close to the mine site. The mine waste will be
composed of hard rock and soft soild like material which cannot be safely
used to construct large land waste repositories by truck dumping.
Submarine disposal by bottom discharging barges is the only safe disposal
method. The barges will also be required to construct a waste platform
along the shore for stockpiling low-grade ore. A simulation model of the waste handling system was written in
GPSS/H to assist engineers in selecting the optimum size and quantity
of barges and loading docks by analysing the interaction between
excavators, trucks and barges. The simulation model was written in
enough details to model the various functions that will be encountered
during mining. Input parameters allowed for variations in the size and
number of trucks, shovels, barges and loading docks. Variations in
loading, hauling, and dumping times were from user specified
distributions. In order to visualise the interaction between the components
of the waste mining operation, the simulation was animated using Proof
AnimationT""'. It is believed that this is the first application of an animated
simulation study for a mine still in the planning stages.