Many existing computer planning programs for the mining industry focus
either on big mining enterprises with a high production rate or on smaller
operations for high value minerals. Big mining enterprises, like the hardcoal company `Ruhrkohle AG' in
Germany have their own R&D departments which develop powerful
computer programs for planning purposes, partly in co-operation with
mining universities. However, there is a remarkable number of small- scale mining operations which are either not able to buy expensive hard- and software or don't have the skills for the operation of extensive
software programs. Partly there is also a trend in using rule of thumb
calculations rather than computer programs which need a lot of - partly
unavailable - data. For this reason a computer program was developed which does not
need expensive hardware and software and which can help the planning
engineer in the selection of a limited number of possibilities. Until this time the planning engineer established two or three different
cases and calculated the results with a pocket calculator. This could last
some hours or even some days. Now he or she can use the computer
program with a normal PC to compare the cases. All activities are
menu-driven. The basis for all, calculations are fixed and variable costs as
well as average performance for special activities. The paper gives an
example for a possible planning situation in fluorspar mining (originally
this program was developed for the fluorspar enterprise Lengenfeld in
Germany). It shows the initial situation, the main structure of the
program, the input logic and the results. Benefits, limits and possible
extensions of the program are discussed.