In-pit crushing and conveying (IPCC) is being increasingly considered as an alternative to traditional truck-shovel mining methods. The move towards IPCC is driven by a number of factors including the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the availability of skilled labour and the need to increase extraction rates to levels that present significant challenges to traditional methods. When considering the relative performance of IPCC and truck-shovel methods, the outcome can be inadvertently impacted by either the use of different simulation approaches, or techniques that do not adequately model the processes in sufficient detail. A simulation approach is proposed that models both IPCC and truck-shovel using the same software platform and is capable of functioning at a wide range of resolutions from life-of-mine scale through to second-by-second asset tracking level. The simulation framework also holds models of processing equipment and hence the mining simulations can be extended to gauge the impact on downstream plant. The approach, known as mine-process operational simulation (MPOS), can be tailored to the level of information available and hence the type of study required, ie order of magnitude, prefeasibility, feasibility, or detailed design. Using information from block models and a range of detailed equipment and process models, MPOS can span major system discontinuities, typified by the mine-plant interface, to allow the estimation of final mine and plant product specifications._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION:Bearman, R and Munro, S, 2010. A simulation approach for the comparison of in-pit crushing and conveying and truck-shovel mining methods, in Proceedings Mine Planning and Equipment Selection (MPES) 2010, pp 33-42 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).