Ensham Resources Pty Ltd. and Rio Tinto Coal Australia Pty Ltd.’s Hail Creek Mine have both inked deals with Australian software mining company, Runge Pty Ltd., to implement a short-term scheduling system.
Both mining operations will be using Runge’s Xact short-term mine scheduling package in order to effectively schedule their mine in a three month planning timeframe.
Scott Oakley, mine planning engineer at Hail Creek Mine, said the mining industry typically uses complex high-end technology packages so there is a demand for a short-term scheduling system that is able to accurately interpret and apply core scheduling logic.
Xact is a short-term mine scheduling application which gives mine operations the tools to respond to day-by-day challenges and is designed for all types of mineral deposits and mining methods and has highly visual easy-to-use tools which require minimal training.
The application combines Inter-active custom Gantt charts, a reporting mechanism, a hierarchical navigation system and 3D representation of the mine.
Ensham Resources senior mining engineer, Ian Neilson, has been a Runge customer for 10 years for better inventory control.
“Asset utilization management issues, such as analysis of equipment availability, are imperative to mining operations as they minimize disruption to the business,” he added.
Runge mining specialist, John Hives, said flexible scheduling is central to today’s mining operations to cope with changes to mining equipment availability and personnel.
