Systems thinking, a modelling tool for managing change in a mining environment

In a complex mining environment sub processes are interlinked and dependent on each other. At each step of mining the actions of one heavily impact on the next process. The objective of this paper is to review the current mining environment and demonstrate whether it is possible to simulate a big surface mine in order to determine the impact of new technology or change of processes. The paper will discuss the approach taken to simulate the current and the future conditions. For this study, an openpit mine has been selected where iron ore is the only commodity. The initial aim of the broader study was to justify the need for drill rig automation in big mines and determine the value creation by means of simulation techniques. This paper will present the conceptual model developed to justify the need for automation specifically in the drilling process. The tool selected to achieve the objective is a System Dynamics tool called VENSIM. The process of creating the model and the logic behind the system dynamics is discussed. The conceptual model is presented with important focus areas in such a modelling attempt. Each mining process can be represented with stock and flow diagrams. The connections between each level is used to define the behavior of the system. A system will respond with three types of behavior; reaction, response and action. While reaction is sufficient, response is necessary when reaction is not sufficient. When this fails too, a change is required which is called an action. All these responses have a goal towards state-maintaining, goal-seeking and purposeful systems. State-maintaining systems often react to changes to maintain the state. A goal-seeking system is the one responds differently to a sequence of events until it reaches its purpose. A purposeful system can produce results in the same as well as different environments [5].