Both Ensham Resources’ Ensham project and Rio’s Hail Creek Mine will be using Runge’s Xact short-term mine scheduling package in order to schedule their mine in the 0-3 month planning timeframe.

Runge mining specialist John Hives said the flexibility and scheduling accuracy of mine operations is key to their success, and short-term scheduling provides mine operations with the flexibility to cope with day-to-day changes to mining equipment availability and personnel as well as a range of related activities.

“It is the only application to combine interactive custom Gantt charts, a reporting mechanism, a hierarchical navigation system and 3D representation of the mine,” Hives said.

“It shows [on multi-screen displays] exactly what transpires when any aspect of the mine’s daily or weekly mining operation is changed and is used by leading global mining organisations.”

Ensham Resources senior mining engineer Ian Neilsen said the company had used Runge’s XPAC scheduling software for 10 years and had chosen Xact to complement its long-term and medium-term scheduling systems.

Hail Creek Mine mine planning engineer Scott Oakley said there is definitely a demand for a short-term scheduling system that is able to accurately interpret and apply core scheduling logic, as the mining industry typically uses complex high-end technology packages.