Development of a mining simulation model for potassium ore mining planning

Introduction. In this article, we show the importance of potash fertilizers produced by PJSC Uralkali, Berezniki, Perm Territory for agriculture and the economy in general. А process of potassium ore underground mining is described from breaking up moment till transportation to the surface. An importance of production planning for the mining enterprise functioning is substantiated. Various levels of planning, from a general production plan to a weekly and daily plans are described. The problem of such planning at PJSC Uralkali is in using only integral performance indicators, it leads to significant errors. It is proposed to use simulation modeling as a possible solution to the problem. Purpose of work. The purpose of this work is to develop a simulation model of mining operations, from the process of breaking and transporting ore to a conveyor-transport system, and to test model's applicability for ore mining planning. Since the existing software has a number of limitations in applies to potash mines, a specialized object-oriented library allows modeling queuing systems, multi-agent and active systems is used as a basis for modeling. The limitations and assumptions of the model are described. Materials and methods. The model is igned as a deterministic automaton. The end point for ore mining process modeling is the transfer of ore to the unloading point, because further transportation of ore is not a limiting factor for mining. Conclusion. The special states of all objects of the system including mining combine - self-propelled car - unloading point and all possible transitions between them are described. A data from open sources is taken to check the adequacy of the model. Changes in the simulation results are investigated for various input parameters in the developed software. The simulation results are of a pulsating character due to the periodic execution of the harvester drive away. A productivity of the combine decreases with an increase in the distance traveled by a self-propelled car. The possibility of transition to a stochastic model is investigated. An expected decrease due to an increase in the downtime of the combine is shown. A conclusion about the applicability of the model to improve the quality of planning for underground potassium ore mining is made based on obtained data.