TS. Data Fields

Data fields are created to hold values imported from the inventory files. These may include properties for each block, for the block contents, or for the drilling activities.

Data Fields Setup Tasks

If values are not present in the inventory files, then they must be created by script in the Refinements step.

Common

Misc Fields

Block properties such as location, volume, depletion, etc.

Drilling Fields

Hole properties such as length, volume, etc.

Drill Hole Types

Hole types by diameter, pattern size, drill rig, rock type, etc. 

Mining Fields

Mining material properties such as density, moisture, tonnes and grades

Product Fields

Mining material properties that are measured at every processing path, point and product

Known Mining Parcels

Material types which may not be present in the inventory files but must be accounted for in stockpile opening inventories

Processing Paths

The unique paths to port (ie. wetPlant/dryPlant), the points at which they are measured (ie. rail/ship), and the different product types (i.e. lump/fine)

Iron ore example: 

"wet_rail_fines"

Gold example:

"mill_site_gold"

Example layout of Misc, Drilling and Mining fields in Reserves tab

Field Properties

Each field has a number of properties associated with it.

Header Field

Usage

Header Field

Usage

Full Name

Full address of the field, including parent title fields (ie. class_waterTable_wet)

Indent

An indented field becomes a child of the title field above it

Product Field

A measure of product value such as tonnes, grades, and class

Name

The name of the field that will appear in the reserves tables

Description

A description of the field

Units

Unit of measurement

Field Type

Fields can be "Title", "Text", or "Double" (numeric). Indented fields must have a title field as a parent

Summary Type

When aggregating records, use "Sum", "WeightedAverage", "Minimum", "Maximum" or "None"

Weighting

For weighted averages, use the weighting dropdown to reference another field

Formatting

Choose how numeric fields are displayed

Misc Fields

In the Misc Fields step you can set block properties such as block type, solid volume, depletion, and location.

Fields can be added, removed, ordered, grouped, imported and exported using the side button menu. Hover the mouse over each icon to see the command description and hotkeys. 

Drilling Fields

This step is hidden if in the Configuration Options step you set the flag No Drills

Drilling fields hold values for hole length, hole volume, and so on.

See TS. Drill Scheduling exercise for more information.

Drill Hole Types

This step is hidden if in the Configuration Options step you set the flag No Drills.

Each pattern has one or more hole types to be drilled (for example: Production, Trim, Presplit).

If you intend to report blast meters by cost code, then each cost code must be a unique hole code. 

See TS. Drill Scheduling exercise for more information. 

Mining Fields

The default Mining Fields are volume, dry tonnes, wet tonnes and moisture.

In addition to the defaults, we should add any block model fields that are present in the inventory files and which are relevant to scheduling. For example: product grades, contaminants, resource class, geological class, and water table class.

Any field which affects the commercial value of the material should be flagged in the Product Field column (i.e. tonnes and grades).

Fields can be added, removed, ordered, grouped, imported and exported using the side button menu. Hover the mouse over each icon to see the command description. 

Known Mining Parcels

This step is hidden if in the Configuration Options step you set the flag No Known Parcels

This step is used to add additional material types to Tactical Scheduler that may not be present in the reserves inventory. This may include legacy materials on the stockpiles, or known material types that are predicted to be present in future iterations of the schedule.

This ensures that the parcel filters on Destination Logic, Steps Logic, Constraints and Product Specifications do not have to be updated every time there is a change in the reserves. 

Processing Paths

The Processing Paths step is used to allow product fields to have different values depending on how they are processed, transported and screened.

  • Processing Streams are the mutually exclusive paths from pit to product.

  • Product Points are the changes to the product that occur along the transport path.

  • Sub Products are the split of product types at each point in each stream.

For example, the ratio of "Lump" to "Fine" sub products may change when handled from rail to ship, and the product grades are different through the wet plant vs the dry plant.