| It is important to mining companies to increase actual lateral development rates for single headings. The rate of advance of the development will influence the time that it will take to reach the orebody and key economic parameters of the whole project.; Quality assurance of the particular components of the development cycle becomes paramount in achieving high rate of advance in lateral development process. Quality issues include performance parameters of a particular process in lateral development such as drilling accuracy, delays due to ground conditions at depth, operating delays due to man-equipment interaction at various phases of the advancing cycle, secondary drilling and blasting, compounding effects, breadth of training, detail of schedule/plan of activities, equipment performance, thin linear installation, staged ground support, shift schedules, integration of primary/secondary mucking and parallel activities in headings.; The objective of this thesis is the quantification of the value of quality performance of lateral development cycle. Today there is no established procedure to quantify alternatives related to quality improvement in the activities of the development cycle. This research introduces a practical methodology for the evaluation of quality aspects of lateral development using discrete-event simulation.; By using discrete-event simulation for lateral development cycle, the development rate and the quality cost of a particular project can be calculated, and potential development mining alternatives can be identified. Current development cycle practices, which are applied at operations of Falconbridge Ltd. and Boliden AB, are simulated and analyzed in order to identify quality issues, as they relate to cost, speed, and overall productivity. Quality practices and methods from both companies are evaluated for introduction to Falconbridge Ltd. Operations. |
