Oil sands truck-and-shovel mining operation with performance monitoring and control

Abstract

This disclosure concerns techniques for monitoring and controlling mining operations, notably oil sands mining that involves trucks and shovels. The process can include monitoring key mining performance indicators (KMPI) comprising truck operating parameters; shovel operating parameters; and workforce performance parameters, and then controlling the trucks and the shovels based on a pre-developed model comprising the KMPI. The workforce performance parameters of shift change duration can be determined in various ways, such as determining a base shift change duration based on a shift-change code and adding to it a supplementary shift change duration based on certain additional stationary-state codes; and/or determining truck cycle times during a pre-determined time interval spanning the corresponding shift change, determining a longest truck cycle, determining an average truck cycle which excludes the longest truck cycle; and determining the shift change duration based on a difference between the longest truck cycle and the average truck cycle.

1 . A process for oil sands mining comprising:
 utilizing trucks and shovels to mine oil sands ore, wherein the trucks and the shovels are operated by a workforce comprising shift teams that include equipment operators and wherein the mined oil sands ore is input into an oil sands extraction operation to extract bitumen from mineral solids and produce a bitumen product;   monitoring key mining performance indicators (KMPI) comprising:
 truck operating parameters related to the trucks; 
 shovel operating parameters related to the shovels; and 
 workforce performance parameters related to the workforce; and 
   controlling the trucks and the shovels based on a pre-developed model comprising the KMPI.   
     
     
         2 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the workforce performance parameters comprise:
 shift team performance parameters of the shift teams that make up the workforce; and   operator performance parameters of the operators who make up the shift teams.   
     
     
         3 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the truck operating parameters comprise truck productivity, truck availability, and truck cycle indicators. 
     
     
         4 . The process of  claim 3 , wherein the truck cycle indicators comprise loading, hauling, emptying, dumping, waiting and spotting. 
     
     
         5 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the shovel operating parameters comprise truck wait times at the shovels, under-loading conditions, over-loading conditions, and shovel productivity. 
     
     
         6 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the truck operating parameters and the shovel operating parameters each include key performance metrics and key performance thresholds. 
     
     
         7 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the shift team performance parameters comprise shift change time. 
     
     
         8 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the operator performance parameters comprise:
 individual operator performance parameters and group norm parameters;   truck operator performance parameters comprising truck travelling speed, truck productivity, truck operator lunch break times, truck operator break times, and truck operator shift change parameters; and   shovel operator performance parameters comprising under-loading metrics, over-loading metrics, shovel productivity, shovel operator break times, and shovel operator shift change parameters.   
     
     
         9 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the controlling of the trucks and the shovels comprises tactical decision making to impact in-shift performance. 
     
     
         10 . The process of  claim 9 , wherein the tactical decision making comprises:
 in response to a long truck-wait at shovels or dumps corresponding to over-truck conditions, adjustment made by truck dispatchers to reduce the truck wait times;   in response to truck bunching, adjustment made by truck dispatchers to reduce the truck bunching;   in response to excessive truck overloading, adjustment made by shovel operators to reduce the truck overloading;   in response to a disruption of tonnage during shift change, investigation of actual cause thereof and adjustment of approach in shift change in terms of time of shift change on individual trucks, order and/or location where shift change occurs;   in response to excessive switch-out times corresponding to switching operators in shift on a given truck, determination of root cause and devising of alternative approach to switch-outs; and/or   in response to ore blending upset, adjustments made by truck dispatchers to ensure that characteristics of ore blends return to expected levels in terms of ranges of bitumen and fines content.   
     
     
         11 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the controlling of the trucks and the shovels comprises strategic decision making to impact mining performance. 
     
     
         12 . The process of  claim 11 , wherein the strategic decision making comprises:
 assessing truck inventory requirements including one or more of new truck purchases, truck rentals, truck fleet size, type of trucks, truck equipment features, and truck equipment size, optionally in 5 to 10 years; and/or   assessing shovel inventory requirements including one or more of new shovel purchases, shovel rentals, shovel fleet size, type of shovels, shovel equipment features, and shovel equipment size, optionally in 5 to 10 years.   
     
     
         13 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the pre-developed model is further based on extraction facility parameters such that the controlling of the trucks and the shovels is performed based on monitored extraction facility parameters related to the oil sands extraction operation. 
     
     
         14 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the monitoring comprises displaying the KMPI and information derived therefrom on a dashboard and/or a scorecard to enable a user to evaluate performance based on the displayed KMPI. 
     
     
         15 . A method for monitoring truck and shovel performance in an oil sands mining operation, the method comprising:
 providing a model comprising a plurality of databases housing information acquired from the oil sands mining operation;   determining key mining performance indicators (KMPI) comprising:
 truck operating parameters related to the trucks; 
 shovel operating parameters related to the shovels; and 
 workforce performance parameters related to the workforce; and 
   displaying the KMPI on interactive digital displays comprising dashboards and scorecards for assessment by a user, the digital displays showing KMPIs for both in-shift and past-shift time intervals.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein:
 the truck operating parameters comprise truck productivity, truck availability, and truck cycle indicators, and wherein the truck cycle indicators comprise loading, hauling, emptying, dumping, waiting and spotting;   the shovel operating parameters comprise truck wait times at the shovels, under-loading conditions, over-loading conditions, and shovel productivity;   the workforce performance parameters comprise shift team performance parameters of the shift teams that make up the workforce, and operator performance parameters of the operators who make up the shift teams; wherein the workforce performance parameters comprise shift change time; and   the digital displays comprise an overall mining scorecard comprising KMPI and qualitative information based on pre-determined codes, a truck performance dashboard including time-based truck performance monitoring; a payload performance dashboard; an overall team performance dashboard; a shovel performance dashboard; and shift change dashboard.   
     
     
         17 . A method of monitoring shift change performance of trucks used in oil sands mining operations, the method comprising:
 receiving truck performance data from a truck fleet, the truck performance data comprising operator-input codes that include a shift-change code indicating when a shift change is occurring and stationary-state codes indicating states during which the trucks are stationary;   determining a base shift change duration based on the shift-change codes;   determining a supplementary shift change duration based on a selection of the stationary-state codes; and   providing an adjusted shift change duration based on the base shift change duration and the supplementary shift change duration; or
 wherein the method comprises: 
   receiving truck performance data from a truck fleet, the truck performance data comprising truck cycle times;   for each truck in the truck fleet:
 determining truck cycle times during a pre-determined time interval spanning the corresponding shift change, each truck cycle including loading, hauling, dumping, and dispatching; 
 determining a longest truck cycle; 
 determining an average truck cycle which excludes at least the longest truck cycle; and 
 determining the shift change duration based on a difference between the longest truck cycle and the average truck cycle; and 
   determining an average shift change duration for the truck fleet based on the shift change durations determined for the respective trucks.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the selected stationary-state codes comprise an operator maintenance code, miscellaneous code, truck breakdown code, a hauling stopped code and/or an empty stopped code; wherein the selected stationary-state codes exclude stationary-state codes corresponding to truck operation of dumping and loading; and wherein the selected stationary-state codes are used in determining the supplementary shift change duration when the codes are input within a pre-determined time interval proximate the shift change. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein an average shift change duration is determined by dividing the adjusted shift change duration by a number of trucks in the corresponding truck fleet. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein, if a given truck lacks cycle data, determining the shift change duration of the given truck is performed using the steps of:
 receiving truck performance data that comprise operator-input codes that include a shift-change code indicating when a shift change is occurring and stationary-state codes indicating states during which the trucks are stationary;   determining a base shift change duration based on the shift-change codes;   determining a supplementary shift change duration based on a selection of the stationary-state codes; and   providing an adjusted shift change duration based on the base shift change duration and the supplementary shift change duration.