System and method for determining lift heights of a stockpile

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12259256-B2
Application number	US-202217850880-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 27, 2022
Priority date	Jun 27, 2022
Publication date	Mar 25, 2025
Grant date	Mar 25, 2025

Abstract

The method may comprise receiving historical data (e.g., mineralogy data, irrigation data, raffinate data, heat data, lift height data, geographic data on ore placement and/or blower data); training a predictive model using the historical data to create a trained predictive model; adding future assumption data to the trained predictive model; running the forecast engine for a plurality of parameters to obtain forecast data for a mining production target; comparing the forecast data for the mining production target to the actual data for the mining production target; determining deviations between the forecast data and the actual data, based on the comparing; and changing each of the plurality of parameters from the forecast data to the actual data to determine a contribution to the deviations for each of the plurality of parameters.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors, location coordinates of vehicles driving on top of a second lift of a stockpile and making dumps on the top of the second lift of the stockpile,
wherein the second lift is a n+1 layer among many layers of the stockpile, and
wherein a height of the second lift extends from a top of a first lift to the top of the second lift;
aggregating and averaging, by the one or more processors, the location coordinates of the vehicles driving on the top of the second lift of the stockpile to determine a location of the vehicles driving on the top of the second lift of the stockpile;
receiving, by the one or more processors, elevation data measured from a bottom of the stockpile of the vehicles and from the location of the vehicles;
determining, by the one or more processors, a second elevation of the second lift from the bottom of the stockpile to the top of the second lift, based on the elevation data of the vehicles; and
determining, by the one or more processors, the height of the second lift from a top of a first lift to the top of the second lift, by deducting a first elevation of the first lift from the bottom of the stockpile to the top of the first lift, from the second elevation of the second lift from the bottom of the stockpile to the top of the second lift, wherein the first lift is a n layer among many layers of the stockpile.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the location coordinates of the vehicles are determined at a time preceding the dumps.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the location coordinates are determined by a GPS sensor on each of the vehicles.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising revising, by the one or more processors, the height of the second lift by replacing the height with the conveyor height for crush-for-leach stockpiles.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining, by the one or more processors, an estimate of a boundary of the second lift based on paths that the vehicles traversed.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting, by the one or more processors, the height of the second lift to a mine material tracking tool.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the mine material tracking tool provides data to a stockpile and section mapping tool.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the stockpile and section mapping tool provides data to an ore map.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the ore map provides data to a forecast model input table.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the stockpile and section mapping tool provides data to a predictive model.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting, by the one or more processors, the height of the second lift to a stockpile and section mapping tool.

12. An article of manufacture including one or more non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage mediums having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving, by the one or more processors, location coordinates of vehicles driving on top of a second lift of a stockpile and making dumps on the top of the second lift of the stockpile,
wherein the second lift is a n+1 layer among many layers of the stockpile, and
wherein a height of the second lift extends from a top of a first lift to the top of the second lift;
aggregating and averaging, by the one or more processors, the location coordinates of the vehicles driving on the top of the second lift of the stockpile to determine a location of the vehicles driving on the top of the second lift of the stockpile;
receiving, by the one or more processors, elevation data measured from a bottom of the stockpile of the vehicles and from the location of the vehicles;
determining, by the one or more processors, a second elevation of the second lift from the bottom of the stockpile to the top of the second lift, based on the elevation data of the vehicles; and
determining, by the one or more processors, the height of the second lift from a top of a first lift to the top of the second lift, by deducting a first elevation of the first lift from the bottom of the stockpile to the top of the first lift, from the second elevation of the second lift from the bottom of the stockpile to the top of the second lift, wherein the lift is a first n layer among many layers of the stockpile.

13. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more tangible, non-transitory memories configured to communicate with the one or more processors,
the one or more tangible, non-transitory memories having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving, by the one or more processors, location coordinates of vehicles driving on top of a second lift of a stockpile and making dumps on the top of the second lift of the stockpile,
wherein the second lift is a n+1 layer among many layers of the stockpile, and
wherein a height of the second lift extends from a top of a first lift to the top of the second lift;
aggregating and averaging, by the one or more processors, the location coordinates of the vehicles driving on the top of the second lift of the stockpile to determine a location of the vehicles driving on the top of the second lift of the stockpile;
receiving, by the one or more processors, elevation data measured from a bottom of the stockpile of the vehicles and from the location of the vehicles;
determining, by the one or more processors, a second elevation of the second lift from the bottom of the stockpile to the top of the second lift, based on the elevation data of the vehicles; and
determining, by the one or more processors, the height of the second lift from a top of a first lift to the top of the second lift, by deducting a first elevation of the first lift from the bottom of the stockpile to the top of the first lift, from the second elevation of the second lift from the bottom of the stockpile to the top of the second lift, wherein the first lift is a n layer among many layers of the stockpile.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the location coordinates of the vehicles are determined at a time preceding the dumps.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the location coordinates are determined by a GPS sensor on each of the vehicles.

16. The system of claim 13 , further comprising revising, by the one or more processors, the height of the second lift by replacing the height with the conveyor height for crush-for-leach stockpiles.

17. The system of claim 13 , further comprising determining, by the one or more processors, an estimate of a boundary of the second lift based on paths that the vehicles traversed.

18. The system of claim 13 , further comprising transmitting, by the one or more processors, the height of the second lift to a stockpile and section mapping tool.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the stockpile and section mapping tool provides data to an ore map, and wherein the ore map provides data to at least one of a predictive model or a forecast model input table.

20. The system of claim 13 , further comprising transmitting, by the one or more processors, the height of the second lift to a mine material tracking tool.

Assignees

• Freeport Minerals Corp

Inventors

• Geislinger Dana
• Tinsley Margaret Alden
• Sanyal Akaash
• Freeman Robyn
• Gaddie Travis
• Alam Muneeb
• Richardson Steven Chad
• Crossman Raquel
• Ni Tianfang
• Demieville Cory A
• Gerdes Luke
• Klesov Oleksandr
• Issoe Luciano Kiniti

Classifications

• G01C21/3826

  Terrain data · CPC title

• G01C21/3811 Primary

  Point data, e.g. Point of Interest [POI] · CPC title

• E21C41/00 Primary

  Methods of underground or surface mining (E21C45/00 takes precedence); Layouts therefor (for peat E21C49/00) · CPC title