Abstract

Snowfall can lead to the cessation of production in a truck-shovel mining system. A snow road removal procedure that is performed simultaneously with the production operation is introduced to avoid this situation. A discrete-event simulation model is built to evaluate both operations under different configurations. An operation policy is designed based on the simulations results. This policy defines the manner in which production and snow removal operations are conducted depending on the intensity of the snowfall. The operational policy demonstrates that production can be maintained at high snowfall intensities.