Published: 28 July 2025
aPCOM conference 2025
AMC Consultants (AMC) is proud to have Dr Tim Pelech, Senior Mining Consultant present a paper co-authored with Francois Grobler, Principal Mining Consultant at the upcoming Application of Computers & Operations Research in the Mineral Industry (APCOM) Conference 2025, taking place from Sunday, 10 August through to Wednesday, 13 August 2025 at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.
This premier technical conference will bring together digital professionals from across the global mining industry, attracting innovators, mining executives, planning engineers, mine managers, geoscientists, operators, and ESG specialists.
The event will focus on cutting-edge research, breakthrough innovations, and forward-thinking perspectives on digitisation throughout the entire mining value chain.
AMC at the Conference
Topic: AMC’s Hill of Value®: Modelling sequential decisions to transfer strategy optimization into an operational mine plan.
Session 6C Mine Planning and Scheduling
Presenter: Dr Timothy Pelech, Senior Mining Consultant
Date: Tuesday, 12 August 2025
Time: 10:30 AM - 11:10 AM
Mine strategy optimization techniques such as AMC’s Hill of Value® (HoV®) use numerical modelling of an operation to rapidly explore a wide range of strategic options. This is achieved by testing and flexing variables such as the cut-off grade, throughput rates, mining methods, scheduling sequences and more to understand which of these decision variables are strategically important. The output of the HoV® process is an optimal set of decision variables, guided by one or more objectives (e.g. NPV, strategy resilience, mine life) which can be converted into an operational mine plan. It enables a high number of strategic options to be rapidly assessed for long-term planning guidance, but at the expense of tactical resolution.
Once an optimal strategy is chosen and committed to for a long-term plan, tactical deviations or modifications from this plan may be required to minimize short-term disruptions and achieve better operational alignment. Ideally, value-accretive tactical deviations could be undertaken without compromising the overall strategy. This is attainable with confidence if the appropriate level of detail is modelled for the strategy selection.
A robust strategy selection process requires that any potential tactical choices fall within its bounds, albeit at a higher resolution. This will enable the promotion of tactical modifications that create value while constraining decisions that destroy it. To account for these tactical deviations within a strategy, they must also be represented in the numerical model.
Tactical decision-making becomes difficult to model numerically when multiple sequential decisions are possible. This is especially the case for underground mines, where the sequential decisions of mine scheduling, capital commitment, access development, and production phase of selecting and extracting the ore, stockpiling and processing typically exist. Each of these sequential decisions can have an upstream and downstream impact on the overall mine value chain.
This paper investigates a practical method for capturing high resolution sequential decisions in a strategy optimization model and enables these to coherently transfer to the operational mine plan.
Meet Our Presenter
Dr Timothy Pelech
Senior Mining Consultant
Tim possesses over 10 years of experience having worked in several world-class mining operations across Australia. During his time in operations, he gained experience as an underground manager, a ventilation officer, implemented mine planning processes, led risk assessments, and always upheld high health and safety standards. His skillset includes resource levelling, data analysis, people management and complex problem solving. Proficient with Deswik and VentSim software, Tim excels in mine design and scheduling, stope optimization, drill and blast planning, and long-term forecasting. His expertise also includes applied research and numerical modelling, as well as managing infrastructure projects such as underground dewatering systems and ventilation upgrades.