Evolution Help

Product Overview

Maptek Evolution is an enterprise mining application that is used to generate scheduling solutions for short-term, mid-term and long-term planning. Use Evolution to consider different scenarios using similar input model data and compare results in terms of productivity and grade, haulage and waste landform optimisation.

There are three separate scheduling modules in Evolution:

Strategy
Strategy scheduling is designed for strategic mine planning with a focus on cut-off grade optimisation and maximisation of Net Present Value (NPV).

Origin
Origin scheduling is designed for life-of-mine to short term schedule planning solutions. Origin schedules are specifically designed for haulage, blending and waste optimisation solutions. There are two main types of schedules from this module:

  • Origin Blocks which are derived from block models.

  • Origin Solids, also known as Origin Reserve, which are derived from solids/reserve models.

Epoch
Epoch scheduling is designed for short-term scheduling solutions. It is most suitable for schedules of up to 18 months. It allows you to add equipment and assign equipment to activities and tasks. Epoch schedules are derived from solids/reserve models or dynamic reserving pits.

There is one pit module in Evolution:

Phase
Use the Phase module to convert shells to stages. The main purpose of this module is to create stages that are practical to mine while increasing the NPV of models.

Navigating the Help

If you're new to Evolution, we recommend that you explore the following topics:

  • Creating a New Project
    To start using Evolution, you will need to create an Evolution database known as a project. Alternatively, if you’ve already created a project, you can follow the steps in Opening an Existing Project to get started.

  • Interface Overview
    Learn about the user interface and the Evolution ribbon.

  • Models
    Before configuring your setup, you will need to import or create models that represent your pits, waste dumps, stockpiles and road networks. You will use the information stored in these models to configure your setups.

Evolution Workflow

There are some key steps to generating an Evolution mining schedule. Each step will vary depending on the type of schedule that is being generated.

Step 1: Create a Setup

Step 2: Configure the Setup

Step 3: Validate the Setup

Step 4: Generate a Schedule

Step 5: View the Schedule

Step 6: Analyse the Schedule

Step 1: Create a Setup

The first step to generating your schedule is to create a scenario which we refer to as a setup. You can create multiple setups in a single project based on the same or similar input data. Any setup you create will be stored under the Project Explorer. How you create your setup, will depend on the type of schedule you are generating:

Step 2: Configure the Setup

Once you have added a setup to your project, you can start to configure the setup. How you configure your setup will depend on the type of schedule you are generating. However, there are some key elements which are common to each type of setup as highlighted in the image below: the setup configuration tabs and the setup configuration workspace. Each tab represents a different aspect of the setup to configure. Click on a tab to open its workspace.

Step 3: Validate the Setup

After configuring the setup, to ensure that the setup has been configured correctly, you validate the setup. Only basic validation is required to submit a setup for schedule generation, however if you want a more comprehensive check, then you can perform advanced validation. Errors and warnings will be displayed in the Output Window as shown below.

Note: Validation procedures are the same for all types of setups.

Step 4: Generate a Schedule

Once you have validated your setup, the next step is to generate your schedule. If the schedule you are generating is either from Origin or Strategy, this process will be performed on and downloaded from the server. On the other hand, Epoch schedules are generated using the Evolution client program. The results of Epoch schedules can be viewed as they are generated.

Step 5: View the Schedule

Now that you have generated the schedule, you can view the results. For Epoch alone, you can view the results as you are generating the schedule. Other types of schedules need to be downloaded first before being viewed.

Step 6: Analyse the Schedule

Once a schedule has been generated and downloaded, you can evaluate the results using pivot reports. Epoch leverages pivot reports using the Live Dashboard which is able to analyse results as soon as they are processed. Otherwise, you can export the results to CSV format to be evaluated in an external program such as Microsoft Excel.