Copyright 2009 Gemcom Software International Inc. (Gemcom).

This software and documentation is proprietary to Gemcom and, except where expressly provided
otherwise, does not form part of any contract. Changes may be made in products or services at
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the information contained herein.
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Product
Gemcom Whittle 4.3

Table of Contents
Introduction - Gold tutorial
Prerequisites
Importing

4
4
5

Validation of Imported Model

11

Setting Pit Slopes for the Optimisation

14

Optimisation

18

Mining Tab

18

Method 1. Using range function alone

18

Method 2. Using line of best fit within a range function

19

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

19

Processing Tab

21

Selling tab

22

Optimisation tab

23

Output tab

23

Operational Scenario

27

Sensitivity analysis

29

Final pit and NPV Practical Pushbacks

32

Create pushbacks
Congratulations

34
39

Introduction - Gold tutorial

Introduction - Gold tutorial

This tutorial is provided to introduce various parts of software through a worked example. For more
information on any part of this tutorial,
l
l
l

see the relevant information in the help file

view demonstration datasets and read notes in the description tab on each node
contact your local Gemcom office for module information or training options

In this tutorial, we will work with a validated block model from a general mine planning package such
as Surpac, GEMS or other. This block model has been created in the format .mod and also has a corresponding .par file.

Prerequisites
You can find these data files in <your projects folder>\tutorials\gold
l
l
l

the block model training.mod.

the parameters file training.par.
the block model validation report training_rpt.txt.

Page 4 of 39

Importing

Importing
1. Open Whittle from the desktop icon or Start > All Programs > Gemcom Software > Whittle [ver]
From the project selection dialog, choose Create a new project.
2. This will start the Project Wizard which will guide you through the import process.

3. Enter a name for the project in Project Name.

All the other entry boxes will be filled in, you do not need to do anything more. If you
would like to save the project in a different folder, just rename the Project Directory and
the working directory will be automatically updated.
4. After you have named the project, click Next.

5. Now select Whittle block model, and specify the location of the .mod and .par files.
The .mod and .par files can be anywhere on your network.

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Importing

6. Click the browse button on Model File to import and browse to the location of your
.mod file.
By default, these files will be installed in the \projects directory of your Whittle installation. The Project Wizard will assume the corresponding .par file is in the same directory
and has the same name as the .mod file.
7. If required, click the browse button and browse to the location of the .par file.
8. Click Next.

9. Continue clicking Next without entering any values until you come to the Processes
screen.
10. Add a process by clicking the Add button, then edit the row to rename it to MILL (this will
save us time later on).

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Importing

You can finish at this screen or the next. We will not do anything more until we have validated the model.

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Importing

The next few screens show summary information for the grade element and allow editing
of element names. You do not have to do anything in these screens.
11. Continue clicking Next until the Define Element Type Codes screen is displayed.

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Importing

12. Click Next.

This screen allows editing of the model summary information. You do not have to do anything in this screen.

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Importing

13. Click Finish.

You have now imported the model into the Whittle interface. A range of standard analysis has been
created to guide you through the mine planning process.

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Validation of Imported Model

Validation of Imported Model

First, we will rename the block model node so we can identify the block model in this case, we will
use the model dimensions.
1. Enter 10 x 20 x 10 in the Description field on the Description tab of the Block Model
node.
There are already notes filled out specifying the location of the original .mod and .par
files. You can add more notes here if required.
2. Click Accept to save the changes

3. Click on the Dimensions tab to visually check the block size and model origin.
4. Now click on the Report tab of the Block Model node to check our totals against the validation report from the GMP.

Page 11 of 39

Validation of Imported Model

5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Further down the report, check the Summary by bench by rocktype.

Finally, use the 3D Viewer as a visual check.
Click on the block model node in the project tree.
Then select Start Three-D Viewer from the icon on the toolbar.
Click OK on the Select data to display dialog box.
Tip: Clicking the block model node in the project tree will bring the block model into
the 3D viewer, later we will visualise different things by clicking on different nodes in the
project tree.

10. In the 3D Visualiser, select the Show Topography box and the Show XZ Plane box.
11. Rotate the view by left clicking and dragging the mouse.
12. Zoom the view by holding down the wheel button of the mouse and moving the mouse
forward or backward.
13. Click Invert to give the 3D Viewer a white background.
Note: We have used an inverted view for many screen captures in this document so
that you will save ink if you print.

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Validation of Imported Model

Your view should look like the following. We will explore the 3D viewer later. For now, it is
enough to visually check the model.

Once this is done, your model is validated!

One final thing to do on the Block Model node is to set the units of the project to grams,
since that is what our gold element is measured in.
14. On the Formats tab, in the Element data table, choose gram from the drop down menu
as shown:

15. Click Accept to save your changes.

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Setting Pit Slopes for the Optimisation

Setting Pit Slopes for the Optimisation

1. Click the New Slope Set node in the project tree.
2. In the data pane, edit the description on the Description tab to display Slope Case 1 - 60
degrees below level 16.
3. Then on the Slope Type tab, ensure Rectangular slope regions is selected to define the
slopes.
Tip: Rocktypes are commonly used to specify slope angles. Alternatively, an attribute
can be created in the block model and filled with integers specifying different zones based
on any data.

In the Profiles tab, we will create two new slope profiles in addition to the default slope
profile.
4. Add two new profiles by clicking the Add Profile button and specifying the slope angles
as:
l Profile 1 - Slope 45 degrees
l Profile 2 - Slope 60 degrees

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Setting Pit Slopes for the Optimisation

Now we want to split the model into two slope regions and assign each of our two profiles to a different region.
5. First add a second slope region using the Add button in the Slope Regions section.
6. Then split the regions up using the Z value of the model. Change the values so the following regions are defined, then assign the slope profile using the drop down box in the
Slope Profile column:
Region

Min X

Max X

Min Y

Max Y

Min Z

Max Z

Slope Profile

90

40

16

35

Profile 1 (45.0)

90

40

15

Profile 2 (60.0)

7. Click Accept to save your work.

Now we have entered all of the relevant information, we need to generate the slope file
for use in the optimisation. To do this, we need to run the analysis. We will use the Run
To icon.
8. Click the Slope node if it is not highlighted and then click Run To to run all the analysis
down to the selected node (slopes).

9. Now, briefly check the slope errors by clicking the Report tab of the Slopes node.
Tip: Slopes are created between blocks in the block model and therefore cannot
exactly define the entered slope angle, however normally the difference is small.

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Setting Pit Slopes for the Optimisation

We have defined two different regions for applying our slopes, so we should see the two
profiles listed for those regions in the Messages tab.

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Setting Pit Slopes for the Optimisation

These slope errors are acceptable, so we will proceed.

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Optimisation

Method 1. Using range function alone

Optimisation
Mining Tab
l

Rename the pitshells node Base Case.

Before entering the cost information, we need to build up the mining cost model. In
this tutorial, we have the following information:

Base mining cost $1.50/tonne.

Mining cost increases 5c/10 metre bench below 230RL.

There are a number of ways to represent this data. In this tutorial, we are going to use the range function to enter an equation that will describe the mining cost adjustment factor.
Represent mining cost varying with depth using the range function.
This function is a standard function of the form R(IZ,MCAF,level,MCAF,level) which describes the
mining cost adjustment factor (MCAF) between two levels.
Two ways we will explore in this tutorial are described below.

Method 1. Using range function alone

In Excel, build up a table showing the RL crest, RL toe, IZ (block index in Z direction of model), Mining
Cost and MCAF (MCAF = Mining Cost/Mining Cost for mining at reference block).
Your table should look like the following example, but continue to the bottom of the model.
RL crest

RL toe

IZ

Mining Cost

MCAF

300

290

35

1.5

290

280

34

1.5

280

270

33

1.5

270

260

32

1.5

260

250

31

1.5

250

240

30

1.5

240

230

29

1.5

230

220

28

1.55

1.03

220

210

27

1.6

1.07

210

200

26

1.65

1.10

200

190

25

1.7

1.13

190

180

24

1.75

1.17

180

170

23

1.8

1.20

170

160

22

1.85

1.23

160

150

21

1.9

1.27

150

140

20

1.95

1.30

What we want to represent can be described as the following:

At the bottom of the model, use an MCAF of 1.93, then at level 2 use 1.9, then at level 3 use 1.87 etc
ect etc, then at level 27 use 1.07, then at level 28 use 1.03, then at level 29 and above use a value of
1 (up to the top of the model).
As an equation, you can build the range function using the format:
R(IZ,MCAF,level,MCAF,level, MCAF,level ,level, MCAF,level MCAF,level), for example:
R(IZ,1.93,2,1.90,3,1.87,4.............,27,1.07,28,1.03,29,1)
It is easy to build up this formula in Excel using the concatenate function.

Page 18 of 39

Optimisation

Method 2. Using line of best fit within a range function

For more examples using the Range function, see the Expression Button help topic in the Whittle
help.

Method 2. Using line of best fit within a range function

1.
2.
3.
4.

Create table as above in Excel.

Create line of best fit with linear part of table, below 230RL.
Highlight IZ and MCAF columns (below 230RL), Insert scattergraph.
Right click on plotted line, choose show line equation on graph.

In other words, the line should read MCAF = -0.0333 *IZ + 1.9667 and your graph should look like the
one below:

We can then use the range function and nest the line of best fit within the range function:
What we want to represent can be described as the following:
Up to the 230RL (level 29) use the equation MCAF = -0.0333 *IZ + 1.9667, for level 29 and thereafter
use a value of 1 (up to the top of the model).
As an equation, we can express this as:R(IZ,-0.0333*IZ+1.9667,29,1)

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

1. On the Mining tab, enter 1.5 for the Reference Mining Cost and change the radio button
to Calculate then press the function button at the right hand side of the entry box, this
will expose the expression builder.

The expression builder can be used to build expressions using a range of standard functions, variable, and special function.

Page 19 of 39

Optimisation

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

2. Type or copy the preferred expression, for example R(IZ,0.0333*IZ+1.97,29,1), into the expression builder dialog, then click the Check
Expression button.
3. If there are no errors, click OK in the expression builder to complete the Mining tab.

Your formula should now be shown in the Block mining cost adjustment factors section
of the Mining tab.

Or

Page 20 of 39

Optimisation

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

4. If the Rock-type mining CAFs are not set to 1 then set them each to 1.

5. Accept the changes on the Mining tab.

When you click Accept, the Data Synchronization form is shown.

6. Click Yes.
This dialog box confirms that you would like to copy the mining information down the
project tree to the economic analysis node. Because we want to analyse our pitshells
using the same criteria as was used to create them, we will always answer Yes to this
dialog in this tutorial.

Processing Tab
1. Click on the Processing tab and enter the information as shown below.
The Processing Paths have used the rocktypes in the model file and have been automatically filled out and assigned to the process MILL that we specified in the import wizard.
2. Use the Up and Down buttons to the right of the screen to order the Processing Paths in
logical order.

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Optimisation

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

3. If you see a blank table, you will have to manually create processing paths, assigning each
rocktype to the available process MILL by clicking the Add button on the right hand side
and entering the information in that dialog box.

4. Click Accept on the processing tab to save.

Selling tab
1. On the Selling tab, enter the Price to be obtained for the gold, in this case $800/oz or
$25.72/gram.
You can enter either value, just make sure that:
2. The units are correct for the entered price and
3. You have set the element units as grams on the Formats tab of the Block Model node.

This selling price does not include royalties, if royalties are payable, reduce the selling
price or add a selling cost.
Note: Selling prices are scaled by the revenue factor. Selling costs are not.

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Optimisation

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

Optimisation tab
1. Click Default on the Optimization tab.
We will produce approximately 50 nested pitshells at varying prices depending on the
revenue factors specified here. The revenue factors scale the entered selling price to
produce different pits that are optimal for different prices.

2. Click Accept.
3. Run the optimisation using the Run To command from the toolbar icons.

Output tab
Before analysing the results, we need to check the MCAFs were applied correctly.

Page 23 of 39

Optimisation

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

Then we will examine the output pitshells visually. Click on the Pitshells node and start the 3D
Viewer

To visually validate the MCAFs, do the following:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Snap to View XZ.

Show Data MCAF.
Show XZ Plane.
Click Info tab.
Click Show to float the information window, position it in the top right of the viewer.

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Optimisation

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

As you hover over the blocks in the visualiser, the information will be shown in the information window.
6. Check the MCAFs have been applied correctly.
7. Examine the pitshells visually by using the check box Show Pit and scrolling up and down
using the spinner directly to the right of the pit number or using the up and down arrows
on your keyboard.
You might also like to view the gold grades in an XY plane whilst viewing the pitshells.
8. Change the options as shown and use the left mouse button to orbit the view.
Tip: Left click to orbit, right click to pan, hold mouse wheel button down and move the
mouse forward or backward to zoom.

Note: The edge of the pit is right to the edge of the model. In this tutorial, we will
accept this. In reality, you must either extend the model in the GMP or use the reblocking
functionality in Whittle to do the extension. For more information, see the Whittle help
on Reblocking or contact your local Gemcom office for training options.
9. Click the red X in the top right to exit out of the viewer.
10. Go to the Output tab of the Pitshells node and view the range of pits created.

Page 25 of 39

Optimisation

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

We now need to determine the final pit and create some pushbacks for the deposit, but before going
to that stage, we will quickly examine the sensitivities of the deposit.

Page 26 of 39

Operational Scenario

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

Operational Scenario
The next step is to enter financial information into the New Operational Scenario node.
1. Go to the Operational Scenario node.
Notice that the Mining, Processing and Selling tabs are identical to those on the Pit
Shells node.
2. On the Time Costs tab, enter the following:
l Capital cost for project $10 million.
l Discount rate 8%.

3. On the Limits tab, enter the mining limit as 5,000,000 (tpa), the milling limit as 1,000,000
(tpa) and change the element limit units to the project units of grams.
We must do this even though we are not using this limit in this scenario. We also need to
set the throughput factors to 1 (The zeros are caused from the .par file which has been
exported from a GMP package).

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Operational Scenario

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

4. Accept the changes on the Operational Scenario node.

You should see a Pit by Pit graph already in the project tree under the Operational Scenario node.
5. If you dont see the Pit by Pit graph, right-click and Adda Pit by Pit graph.

Page 28 of 39

Sensitivity analysis

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

Sensitivity analysis
Note: You need to have the Advanced Analysis module to complete sensitivity analysis. If you do
not have this module, you cannot perform automatic sensitivity analysis.
We will examine the sensitivities of the deposit, using the revenue factor 1 pitshell Pit # 41, to give a
broad understanding of sensitivities. Later, we can examine sensitivities of specific schedules once we
have created them.
1. Add a Spider Graph node under the Operational Scenario using the right click Add
menu and enter the following information:
2. In the Values to vary section of the Definition tab, click the Add button and browse the
data selector for the following information:

3. Examine the Mining, Processing, and Output Groupings from the top left hand panel of
the Data S selector then choose the secondary grouping from the right, for example, to
select the mining capacity, you would select:

4. In the Values to display in output section, click Add/Edit and browse to the Discounted
open pit value (NPV). Click OK twice.

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Sensitivity analysis

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

5. Click Accept.
6. Run the Spider Graph node and examine the graph:

Page 30 of 39

Sensitivity analysis

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

You can see that for this project, the RF 1 pit is most sensitive to the following:
1. Price of gold.
2. Mining recovery.
3. Metallurgical recovery for FRESH material.

Page 31 of 39

Final pit and NPV Practical Pushbacks

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

Final pit and NPV Practical Pushbacks

Steps we will follow to determine the final pit and the set of NPV Practical Pushbacks are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Run pit by pit graph to determine likely pushbacks.

Run pit by pit graph again to determine final pit.
Run NPV Practical Pushbacks to determine mineable pushbacks.
Go to the Pit by Pit Graph node under the New Operational Scenario node.
Run the pit by pit graph.
You dont need to change anything. This graph will run an NPV analysis for each pitshell
using benchmark schedules worst case and best case.
Tip: Best and Worst Case are benchmark schedules and are not designed to be used as
realistic mine schedules. Best case schedule is onion skin type scheduling where each
successive pitshell is mined out before moving to the next. Worst case scheduling is
simply starting at the top bench of each pitshell and mining down. These two benchmark
schedules will give an upper and lower bound to the NPV for each pitshell.

6. Analyse the graph of the pit by pit graph output.

You can see the upper and lower NPV expectations, and the different pitshells that they
occur at. From this graph, we will choose a number of likely pushbacks. This will enable us
to plot a specified schedule and base a final pit decision on some more realistic pushbacks.
To get a more accurate NPV, we will choose a set of pushbacks to work with. The first will
come from the first section of the graph (pits 1-5) then a pushback from the next section
(6 29) then a pushback from the next tonnage jump (30-35).

Page 32 of 39

Final pit and NPV Practical Pushbacks

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

For this tutorial, we will use the middle of each section - 3, 18, 32 - then use these pushbacks to determine a likely final pit.
7. Copy the Pit by Pit Graph node using CTRL-C, CTRL-V (make sure the navigation tree is
highlighted in blue) or use the toolbar icons or use the right-click copy node, paste.
8. On the Schedule tab, enter the manual pushback definitions as below and use a fixed
lead of 7 as an approximation to the final mining schedule.
9. Click the Add button on the right hand side of the Specified Case Pushback Definitions
and enter the three pushbacks, separated by commas or spaces.

10. Accept the changes and run to the Pit by Pit Graph.
11. Now we can examine the pit by pit graph, paying attention to the green line the specified case which is the schedule we have defined, pushbacks 3, 18, 32 with a fixed lead of
7 benches between pushbacks.
From this graph, we can see that pitshells 35 41 will all deliver a similar NPV with our
three pushbacks.
12. Again, we will select the middle shell, pit shell 38 as our final pit.

Page 33 of 39

Final pit and NPV Practical Pushbacks

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

Create pushbacks
Note: You need to have the NPV Practical Pushbacks module to perform this step. If you do not
have this module, please continue using pitshells 3,18,32 and 38.
We now want to ensure that we have a practical, but high value set of pushbacks selected for our
given final pit, pit #38. To do this, we will use the NPV Practical Pushbacks module to generate pit
shells that satisfy mining width constraints but also target maximum NPV for the given pitshell.
1. Rename the New Schedule Graph node to NPV Practical Pushbacks.
2. Enter the following information on the Schedule and Mining Width tabs of the NPV Practical Pushbacks node:
Final pit 38, Scheduling Algorithm Fixed Lead 7, Pushback Definition Auto, Number
Pushbacks = 4 (3 pushbacks + final pit).
Mining Width = 40m, Override default template to allow 4 x 2 block template with a tolerance of 1

Page 34 of 39

Final pit and NPV Practical Pushbacks

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

3. Now, run the NVP Practical Pushbacks node using the Run To icon and examine the
results.
Note: It might take several minutes for the system to finish processing the pushbacks.
The Output tab will show the schedule output information for each period. The Graph
tab will show the same information graphically:

Page 35 of 39

Final pit and NPV Practical Pushbacks

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

Finally, the Summary tab will display the key indicators for the schedule including
expected NPV, and Internal Rate of Return.

Page 36 of 39

Final pit and NPV Practical Pushbacks

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

Now, we can use the 3D viewer to examine the shape of our pushbacks.
4. Click on the NPV Practical Pushbacks node and then click the 3D Viewer icon.

5. Choose to visualise the pitshells by clicking the RES button.

Page 37 of 39

Final pit and NPV Practical Pushbacks

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

Pushbacks 2 and 3 are very small and might be combined at design time, leaving three practical pushbacks.

Page 38 of 39

Congratulations

Entering the equations into the Mining tab

Congratulations
You have now completed the introductory tutorial. This information is not designed to replace an
introductory training course given by a qualified Gemcom consultant, but it is provided to demonstrate some of the basic features of the software. There are many more advanced analysis, scheduling and specialised modules available to develop a robust mine plan for your operation, as well as
specialised techniques that will enable you to work efficiently and effectively.
For more information, contact your local Gemcom office to discuss product modules or training
options.

Page 39 of 39