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• Main Authors: E Topal, M Kuchta, A Newman, G3
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2003
• Subjects: Arctic; Kiruna; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1069.8554; http://inside.mines.edu/%7Eanewman/apcom.pdf

LKAB's Kiruna Mine, located above the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden, is the second-largest underground mine in the world today. The orebody is a world-class high-grade magnetite deposit, from which three raw ore products are extracted. We use mixed integer programming to determine a production schedule, i.e., which production blocks to mine, and when to start mining them, so as to minimize deviation from planned production quantities while adhering to the operational constraints of the mine. The resulting model contains thousands of binary variables and a commensurate number of constraints, precluding us from obtaining a schedule in a reasonable amount of time. We describe a method that builds on prior, related work, to expedite solution time.