Optimizing the automation of an iron ore production line — A case study, Part I: Optimal automated logistics

The preprocessing part of an iron ore mining production line is being modelled, together with description of the algorithms for its optimization with respect to criteria and constraints corresponding to the relevant industrial standards. We use as a case study the production line of the international high-tech mining and processing company LKAB stationed in northern Sweden. The modelling is generic, i.e., the exposition constitutes a general description of the types of constraints, criteria, and mathematical algorithms without providing essential technological details which are intellectual property of LKAB. The exposition is divided into two parts, of which this is the first one, the second one being [1]. This first part is dedicated to optimal control of the transportation of crude ore from the blast surfaces to the starting point of the refinement phase of the processing part of the production line. The optimal control is based on a direct multigrid dynamical programming algorithm introduced in [2] and developed further in [3].