Niel Knoblauch

Great question. As an APC engineer, it would make sense to me that this is done to obtain a near-consistent feed to a plant/process, which is within the specifications a plant was designed for. Blending now might be more cost effective than processing all the "yummy ore" now, and then altering the operation (R&D, design, equipment) to a different operating region.

The fact that one would not like to mine low-grade ore and sit with it in a stockpile not generating any revenue. One doesn't always have control over what's being mined, and what comes out/up must earn money ASAP.

Any comments?

Great comment, thanks Mark. I'd love to hear from more people here.

I can associate with all 3. Being involved in APC & process optimisation myself, I find it striking how the "softer" aspects of the work (communication, data analysis) often take up more time than operational improvement projects and keeping the plant running (I guess here it depends on one's role).

Perhaps those of us used to streamlining processes might do well to look into automating lower level data processing/analysis and exploring tools that might aid on-site communication.

Thanks again, Mark.
The rest? An alternative perspective? Something to add?