Quality tracking in storage locations (Ore Passes/ Dump areas, Storages and Cross-dock points)

When simulating ore quality tracking in storage locations (ore passes (Underground)/ dump areas (OpenPit), storages and Cross-dock points (CDPs), a distinction is made between "intermediate" and "final" storage locations.

Intermediate storage locations are ore passes/ dump areas and storages from which ore can be further transported along the haulage chain — meaning they have defined outflow connections. By definition, all Cross-dock points are also considered intermediate, as they are designed for transferring ore.

Final storages are ore passes/ dump areas and storages that receive ore as an end point and from which ore is not subsequently dispatched. Such ore passes/ dump areas and storages have no outflow connections. In intermediate ore passes/ dump areas and storages, mixing layers of different ore qualities would distort the logic of proper quality tracking — this can be particularly noticeable when a scenario is specifically designed for quality simulation. Therefore, for such intermediate ore passes/ dump areas and storages, and all CDPs, "ore layering" is implemented. This means that when ore arrives at, for example, an ore pass, it does not mix with the ore already present to achieve a uniform quality. Instead, it stacks on top. When loading from this ore pass begins, the ore that was deposited first is loaded first, followed by ore that arrived later. Consequently, the first and last tons unloaded from the ore pass may have different quality grades.

In intermediate ore passes/ dump areas, storages, and CDPs all layers are mixed once every modeled day only if the number of layers exceeds 10,000. (This is done to prevent performance degradation in unbalanced scenarios. For actively used storage locations, reaching such a number of layers is unlikely).

In final ore passes/ dump areas and storages storing layer by layer quality information is unnecessary, since no ore is dispatched from them. Therefore, in such ore passes/ dump areas and storages mixing, of all layers is simulated once every modeled day.