By Neville Judd
Mine planning has always played a critical role in mining operations, but today its importance extends far beyond production schedules and reserve models. As mining companies face tighter margins, increasing environmental scrutiny, and growing pressure to improve operational efficiency, the quality of a mine plan can directly influence long-term project success.
For Hexagon’s Ernesto Vivas, Principal MinePlan Advisor, that reality became clear early in his career. After two decades working with mining companies across the globe, he has seen firsthand how planning decisions shape everything from operational performance and sustainability outcomes to stakeholder trust and long-term viability.
Principal MinePlan Advisor, Ernesto Vivas, takes a break from supporting training at Mary River on Baffin Island, the northernmost open-pit mine in the world.
Mine planning is more than a technical exercise
When Vivas joined Mintec in 2005, working with what is now MinePlan 3D, his focus was primarily technical, supporting customers with life-of-mine plans, budgets, and schedules.
That perspective quickly changed.
Working closely with operations teams, environmental specialists, finance leaders, and regulators revealed a much broader truth: every assumption within a mine plan carries operational, financial, and social consequences.
Production targets, haulage assumptions, cut-off grades, and scheduling decisions influence:
- Capital investment decisions
- Environmental commitments
- Operational safety margins
- Community relationships
- Long-term project economics
In practice, a mine plan becomes more than a forecast. It becomes a commitment that guides decision-making across the entire operation.
“A mine plan is not just a plan,” says Vivas. “It is a promise.”
Register for Hexagon’s resource optimisation webinar series to discover how mining companies are improving planning accuracy, reducing waste movement, and maximising project value through smarter, data-driven decision-making across the mining lifecycle.
Lessons from mining operations around the world
Over the last 20 years, Vivas has worked with mining operations across a wide range of environments and commodities, from the Arctic conditions of Mary River on Baffin Island to operations across South America, Asia, Alaska, and the South Pacific.
Helping people see what’s possible when planning is done with clarity, honesty, and purpose keeps Ernesto motivated.
Despite the differences between sites, one challenge consistently emerges: how to improve operational value without compromising safety, sustainability, or social licence to operate.
In many cases, the biggest opportunities are not hidden in large-scale transformations or entirely new technologies. Instead, they are found by revisiting long-standing assumptions and improving visibility into operational trade-offs.
Mine planning plays a central role in uncovering these opportunities because it sits at the intersection of geology, economics, productivity, and sustainability.
Planning decisions can unlock hidden value
Mining operations often rely on planning approaches that feel familiar and low risk. While these methods may achieve production targets, they do not always expose inefficiencies or identify the most valuable operational outcomes.
Vivas has seen many operations where plans met expectations on paper but carried unnecessary operational costs, particularly around waste movement, haulage, and scheduling balance.
Effective planning does not simply confirm existing assumptions. It helps operations understand the full picture and make better-informed decisions.
“Value is often buried in the assumptions we stop questioning,” he says.
Reducing waste movement at Peña Colorada
One example that highlights the impact of improved planning comes from Peña Colorada, one of Mexico’s largest iron ore operations.
Like many mining companies, the operation faced declining ore grades and increasing pressure to improve both profitability and environmental performance. Traditional planning methods, however, were masking inefficiencies within waste movement and haulage requirements.
By revisiting and optimising their life-of-mine scheduling approach, the operation identified opportunities to significantly reduce unnecessary waste movement while still meeting ore production targets.
The results included:
- Tens of millions of tonnes less waste mined between 2019 and 2023
- Lower haulage requirements and operating costs
- Reduced CO₂ equivalent emissions
- Improved overall project economics
The value came not from cutting corners, but from improving visibility into the system and making more informed operational decisions.
Smarter optimisation creates stronger outcomes
In another example, a mining operation preparing a five-year budget relied on single-period optimisation because it was faster and more familiar for the planning team.
By testing multi-period optimisation instead, the operation uncovered opportunities to improve cut-off grades, balance schedules more effectively, and strengthen overall project value, without significantly increasing planning time.
Experiences like this reinforce an important lesson for modern mining operations: improving outcomes does not always require greater complexity. Sometimes it starts with asking better questions and challenging assumptions that have gone untested for years.
Building trust through transparency and data
As mining companies continue their digital transformation journeys, technology is becoming increasingly important in helping planners evaluate trade-offs, assess risk, and improve operational confidence.
However, technology alone is not the solution. According to Vivas, the real value of planning technology lies in its ability to expose assumptions clearly and support more transparent decision-making.
“Technology is a mirror, it reflects the assumptions we feed into it,” he says.
When planners trust the data and tools available to them, they can communicate more confidently with operational leaders and external stakeholders. That transparency becomes increasingly valuable as mining companies navigate growing scrutiny around sustainability, permitting, and operational accountability.
The future of mine planning requires adaptability
Mining conditions are becoming more complex across the globe. Environmental regulations are tightening, permitting processes are becoming more demanding, and stakeholder expectations continue to rise.
In environmentally sensitive regions such as New Caledonia, where operations face strict oversight and sustainability requirements, effective planning becomes even more critical. Under these conditions, inefficiencies and unnecessary waste movement can have significant operational and environmental consequences.
As a result, the role of the mine planner is evolving.
Today’s most effective planners are not only technical specialists. They are systems thinkers who can adapt quickly, challenge assumptions, and balance operational, environmental, and economic priorities simultaneously.
Successful planning requires continuous refinement, operational awareness, and the flexibility to respond to changing conditions.
Tougher government regulations and increased public scrutiny have elevated responsible reclamation to be a higher priority across the industry. It’s especially relevant in New Caledonia, where mines operate under the added oversight of UNESCO.
Planning for a more sustainable mining future
Modern mine planning has become a key driver of operational performance, sustainability, and stakeholder trust. Better planning helps mining companies reduce waste, improve productivity, lower emissions, and make more confident long-term decisions.
For Vivas, helping mining teams uncover those opportunities remains the most rewarding part of the job.
“When we plan better, we operate better.”
As mining companies continue to navigate industry transformation, the ability to build clear, adaptable, and trusted mine plans will only become more important.
To read Ernesto Vivas’ first-person perspective on mine planning, operational trust, and mining transformation, subscribe to Shift for exclusive thought leadership from across Hexagon and its customer community.