Underground: The system simulates mining with any combination of longwall, continuous/conventional miner, miner borer or roadheader. Each mining unit can have its own mining rate, either in tonnage or in linear advance. The tonnages per shift can be specified as total material remove or processed tonnage. Each miner unit can have its own calendar and production capacity. An exception routine allows the mining rate to vary from month to month. A mining area can be divided into subareas to allow more than one miner unit to work within an area and each mining area or sub-area can have its own mining rate. The system also allows the user to specify a time offset between areas for construction or to move equipment. The system has provisions to adjust the mining rate as a function of difficulty code and seam height.

The simulated production model computes the advance and average quality parameters per time period using an iterative process. The parameter estimates are exact weighted averages based on the proportion of each grid block within the area mined each period.

Most mine plans must be adjusted to meet budget requirements. Where longwalls provide the bulk of the production, the longwall schedule can be adjusted automatically by modifying the machine calendars and production rates until the target tonnage is achieved. Based on the longwall schedule, the system will adjust the development machine calendars to reflect the shifting of crews for longwall moves. The timing is then run for all machines. Normally the total tonnage will be within an acceptable margin of the budget requirements. If the schedule does not meet the tonnage criteria, the user can adjust the longwall targets and repeat the scheduling process.