This work focuses on the problem of blending iron ore products, at the Cauê mine stockyard, of Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, in the state of Minas Gerais, for the formation of lots. It consists in elaborating a linear goal programming model that seeks to determine the areas to recapture the stored ore in such a way that the blending of products be in conformity with the quality specification required by the customer. This work is a case study of an applied nature. The mathematical programming model was developed with the support of the optimization software LINGO 9.0 in conjunction with EXCEL 2000 spreadsheets, making it possible to handle and export data in formats used by the mining company. With the purpose of validating the implemented system, the results obtained by the system were compared with real data. These results proved that is possible to improve the composition of the product lots applying the proposed model.
Ore blending; goal programming; ore stockyard
