TWO NECESSARY APPROACHES

Loading and Haulage System Design

Loading and Haulage System Management
SYSTEM MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
Management and Optimization of a mobile fleet at any mining operation is at the core of
productivity and cost improvement strategies. Implementation of an integrated approach to fleet
optimization, scheduling and management as well as a big investment in vehicle health
monitoring and supervision coupled with efficient maintenance tactics constitute the best route to
a highly productive fleet. Focusing on one item, optimization is used to allocate trucks to shovels
while incorporating all necessary variables.

ELEMENTS OF AN INTEGRATED FLEET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

1. FLEET MONITORING
- Remote supervision
- Haulage optimization
- Turn by turn navigation
- Proximity alarms
- Real time web reporting
2. MACHINE GUIDANCE SYSTEM
- Dozer/truck proximity alarms
- Dozer/truck dynamic digital terrain mode
- Shovel elevation control
- Shovel 3D material delineation
- Drill stake less drilling
3. MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
- Real time asset health monitoring
- Root cause analysis
- User defined alarms
- Time tracking
- RCM data collection
4. PRODUCTION TRACKING SYSTEM
- Automated production recording
- Accurate time tracking
- Onboard mine map
- Optional control room operators
5. POSITION AND SAFETY TRACKING SYSTEM
- Area access control
- Continuous speed monitoring
- Onboard mine map
- Portable position tracking
- Hazard detection

OPEN PIT MINING EQUIPMENT

[ CITATION Adl92 \l 1033 ] The number and sizes of equipment for drilling, blasting, loading, and
haulage of open pit ore and waste are the major influential factors to the capital and operating
costs of open pit mines.
Size and Number of Open pit Drills
[ CITATION Adl92 \l 1033 ] Parameters namely hole size and diameter and number of drills required
all depend on the tonnage of ore and waste to be drilled off daily. A formula for estimating tons
of ore or waste that is drilled off by a drill with a hole diameter of d inches in medium-drillable
rock, with a penetration rate of 152m per shift is:
Tons of ore or waste Tp per day = 170 d2 ..2.1
For easily drillable rock, Tp per day = 230 d2 2.2
For hard drilling rock, Tp per day = 100 d2....2.3
Standard drill hole diameters are 102, 165, 200, 250, 270, 310, 336, and 380 mm; therefore drill
selection will be limited to one of these sizes. Two drills of appropriate diameter should be
chosen for tonnages up to 25,000 tpd (22.7 kt/day), while three drill should be enough for up to
60,000 tpd (54.4 kt/day), and four or more drills will be required for daily tonnages above
60,000.
Size and Number of Shovels Required
[ CITATION Adl92 \l 1033 ] The optimum shovel S in cubic yards of dipper size in relation to daily
tonnage of ore and waste (Tp) to be loaded daily is:
S = 0.145 Tp0.4 ...............................................................................................2.4
Same formula in cubic meters is:
S = 0.111 Tp0.4 (after multiplying by a conversion factor of 0.765).2.5
The number of shovels Ns with dipper size S required to load a daily total of Tp tons of ore and
waste becomes:
Ns = 0.011 (Tp)0.8/ S .2.6
After selecting a shovel with dipper size close to the calculated value from equations 2.4 or 2.5,
the number of required shovels, which usually comes out a fraction should be rounded off to the
nearest smaller unit number. The omitted fractional number indicates the need for a smaller
shovel or front end loader which is still capable to load into trucks previously loaded by shovels
of dipper size S.
Size and Number of Trucks Required
The optimum truck size t in tons that matches shovels of S bucket size in cubic yards is
1.1
t=9.0 S .2.7
In cubic meters,
1.1
t=6.88 S ..2.8
The total number of trucks Nt of t tons capacity to constitute the open pit truck fleet, plus an
allowance for trucks under repair, is approximated using the formula:
Nt = 0.25 Tp0.8/t................................................................................2.9
The above formula for Nt is generally applied under the typical conditions where the average
haulage distance as gradient inside the pit periphery is less than the haulage distance and gradient
inside the pit periphery. In cases where the waste and ore dumps over the primary crusher are
well removed from the pit boundaries, or instances where the haulage road beyond the pit has a
steep gradient, the truck fleet size may be increased to allow for the longer trip time per load.

QUEUING THEORY
[ CITATION Adl92 \l 1033 ] Queuing problems deal with the determination of the optimum number
of servers, efficiency of the servers, and the required number of service facilities. In a truck-
shovel mining operation, queuing theory can help suggest the optimum arrangement of trucks
and shovels or assist in the initial selection of trucks and shovels. Four major components
common to most queuing models as shown in figure 2.1 are: arrivals, queues or waiting lines,
service facilities and departures.
The determination of the number of service facilities and queue priorities which minimizes cost
is the waiting line optimization problem. A company can incur cost if it has idle severs (such as
shovels) or having too many customers (trucks) waiting to be served.

EQUIPMENT SELECTION PROCESS

[ CITATION Adl92 \l 1033 ] A number of factors affect the selection of equipment. Among them
there is:
Production: This refers to the total weight (in terms of ore) or total volume (in terms of
waste) to be handled on a mining operation.
Production rate: This is the theoretical production weight or volume of a machine per
unit time. Time can be per hour, shift or day.
Productivity: This is the actual production per unit of time after considering all
efficiency and other management factors. Also referred to as net production rate, or
production per unit of labor and time.
Efficiency: Refers to the percentage of the estimated production rate that is actually
handled by the machine.
Availability: Refers to that portion of the scheduled operating time that a machine is at
the disposal of the intended task.
Utility: This is the portion of the available time that a machine is actually working.
Capacity: Denotes the volume of material that a loading or hauling unit can hold at any
particular time. Capacity can either be struck or heaped.
Rated capacity: The load that a machine is designed to carry in terms of weight.
Swell factor: This is the fractional increase in the volume of material when broken and
removed from its in situ state (bank volume) and deposited in a in a loosened state (loose
volume).
Bucket fill factor: This is an adjustment to the bucket capacity of a loading machine. Its
a decimal that corrects the capacity of the bucket to the actual volume of material that it
moves. This actual volume is determined through factoring in material heaping
characteristics, angle of repose, and the skill of the operator in filling the bucket.
Cycle: This is the sum of one complete duration of a series of production steps in the
mining process.
Objective of Equipment Selection
[ CITATION Adl92 \l 1033 ] The main aim is to select a machine or combination of machines capable
of moving a specified amount of material over a known distance within a given time.
Minimization of cost may be stated as a goal but most designs make use of a minimum
acceptable rate of return which must not be exceeded by the estimated costs.

BASIC SELECTION STEPS

1. Determine the required production.
Production requirements are affected by sales projections, contracts, amount of available
reserves and other operations of the company in question. Total production is initially
determined annually but should then be converted into daily and hourly production rates
for the individual operations.
2. Determine reach or haul path.
Reach is the maximum horizontal distance over which a machine can either load or
dump. Haul path is the both the distance and corresponding grade on the path over which
mobile machinery must travel. One primary consideration in determining haul path is
topography.
3. Calculate cycle time.
Cycle time for any operation can comprise two components. First category has fixed
tasks such as turning, spotting, dumping, and loading. Equipment manufacturers give
estimates of times taken to complete each of these fixed components of the cycle. The
estimates are based on experience and are specified for varying equipment model and job
conditions. The variable cycle time component involves travel time for mobile equipment
or swing time for fixed base equipment. Travel time is so variable since it is controlled by
the haul distance, geometry of the haul path and the speed of the vehicle. The speed in
turn is a function of available power, total resistance, and load. The swing angle controls
swing time.
4. Calculate capacity
Production rate = capacity * (number of cycles/unit time)2.10
Having considered all efficiency factors,
Productivity = production rate * efficiency factors....2.11
5. Iterate to improve productivity.
Further refinements need to be done to optimize productivity. Capacity calculated may
not be achievable with the machinery class determined hence the need to adjust cycle
time which would then require further refinement of the design capacity. A number of
iterations need to be done to produce a number of loading and haulage alternatives for
cost comparison.
6. Calculate fleet size
Previous assumption was that there is going to be one loading and hauling unit for the
entire haulage system but this compromises on fleet productivity in cases of
 unavailability. As a result more than one piece of equipment must be selected so that if
one piece is unavailable production wont come to a stand-still.
7. Iterate to reduce owning and operating costs.
A cost comparison is made in order to determine the best fleet choice based on total cost
per unit of production. Total cost per unit production is a function of owning cost,
operating cost and useful life. Furthermore, computer simulation should be done to deal
with assumptions inherent in the deterministic equipment selection algorithms as well as
to provide less approximate production and cost estimates. Simulation doesnt only
provide straight forward comparisons but also provide a platform for identifying potential
system changes that results in better alternatives.