Journal Pre-proof

Evaluating and Optimizing the Effectiveness of Mining Equipment; the case of

Chibuluma South Underground Mine

Brighton Samatemba, Long Zhang, Bunda Besa

PII: S0959-6526(19)34567-6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119697
Reference: JCLP 119697

To appear in: Journal of Cleaner Production

Received Date: 10 November 2019

Accepted Date: 11 December 2019

Please cite this article as: Brighton Samatemba, Long Zhang, Bunda Besa, Evaluating and
Optimizing the Effectiveness of Mining Equipment; the case of Chibuluma South Underground
Mine, Journal of Cleaner Production (2019), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119697

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© 2019 Published by Elsevier.

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Evaluating and Optimizing the Effectiveness of Mining Equipment; the case of Chibuluma
South Underground Mine

Brighton Samatemba1
School of Economics and Management
China University of Geosciences (Beijing)
Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China
Brighton.samatemba4@gmail.com

Long Zhang2, *(Corresponding Author)

School of Economics and Management
China University of Geosciences (Beijing)
Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China
zhanglongdragon@hotmail.com

Bunda Besa3
School of Mines
University of Zambia
Marshlands, Lusaka 32379, Zambia
bbesa@unza.zm
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Evaluating and Optimizing the Effectiveness of Mining Equipment; the case of Chibuluma
South Underground Mine

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Evaluating and Optimizing the Effectiveness of Mining Equipment; the case of Chibuluma
South Underground Mine

ABSTRACT
The effectiveness of mining equipment is a huge challenge in mining which affects mining
companies’ competitive advantage in the global mining sector. It is therefore, very important for
the mining industry to utilize its intensive equipment with proper measurements. In this paper an
algorithm has been developed using Rstudio software to determine and evaluate the sensitive
inputs to the life cycle of mining equipment as well as determine and analyze the Overall
Equipment Effectiveness as a measure to use in evaluating and optimizing the effectiveness of
mining equipment. The algorithm was validated in the fact that the trends of the sensitive inputs
to the equipment life cycle were determined. The most sensitive inputs to the equipment life
cycle such as process cycle times, utilization, maintainability, performance and production
efficiencies of drill rigs, loaders and dump trucks were all evaluated and the overall equipment
effectiveness was found to be below 50 percent for all the three types of equipment. The model
developed in this paper is an algorithm with code that’s reproducible and reusable with a few
changes of variables for an underground mine. The algorithm uses equipment operational records
for effective planning and optimizing of mine production operations.

Keywords: Optimization, Mining and Technology, Equipment Management, Equipment

Productivity using R, OEE

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1.0 INTRODUCTION
Equipment selection and optimization is one of the most challenging problems in the mining
industry today, especially matching the correct number of equipment required to the amount of
ore to be hauled. In mining ore production involves drilling, loading and hauling. Chibuluma
South underground mine was chosen as the case study due to its modernization and use of
trackless equipment. The utilization of its equipment was used to figure out a way to optimize
the equipment and reduce the overall cost of materials handling. The problem of equipment
optimization is often cascaded by the intermediate parameters. Using a piece of equipment
effectively depends on its utilization, availability and the age of the equipment. The main
objectives of a mining operation are to produce resources at the minimum possible cost and
equipment selection and productivity play a major role at ensuring this is possible because
materials handling is a very costly operation in the mining industry. The future of most industries
today is in the industry’s effective use of technology and the mining industry is not an exception
to this phenomenon. This paper focuses on using Rstudio software to develop a productive and
effective algorithm that will be used as an important tool for equipment optimization and
effectiveness at Chibuluma mine as well as other mining companies and reduce the overall cost
of materials handling. The cost of haulage operations in mines is on the rise due to the longer
haul routes and higher fuel consumption necessitated by deepening mines (Park and Choi, 2016)
and Chibuluma mine is currently more than 600 meters below the surface with a haul route of
more than 3km.Various techniques have been developed to date by many researchers (Ercelebi,
S.G.; Bascetin, A, 2009) to optimize the haulage system which form a considerable part of
mining costs. The analysis of the rate of operation in terms of loading equipment, ore yield, and
rate of return based on the transporting equipment, and the proposal of a model to optimize the
number and combination of the equipment deployed. (Salama, A.; Greberg, J., 2012) did a
simulation on a loading-haulage system to optimize the number of trucks used in an underground
mine, and proposed a system operation plan to improve the efficiency of the haulage system.
According to studies that have so far been conducted we can easily tell that a productive and
optimal haulage equipment forms a very important part of the mining operation and since
modern equipment is capital intensive and increasingly sophisticated, it is important that it stays
in revenue generating jobs and be highly efficient and effective in its available time. There are
several available means of ensuring that the equipment is achieving the factors that lead to better
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asset management which include but are not limited to increase in utilization rate, higher
reliability and effective maintainability. Since it is well known that these factors differ
considerably in terms of the sustained cost to equipment effectiveness ratio, it is, therefore, very
important to know the exact areas where efforts need to be focused in order to improve the
equipment effectiveness as whatever gets measured, gets done (Campbell et al, 2015).

1.1 Background of Equipment Optimization at Chibuluma South Mine

The selected site was Chibuluma South Mine which is located at latitude 12°53ʼS and longitude
28°05ʼE approximately 15 km west of Kitwe on the Copperbelt province of Zambia. Chibuluma
mine is owned by Jinchuan Group Company Limited with 85% shares and Zambia Consolidated
Copper Mines (ZCCM) with 15% shares and it is operated by Metorex group of companies
(Mine Reports, 2016). The town of Kalulushi was developed in the 1950s by Roan Selection
Trust (RST) to support the Chibuluma East and West mines. The mine has its main operating
asset the Chibuluma south and under development is the Chifupu ore body which is
approximately 1.7 km south west of Chibuluma south mine. Chibuluma south mine is an
underground mine capable of treating up to 50,000 tonnes of Run off Mine ore per month and is
located in Kalulushi town of Zambia. The main products of the mine are copper and cobalt
which are usually exported as processed ore after metallurgical treatment. Chibuluma Mine was
selected due to its modernization and use of trackless equipment.

1.2 Importance and Significance of Research

The mine is a modern mine which is designed to use trackless equipment therefore, measuring
the factors influencing the equipment effectiveness and thorough analysis of well-defined
performance indicators will allow the mine to assess the progress of improvement initiatives and
prioritize resources. In the mining industry, equipment optimization or effectiveness is mostly
associated with both its utilization and availability but the impacts of the aforementioned factors
are not that substantial compared to other factors which are usually ignored in the mining
industry as well as at Chibuluma Mine in this case.

The objective of this paper is to develop a stochastic equipment life cycle model to determine the
productivity of equipment for mining companies with two main areas of focus;

1) Determination of the most sensitive inputs to the life cycle of the equipment;
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2) Equipment life cycle model to estimate the optimization of the equipment based on
availability, utilization and production efficiency.

1.3 Stages of Equipment Life

In order to develop a reliable and effective equipment life cycle model, the stages of equipment
life have to be defined. Equipment life can be defined using three different variables namely
physical life, economic life and profit life (Mitchell, 1998). Both the physical and economic life
must be calculated when considering equipment life because they provide an effective equipment
replacement analysis, on which major equipment replacement decisions are made (Douglass,
1975) and the profit life can then be calculated from the information taking note of the
depreciation, downtime, investment, maintenance and repairs of which these factors are also
integral to replacement analysis (Gransberg et al, 2006). All three stages of equipment life can be
compared in accordance with Figure 1.0 which helps illuminate the relationship amongst the
three stages where it can be clearly seen that it takes some time for a newly acquired equipment
to cover the capital cost of its procurement cost. When it covers its procurement cost it then goes
into a phase where it earns its maximum profit just before finishing into a phase where it’s
productive time costs more than it earns due to repairs and maintenance during operational
hours. Therefore, mines need to have tools which will help them determine a point in time when
the equipment needs replacing either by purchase or lease based on the usage plan of a particular
equipment.

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Insert Figure 1 about here
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1.3.1 Physical Life

The physical life in this research paper will be taken as the service life of the equipment. This
phase of the equipment life is largely impacted by repair and maintenance (Gransberg et al,
2006) and comes to an end when the equipment is no longer operational. Preventive maintenance
is a very important part of this physical life because it determines how long a piece of equipment
will last. From experience a well serviced equipment usually has a longer lifespan compared to
one which is not serviced at all.

1.3.2 Profit Life

The profit life is the time when an equipment earns more than the maintenance and repair costs
as well as more than its cost to own and operate. According to (Douglass, 1978) this is the most
desirable time of owning and operating the equipment. When major components of the
equipment wear out, then the equipment moves into a phase where it is no longer profitable and a
decision to replace it is made by its owner. It is therefore, important for mining companies to be
able to estimate this time period so as to maximize on production and equipment efficiency.

1.3.3 Economic Life

The economic life is the period when the ownership costs are equivalent to the operating costs.
Economic life is based on decreasing ownership costs and increasing operating costs (Mitchell,
1998) meaning that when the operating costs become more than the ownership costs then a piece
of equipment is costing more to operate than own. Therefore, to maximize on profits a piece of
equipment should be planned to be replaced before it reaches the economic life.

1.3.4 Life-cycle Cost Analysis

The equipment life-cycle cost analysis consists of equipment replacement analysis and models,
life-cycle costs and equipment decision procedures. Life-cycle costs for equipment consist of
ownership and operating costs. Operating costs include but not limited to operator costs, repair
and maintenance, tire and tire repair costs and fuel (Gransberg, 2006) while ownership costs
include but also not limited to investment costs, storage costs, taxes, depreciation costs,
insurance and initial costs (Peurifoy and Schexnayder, 2002). This research utilized a stochastic
model because stochastic functions improve the accuracy of life-cycle costs.

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2.0 METHODOLOGY

The profit life in equipment calendar hours will be one of the tools that will be used in this paper
to determine the effectiveness and optimization of equipment in ensuring that maximum profit is
gained from the deploying of a piece of equipment. The Chibuluma South Mine equipment data
is the one mainly utilized in this research to conduct the analysis to determine the optimal profit
life of the equipment. The equipment life-cycle models have been proposed according to
Peurifoy and Schexnayder (2002).

2.1 Overall Equipment Effectiveness

One of the tools that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of mining equipment is a tool
called the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) Index which was developed by the Japan
Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM). This was proposed by Seiichi Nakajima to measure the
effectiveness of equipment in the manufacturing industry (Nakajima, 1988). For manufacturing
industries OEE is defined generally as follows;

𝑂𝐸𝐸 = 𝑎𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 × 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 × 𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 eqn (1)

Where;

𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑢𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒

𝐴𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 (𝐴) = 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠 × 100 eqn (2)

𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡
𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 (𝑃𝑟) = 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 (𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑) 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 × 100 eqn (3)

𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡
𝑄𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 (𝑄) = 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 × 100 eqn (4)

However, for these equations to be applied in the mining industry some slight modifications need
to be made for them to suit. The most difficult to define in the mining industry is the quality rate,
which seems more relevant and applicable to drill rigs in terms of hole deviations as well as
jams. However, this is less relevant to dump trucks and loaders although for this study it was
measured as the number of loads of ore that was moved successfully without much delays
associated with stoppages or equipment failure hence, referred to as production efficiency rather
than quality rate. The performance rate in the mining industry is similar to the utilization rate and
is necessarily referred to as such, hereby, leading to the following equations;

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𝑂𝐸𝐸 = 𝑎𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 × 𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 × 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 eqn (5)

Where;

𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑢𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒

𝐴𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 (𝐴) = 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠 × 100 eqn (6)

𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠 ― 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑏𝑦 (𝑖𝑑𝑙𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠) ― 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒

𝑈𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 (𝑈) = 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠 ― 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 × 100 eqn (7)

𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒

𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 (𝑃𝑒) = (𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑢𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 ― 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑏𝑦(𝑖𝑑𝑙𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠)) × 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 × 100 eqn (8)

Where;

Pe = Production efficiency;

𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠 ― (𝑆ℎ𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑀𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠)

𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 =
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑠 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠

There is need to have a clear understanding of the factors above and their impact on the
equipment effectiveness in order to help know which areas require optimization efforts and
focus, at Chibuluma south mine and the mining industry at large.

2.1.1 Availability of Equipment

Equipment availability is one of the most widely used factors in the evaluation of equipment
effectiveness in the mining industry including Chibuluma South Mine. It is widely used because
of its simplicity in terms of its applicability as well as understanding. Availability is defined as
the ratio of the time during which an equipment is capable of performing its functions (actual
running time) to the total number of hours in a given period (total hours). However, there is no
industry agreement on the definition of the input parameters such as the number of hours,
different mines have different operating shifts. Chibuluma South Mine operates three 8 hours
shifts resulting in a 24 hours operating period per day for 7 days a week. The scheduled
equipment operating hours are used as inputs. Availability depends on reliability and
maintainability (Dhillon, 2008) which are both functions of several other factors such as Mean
Time Before Failure (MTBF), equipment waiting times etc.

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2.1.2 Utilization of Equipment

Equipment utilization refers to the time an equipment is used to perform its functions during its
available time. During the time the equipment is in the running state, it’s rarely entirely used to
perform the functions it was designed to do throughout the time. Sometimes the equipment is
designated as a back-up unit, it may also be idle due to the lack of an operator or due to the
process cycles. The values of equipment utilization largely depend on input data which most of
the times comes from the onboard instruments of the equipment. Unfortunately, this is not the
case for some values at Chibuluma South Mine as the underground equipment lack these
instruments therefore, the load weight and time measures are done using an external equipment
installed at the open pit or portal entrance and exit point. However, the values obtained in this
manner are usually subject to a bias of their own. They are mostly rough estimates which require
an accurate availability follow up which is also currently deficient at the mine, resulting in a
utilization record which is biased. Equipment utilization only gives a partial picture of the
equipment effectiveness due to the lack of assurance of reasonable input data. Downtime is one
of the factors that plays an important role in equipment utilization (Dhillon, 2008). However,
downtime itself is even a more complex concept to clearly understand because it is interpreted in
several different ways and depends on a lot of factors. It is usually related to equipment
reliability whose measure is connected to the Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF). The Mean
Time Between Failures or Mean Time Between Shutdowns (MTBS) includes all interruptions
due to equipment failure or maintenance procedures regardless of their nature. Although the
MTBF has some constraints of its own such as when the operation does not reflect the adequate
quantity of useful work undertaken by the equipment. Then the expressed MTBF in the unit of
time is inadequate but it is worth noting that it is one of the adequate measures of equipment
effectiveness although it is not used by a lot of mines, it is in-fact recorded at Chibuluma South
Mine. Downtime is not limited to active maintenance during which some preventive
maintenance is carried out on the equipment but there is more such as waiting periods and
unexpected equipment breakdowns etc. Therefore, reliable information comprising all the
components of downtime duration is a key factor in identifying and eliminating the processes
responsible for the most time losses which lead to poor equipment effectiveness.

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2.1.3 Production Efficiency

Production efficiency is a very important measure of a company’s performance in that it requires

the minimization of costs and the maximization of profits for a given level of output (Dhillon,
2008). In the manufacturing industry efficiency makes the best of a company’s resources. An
efficient company will produce a greater number of quality products with less waste, using less
energy and other resources during a given period as compared to an inefficient one. A machine’s
production efficiency depends on several factors such as an operator’s motivation, attitude, skill
level and the training the operator receives pertinent to the equipment. However, a machine with
an ideal operator in charge of the controls can still underperform due to factors pertinent to the
equipment itself such as hydraulic pump issues, air pressure problems and several other factors
that make the equipment perform below the Original Equipment Manufacturers’ (OEM)
technical specifications.

In the mining industry the operating conditions usually differ from the ones assumed by the
Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). This is due to different mine designs of development
ends as well as roadway designs. Therefore, the OEM rated capacity may not be achieved in the
mining industry in comparison to the manufacturing industry. A machine’s rated capability and
its actual output can be very different and a little confusing (Gillerspie, and Hyde, 2004).
However, an equipment is supposed to work, with an assurance of quality and at the right pace.
Some equipment may record well enough operational hours to generate acceptable revenue by
generating work which is the main concern in the mining industry while still underperforming
(running below rated capacity) due to poor management strategies. At Chibuluma South Mine
the assessment of the revenue generating work achieved by a machine is compared to the rated
capacities of the machine. To help evaluate a few other factors such as how much bonus would
be allocated to operators and the safety factor for the calculation of the safety allowance and
future reference as safety is very cardinal to mining.

2.2 Data Collection

2.2.1 Primary Data
The data utilized in this research were collected from Chibuluma South Mine. This was done
through various ways including but not limited to the use of questionnaires and interviews with
the mine staff such as equipment operators, maintenance engineers, mining engineers, control
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room personnel, as well as the mine planning department and management. Fieldwork to record
and observe equipment operation for data validation and elimination of biasness was conducted.
The questionnaires were very short and precise to help in the reduction of confusion and biasness;
the completed questionnaires were collected and analyzed.

2.2.2 Secondary Data and Analysis

Mine reports, equipment checklists, books related to the topic, articles from journals and the
worldwide web were consulted for other sources of information on mining equipment
performance evaluation related reports. The information in this paper was evaluated using
Rstudio (Version 3.5.0) and the results were then compared to the set standards at Chibuluma
South Mine. The graphs were designed with the help of Rstudio’s dplyr (Hadley Wickham, et al,
2019), readbulk (Kieslich and Henninger, 2016) and tidyverse packages (Hadley Wickham,
2017). An algorithm (Figure 2) was developed to assist with the data analysis.

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3.0 DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

DATA ANALYSIS
3.1 Process Cycle Times
Since equipment availability is one of the most important concepts of this research as the
utilisation of equipment depends on it. Equipment availability is derived as shown in equation (6)
above but it can also be expressed as in equation (9) below;

𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝐴𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 ― 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐷𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒

𝐴𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 = 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 × 100 eqn (9)

Where;
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 = 𝑂𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 + 𝐼𝑑𝑙𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 ― 𝑈𝑛𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑠

3.1.1 Drill Rigs

The cycle starts with drilling followed by loading and finally ends with hauling to the run of
mine (ROM) pad for processing. Some of the parameters for drilling are discussed in this section
while other parameters for drill rigs and the other equipment are discussed in the subsequent
sections;

a) Time taken to drill one support hole;

𝐴𝑣𝑒 𝑆𝐷𝐶𝑇 = 𝐴𝑣𝑔 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑇𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑇𝑜 𝐷𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑛𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑒 + 𝐴𝑣𝑔 𝑆𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 + Delays (10)
Where;
Ave SDCT= Average support hole drilling cycle time

b) Time taken to drill one hole at the face;

𝐴𝑣𝑒 𝑇𝑇𝐷𝐹𝐻 = 𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑛𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑒 + 𝑠𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 + Delays
Where;
TTDFH = average time taken to drill one face hole.

c) Average time taken to drill one stope hole;

𝑛
∑1(𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠 + 𝑠𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠 + 𝐷𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑠)
𝐴𝑣𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 =
𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠
Where:
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n = number of holes drilled.

3.1.2 Loaders
The cycle time for a loader is given as in equation 11 below;
𝐿𝐶𝑇 = 𝐷𝐷𝑃 + 𝐷𝐿𝑃 + 𝑇𝑇𝐿 + 𝑇𝑇𝐷 equation (11)
Where;
𝐿𝐶𝑇 = 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒, (min);
𝐷𝐿𝑃 = 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡, (𝑠);
𝐷𝐷𝑃 = 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡, (𝑠);
𝑇𝑇𝐿 = 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑, (𝑠);
𝑇𝑇𝐷 = 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑤, (𝑠);
Whereas the loading time is calculated as in equation 12;
𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 = 𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝐶𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 × 𝑁𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 𝐵𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑡 𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑠 equation (12)

3.1.3 Dump Trucks

For this research, the cycle time for a dump truck was calculated as in equation 13;
𝐷𝑇𝐶𝑇 = 𝑆𝑇𝐿 + 𝐿𝑇 + 𝑇𝐿 + 𝑆𝑇𝐷 + 𝐷𝑇 + 𝑇𝐸 + 𝐴𝐷;(min), equation (13)
Where;
𝐷𝑇𝐶𝑇 = 𝑑𝑢𝑚𝑝 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑘 𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒, (𝑚𝑖𝑛);
𝑆𝑇𝐿 = 𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑡 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟, (𝑚𝑖𝑛);
𝐿𝑇 = 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑢𝑚𝑝 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑘, (𝑚𝑖𝑛);
𝑇𝐿 = 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑑, (𝑚𝑖𝑛);
𝑆𝑇𝐷 = 𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑡 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑢𝑚𝑝, (𝑚𝑖𝑛);
𝐷𝑇 = 𝑑𝑢𝑚𝑝 (𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔) 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒, (min);
𝑇𝐸 = 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑦, (𝑚𝑖𝑛);
𝐴𝐷 = 𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑜𝑛 ℎ𝑎𝑢𝑙 𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒, (𝑚𝑖𝑛);

3.2 Availability and Operation Times

3.2.1 Drill Rigs
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The best way to account for the operating cost of the equipment is by considering the utilisation
of the equipment, which is achieved by considering the utilised hours of the equipment. In a
mining setup, the utilisation of the equipment is usually based on the equipment cost while the
cost of operating the equipment is mainly based on its age. The cost of operating an equipment
usually increases with increase in age, which usually reflects maintenance expenses. The aging
of the equipment is usually non-uniform because equipment is rarely utilised in a linear manner.
Engineering availability is the time the equipment is available for maintenance purposes. Figure
3, shows the drill rigs idle time, operated time, mining availability time and engineering
availability time for a continuous evaluation time of two years. The idle time was found to
follow an s-curve of steady increment and then decrement with a continuous steady dropping
trend and an average idle time of about 460 hours per month as shown in Figure 3 (A). The dip
(2015-01 and 2015-07) was due to the influence of new trucks which were added to the fleet.
The operated time was found to have increased from about 100 hours per month to a maximum
of 140 hours per month before dropping and maintaining a steady operation time of about 110
hours per month as shown in the graph in Figure 3 (B). The average mining availability time of
the Drill Rigs was found to vary between 525 with a maximum of 640 hours per month before
dropping to a steady rate of 570 hours as shown in Figure 3 (C). The average engineering
availability time shown in Figure 3 (D) was also found to vary between 550 hours with a
maximum of 670 hours but quickly dropped to an average of 610 hours per month with an
average decreasing rate of 5 hours per month.

---------------------------------
Insert Figure 3 about here
---------------------------------

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3.2.2 Loaders
Figure 4 shows the Loaders’ idle times, operated times, mining availability times and
engineering availability times for a continuous evaluation time of two years. The idle time was
also found to follow an s-curve of steady increment and then decrement with a continuous steady
increment trend and average idle time of about 250 hours per month as shown in Figure 4 (A).
the operated time was found to first have been operating steadily at about 320 hours per month
for the first year before increasing steadily to a maximum of about 350 hours per month between
October of the first year and April of the second year, before dropping at a steady rate to an
operation time of about 290 hours per month as shown in the graph of Figure 4 (B). The average
mining availability times of the Loaders were found to have been between 550 and 580 hours per
month, having dropped only in October of 2014 to about 560 hours per month and increasing
steadily to 580 hours and maintaining it as shown in Figure 4 (C). The average engineering
availability times shown in Figure 4 (D) were also found to vary between 550 and 620 hours but
they dropped at a steady rate to maintain an average of about 580 hours. Engineering availability
times are the times the equipment is available for maintenance purposes.

---------------------------------
Insert Figure 4 about here
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3.2.3 Dump Trucks

In Figure 5, the Articulated Dump Trucks’ (ADTs) idle times, operated times, mining and
engineering availability times for a continuous evaluation time of two years were also plotted
and assessed. The idle times were also found to follow a semi s-curve of steady increment and
then decrement with a continuous steady increment trend due to the influence of newer
equipment added to the fleet. The curve has a starting average minimum of 180 hours with a
sharp increase occurring between Sept and Oct 2014 and then maintaining a steady increase rate
to an average maximum idle time of 250 hours per month as shown in Figure 5 (A). the operated
times were found to first have had a sharp increase from a minimum of 320 to a maximum of
400 hours per month in the first half of the year 2014, before dropping at a steady rate to an
operation time of about 350 hours per month as shown in the graph of Figure 5 (B). The average
mining availability times of the ADTs were found to be between 550 and 600 hours per month,
having dropped only in October of 2014 to about 560 hours per month and increasing steadily to
580 hours and maintaining a steady availability time as in Figure 5 (C). The average engineering
availability times were also found to vary between 530 and reaching a maximum of 620 hours
but then dropped at a steady rate to an average of about 580 hours before maintaining a steady
increasing rate as shown in Figure 5 (D).

---------------------------------
Insert Figure 5 about here
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3.3 Utilization of Equipment

3.3.1 Drill Rigs
Mining equipment is rarely utilised to full capacity while drill rigs are alsounder-utilised at
Chibuluma south as shown in Figures 6 (a) and (b) below. The drill rigs are utilized more than 5
percent per month though their utilisation does not exceed 40 percent per month. As can be seen
from Figure 6(a), all the drill rigs show a normal cyclic production curve except for boomer 1
and solo whose individual graphs show a continuous decrease in utilisation until their
decommissioning, this might be attributed to the equipment’s old age and also the equipment
having exceeded their economical life.

--------------------------------- ---------------------------------
Insert Figure 7a about here Insert Figure 7b about here
--------------------------------- ---------------------------------

3.3.2 Loaders
The loaders used at Chibuluma south mine are the underground front-end wheel loaders. The
utilizations of the loaders are as indicated in Figures 7(a) and (b) below. The utilization can be
clearly seen from Figure 7, to vary between 40 and 80 percent with most of the loaders falling
below 70 percent. The loaders’ utilization decreases with increase in the age of the loaders. The
EJC 1 loader was decommissioned in August, 2014 after having reached its economic life while
the ST1530 loader joined the fleet in November of 2015, an anomaly can be seen on the
utilization graph as the loader was put to different tests and used to its full capacity that month.
The capacity of the loader is defined by the bucket size in conjunction with the loaders cycle
time. The cycle time is defined above as the time the loader needs to fill the bucket and drop its
contents into a truck and this also assists in defining the productivity of the loader. The
productivity of the loader is the number of passes the loader requires to fill each truck.
According to Chibuluma mine policies, except for two loaders, the rest of them are manufactured
by the same company as the manufacture of their ADTs. In this paper a rule of thumb was taken
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that if an additional bucket is required to fill a truck then it was rounded off to the nearest whole
number of passes required to fill a truck. The passes usually fell in between 3 and 5 depending
on the rock size, soil properties and other factors leading to the loaders’ cycle times shown in
table 3 above.

--------------------------------- ---------------------------------
Insert Figure 7a about here Insert Figure 7b about here
--------------------------------- ---------------------------------

3.3.3 Dump Trucks

The Dump Trucks used at Chibuluma south mine are the underground articulated dump trucks
(ADTs). The utilizations of the different trucks are as shown in Figures 8 (a) and (b) below. It
can be clearly seen from the Figure that the utilization varies between 50 and 80 percent with
half of the ADTs performance falling within 60-75 percent but mostly below 80 percent.

--------------------------------- ---------------------------------
Insert Figure 8a about here Insert Figure 8b about here
--------------------------------- ---------------------------------

The ADTs’ utilization also decrease with increase in the age of the equipment as can be seen
from the steady drop in the utilization rate. Truck number 1 was decommissioned in January,
2015 after coming to the end of its economic life as can be seen from the graph while truck
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numbers 9 and 10 were added to the fleet in November, 2014 and May, 2015, and their
utilization can be seen to follow the same productivity profile as the other ADTs. Truck number
2 has a totally different graph profile from the rest as can be seen from the graph and its
performance and behavior can be attributed to its age. The capacity of an ADT is defined by the
tray size in conjunction with the truck’s cycle time which is defined above as the time the truck
needs to move from the loading point to the dumping point plus the time it takes to drop its
contents at the dump site and this also assists in defining the productivity of the truck. The
productivity of the Dump Truck is the number of complete loads the truck makes in an hour. The
speed at which a given dump truck can travel is inversely proportional to the size of the load the
truck carries but the size and cost of running trucks are directly proportional to their tray capacity.

RESULTS
Figure 9 is a screenshot of some of the results obtained after data analyis using the algorithm
designed in RStudio and the data obtained from Chibuluma South Mine.

---------------------------------
Insert Figure 9 about here
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3.4 Process Cycle Times

3.4.1 Drill Rigs

The average minimum and maximum times taken to drill the whole face in readiness for
production (stope) purposes were found to be about 74 and 148 minutes. The minimum and
maximum times taken to drill a face for development (drill face hole + ream hole) purposes were
found to be about 24 and 81 minutes, respectively and the average minimum and maximum time
taken to drill and insert split sets for support and safety purposes were found to be about 16 and
41 minutes, respectively. All the different drilling processes and times were calculated and the
results are as shown in Table 2 below;

---------------------------------
Insert Table 1 about here
---------------------------------

3.4.2 Loaders
In this research the loaders’ cycle time (LCT) was taken to be one complete cycle that the loader
makes from the drawing point to the loading point while completing both the drawing and
loading actions of both ore and waste. The average loading time is the average time taken to load
one articulated dump truck. The LCT was mainly found to be affected by the distance between
the loading point and drawing point. The loading point was selected to be the point with the
shortest distance from the drawing point and enough room to accommodate the safe
maneuverability of the loader. The results are summarized in Table 3 below;

---------------------------------
Insert Table 2 about here
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3.4.3 Dump Trucks

In this research a dump truck’s cycle time is considered to start at the loading point, when the
truck is fully loaded by a loader and then travels to the dump site. For Chibuluma south mine the
dump site, the mill and stock pile are all within the vicinity. The truck dumps the load and travels
back to the loading point usually empty but sometimes carrying other necessary utilities such as
backfill, drill rods et cetera. The truck’s cycle time is a very important parameter because it can
be used to determine other related parameters, it can also be used with other parameters such as
the haul grade, rolling resistance and haul distance to determine the effectiveness of the truck.
According to (Smith et al, 2000) the common method for estimating the cycle time is to estimate
the truck’s speed using equipment manufacturer’s guidelines. These guidelines are simulation
results which take into consideration the capacity, road gradients, engine transmission efficiency,
engine power, truck weight and other road conditions (Blackwell, 1999). To determine the lag in
cycle time, the results must be combined with the topographic information and the rolling
resistance. The haul grade which is defined as the incline of the haul road intensifies the effects
of the rimpull and rolling resistance of mining trucks. Rimpull is defined as the natural resistance
of the ground to the torque of the tire and is equal to the radius of the wheel multiplied by the
torque of the wheel axle. The rolling resistance is created by the softness of the road soil and
affects the propelling of the truck forward. These factors are all very important in the calculation
of the cycle times summarised in Table 4 and very cardinal to the accurate utilization of the
trucks. At Chibuluma south mine seven trucks are operated against one loader, making spotting,
loading and queuing a bit of a challenge to estimate but a direct observation was made for a
period of six months and the average times were calculated and tabulated as shown below. To
avoid the numbers skewing towards the highest or lowest cycles when getting the mean only
complete trips without any delays were utilized for the calculation.

---------------------------------
Insert Table 3 about here
---------------------------------

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3.5 Performance and Production Efficiency

3.5.1 Drill Rigs
Production efficiency is in simple terms defined as the ratio of the output to the input as defined
in Section 2.1.3 above. Since the equipment calendar hours are being used in this paper, the
production efficiency is also defined in terms of calendar hours. The production efficiency of
mining equipment consists of two major components namely the management efficiency and the
equipment operation efficiency (Misra G. B, 2006). These also depend on the maintainability of
the equipment, experience and ability of the operator and environment operating conditions. The
operation efficiency lies between 5 and 55 percent with the frequency count varying from 1.25 to
12 as shown in Figure 10 (a). Figure 10 (b) shows similar results with a more accurate frequency
density plot with the density varying between 0 to about 2.5.

--------------------------------- ---------------------------------
Insert Figure 10a about here Insert Figure 10b about here
--------------------------------- ---------------------------------

3.5.2 Loaders
The production efficiency of loaders is shown in in Figures 11(a) and (b), from which it can be
clearly seen that the loaders’ production efficiency lies between 30 and 80 percent with
associated densities of 0.5 and 2.5. Both Figures show that the data is centered around 30 and 70
percent.

--------------------------------- ---------------------------------
Insert Figure 11a about here Insert Figure 11b about here
--------------------------------- ---------------------------------

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3.5.3 Dump Trucks

The dump trucks’ production efficiency is shown in Figures 12 (a) and (b), from which it can be
clearly seen that the trucks’ production efficiency lies between 30 and 80 percent with the
density plots’ associated densities varying between 0 and about 1.8. The two plots were found to
show a similar trend. The shapes of the density plot profiles from Section 3.5.1 to 3.5.2 suggests
that the data can be estimated using a Normal Distribution.

--------------------------------- ---------------------------------
Insert Figure 12a about here Insert Figure 12b about here
--------------------------------- ---------------------------------

3.6 Overall Equipment Effectiveness

3.6.1 Mean and Standard Deviation

---------------------------------
Insert Table 4 about here
---------------------------------

The overall Effectiveness Efficiency was calculated in Rstudio version 3.6.0 (2019-04-26) using
the average means of the variables in Section 3.3 to 3.4 and the results are as presented in Table
5. The Table also contains all the other variables that were used to calculate the utilisation, the
production efficiency of the equipment OEE. The Table shows both the mean and the standard

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deviations of the values, the standard deviation here shows how the measurements of the
different groups really spread out from the mean.

3.6.2 Boxplots of OEE of Rigs, Loaders and Dump Trucks

The boxplots of the Mining Utilisation rate and the Overall Equipment Effectiveness were
plotted (Figures 13 (a) and (b)) and a correlation was found to occur between the two variables.
The OEE and the mining utilisation were compared with the help of boxplots and found to be
similar in nature, a succinct conviction that the data was following the Normal Distribution. The
plots below also revealed that on average dump trucks are utilised more than loaders and rigs as
should be the case in accordance with mine policy and the difference in their operating
conditions.

--------------------------------- ---------------------------------
Insert Figure 13a about here Insert Figure 13b about here
--------------------------------- ---------------------------------

Finally a graph of the log of mining utilisation vs log of the overall equipment effectiveness was
plotted and the results are as shown in Figure 14 (a). The ratio of the oee to utilisation was found
to be linear with most of the proportion above average as can be seen from the figure below. The
correlation of the variables were also plotted and the results are as shown in Figure 14 (b).

--------------------------------- ---------------------------------
Insert Figure 14a about here Insert Figure 14b about here
--------------------------------- ---------------------------------

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4.0 DISCUSSION
The different idle times and mean time before failure (MTBF) of the dump trucks were plotted
against time, analyzed and the results showed that trucks number 4 and 9 had the longest periods
of average idle times for much of the period. The minimum distance moved by the trucks was
found to be just above a 100 km and the maximum slightly above 1000 km. While the minimum
amount of hauled tonnage was just over 100t and the maximum slightly above 17000t of both ore
and waste per month. A positive correlation was found between the ADTs productivity and
hauled tonnage of both ore and waste as expected since productivity is defined as the ratio of the
volume of outputs to volume of inputs. The production efficiency graphs of each of the types of
equipment were plotted, the mean, standard deviations, theoretical and observed quantiles were
calculated and the data was found to follow a Normal Distribution. When the normal probability
test was conducted by plotting the percentage cumulative frequency values against upper class
boundaries a straight line was the result confirming a Normal Distribution for the data. In this
research, the MTBF standard deviation values were found to be higher than the associated mean
values for all the three equipment showing a spread out in the mean time before failure which is
predictable for each of the equipment by applying the algorithm developed in this paper. The
recording of equipment failure was a challenge at the local mine at the time because the
equipment didn’t have a real time tracking and monitoring system. Equipment that were fitted
with communication devices had issues with the accurate reporting of the equipment breakdown
due to human error and the biasness of the equipment operators. The overall equipment
effectiveness of all the three types of equipment were estimated and all the values were found to
be below 50%. When compared to the manufacturing industry’s set 85 percent for world class
performing discrete manufacturers and 60 percent for the fairly typical discrete manufacturers, it
suggests substantial room for improvement. Furthermore, the boxplots of utilization and overall
equipment effectiveness were each plotted against equipment type and the graphs showed a
positive correlation meaning that if the utilization of the equipment improves so does its OEE.
The influences of the Availability, Utilization and Production efficiency on the OEE were found
to be 0.247, 0.956 and 0.549 in terms of correlation respectively. This simply means that the
OEE at Chibuluma South Mine is greatly influenced by the utilization of the equipment, fairly
influenced by the production efficiency and only slightly influenced by the availability of the
equipment. In this paper, an algorithm has been developed with reproducible and reusable code
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which with a change of parameters can be applied to any underground mine setup to determine
the sensitive inputs to the life cycle of the equipment as well as the determination of the
optimization estimates.

5.0 CONCLUSION

In this paper an algorithm which determines the most sensitive inputs to the equipment life cycle
and estimates the optimization of the equipment was developed. It utilizes the OEE and uses
equipment operational records to assist in effectively planning and optimizing mine production
operations. The process cycle times were determined for each of the three types of equipment,
these process times help in estimating the exact times of each of the processes involved in the
production stage and help improve the accuracy of equipment deployment. For drilling, the three
types of drilling required for support, development and production drilling were determined
respectively. For loaders the average loading and LCT times were determined and found to vary
at each level of operation, this is attributed to the loading distances and to the changing rock
mechanical properties. The overall equipment effectiveness is a function of a lot of complex
factors which are not so easy to quantify but it is still one of the most useful tools currently
available for the measure of equipment optimization and effectiveness. Although Key
Performance Indicators (KPI) do a very good job in the evaluation and optimization of
equipment in manufacturing industries, in practice most mines do not use these indicators
expansively (Paraszczak, Vachon, and Grammond, 1997), (De Ron and Rooda, 2006). The OEE
seems to be one of the functions that bring all the aforementioned factors together by
distinctively highlighting the areas that need improvement for proper evaluation of production,
productivity and optimization of mining equipment. However, in dealing with OEE caution must
be taken as it also has its own drawbacks which might lead to abuse of equipment usage which
might lead to high operational costs. It is recommended therefore, that when adopting OEE for
equipment evaluation, capable software such as the algorithm developed in this paper should be
used to analyze the information fully and then decide on the statistics that are suitable for the
mines’ operating conditions in terms of production efficiency, maintainability, utilization and
availability. Although OEE is not a perfect remedy in its use in the evaluation of equipment
effectiveness due to its own limitations in that it is a ratio of what a system practically produces

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to what it can theoretically produce, leading to a questioning of whether three variables in its
equation having an equal weighting which might not be the case practically, but an adoption of
OEE as one of the measures for performance evaluation with the help of the OEM guidelines and
operating conditions will greatly help improve the utilization of equipment in the mining
industry. The research is being carried out further by incorporating the developed algorithm into
a machine learning platform. This will be used to monitor the operation of equipment in the
prediction of appropriate equipment maintenance time and help determine the actual weights to
be used in the OEE equation in the case of underground mining.

6.0 REFERENCES

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3. Salama, A.; Greberg, J (2012). “Optimization of truck-loader haulage system in an
underground mine: A simulation approach using SimMine.” In Proceedings of the 6th
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June;
4. John D. Campbell, James V. Reyes-Picknell, Hyung Sik Kim (2015). “Uptime –
Strategies for excellence in maintenance management”, 3rd Edition, New
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5. Chibuluma South Underground Mine Reports, (2016). “Chibuluma Mine official website
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6. Mitchell Z, (1998). “A Statistical Analysis of Construction Equipment Repair Costs
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7. Douglas. J. (1975). “Construction Equipment Policy,” McGraw-Hill, series in
construction engineering and management New York, NY. ISBN-13: 978-0070176584;
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8. Gransberg, D. Popescu R. and Ryan, R. (2006). “Construction Equipment Management

for Engineers, Estimators, and Owners.” 1st Ed., Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton,
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12. Dhillon B.S. (2008). “Mining Equipment Reliability, Maintainability, and Safety”,
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1-84800-288-3;
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Figure 1: Equipment Life (Douglas, 1978)

Figure 2: An Rstudio clip of the code used for data analysis in the algorithm

Figure 3: Drill Rigs Availability and Utilization graph

Figure 4: Graphs of Loaders Availability and Operations

Figure 5: ADTs Availability and Operated Times

Figure 6 (a): Graph of individual Utilization of Drill Rigs Figure 6 (b): Graph of Overall Utilization of Drill
Rigs

Figure 7 (a): Graph of individual utilization of Loaders Figure 7(b): Graph of the overall utilization of all
Loaders

Figure 8 (a): Graph of the individual utilisations of Dump Trucks Figure 8 (b): Graph of the overall utilisation
of Dump Trucks

Figure 9: A screenshot showing some of the results obtained from the data analysis

Table 1: Drill rigs drilling process cycle times

Table 2: Loaders’ cycle times at different loading points (LCT)

Table 3: Dump Trucks’ Queuing and Cycle times

Figure 10 (a): Histogram of Rigs production efficiency Figure 10 (b): Density plot of Rigs production
efficiency

Figure 11 (a): Histogram of the loaders' production efficiency Figure 11 (b): Density plot of Loaders’ Production
efficiency
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Figure 12(a): Histogram of ADTs Production Efficiencies Figure 12(b): Density plot of ADTs Production
Efficiencies

Table 4:Average variables results of achieved results against set targets

Figure 13 (a): The boxplots of equipment utilization vs equipment type Figure 13 (b): Boxplots of equipment OEE
vs equipment type

Figure 14(a): Graph of Mining utilization vs OEE Figure 14(b): Graph of correlation of all variables used in this
paper and their associated correlation values
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Table 1: Drill rigs drilling process cycle times

Task Average time taken for Average total time taken to
one hole finish task
Min Max
Average time taken to drill support 00:02:11 00:08:44 00:21:50
hole
Average time taken to insert split set 00:01:58 00:07:52 00:19:40
Average time taken to drill face hole 00:02:43 00:08:09 00:27:10
Average time taken to drill ream hole 00:05:28 00:16:14 00:54:40
Average time taken to drill stope hole 00:14:50 0:74:10 02:28:20
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Table 1: Loaders’ cycle times at different loading points (LCT)

Loading 360m level 373m level 529m level 541m level 551m level
Level
Average 00:04:50 00:08:15 00:04:13 00:10:58 00:09:14
Loading time
LCT 00:01:13 00:02:04 00:01:03 00:02:45 00:02:18
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Table 1: Dump Trucks’ Queuing and Cycle times

Loading 360m level 373m level 529m level 541m level 551m level
Level
Average 00:07:07 00:07:58 00:09:19 00:16:06 00:19:10
queuing time
Dump Truck Cycle Time Cycle Time Cycle Time Cycle Time Cycle Time
Average 1:21:46 1:30:36 1:21:51 1:40:43 1:43:10
Loading and
hauling time
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Table 1:Average variables results of achieved results against set targets

Variable/Equipment Rigs Loaders Dump Trucks
mean sd mean sd Mean sd
Availability hours 593.731 107.102 574.734 91.552 574.807 126.235
MTBF (Hrs) 18.084 56.921 66.212 73.799 92.754 120.767
Operated hours 121.583 61.394 327.050 94.530 374.305 118.418
Maintenance hours 29.922 13.898 45.647 29.093 29.702 16.175
Idle Hours 472.153 103.929 247.684 87.042 200.472 94.455
Productive hours 101.703 54.769 263.482 95.296 310.763 122.554
Production cap. (%) 82.874 3.060 82.308 4.966 76.682 53.539
Availability (%) 82.046 12.186 80.773 9.023 81.399 12.334
Utilisation rate (%) 16.646 8.124 45.474 13.592 52.821 14.206
Production effic. (%) 30.646 14.408 51.468 15.379 56.414 19.135
OEE (%) 7.007 5.383 37.492 62.590 41.01 43.332