Benchmarks of mine equipment involved in the excavation process of
coal mines would suggest that such equipment is not always operating at
an optimum level. Dragline operations and truck/shovel operations rely
on efficient use of their plant in order to maintain high mine throughput.
The first process which affects the material to be excavated is the drilling
and blasting process. Drilling and blasting delivers a fragmented material
with a given disposition ready for excavation by mine equipment. As
mine operators demand more productivity from their major excavating
equipment, many sites are considering the use of productivity monitors to
measure their outputs. Some of these productivity improvements will be
directly related to the drilling and blasting process, so that as the
monitoring systems improve, the opportunities to evaluate all drilling and
blasting variables will also improve. This paper reviews current and newer methods for monitoring
equipment productivity in mines. These include simple time and motion
studies obtained by either manual timing of processes or by automated
data collection equipment being adopted by the industry. Case studies
for truck/shovel operations are discussed and the productivity
improvements are compared with typical industry standards. These
improvements relate specifically to parts of the load, haul and dump cycle
and the potential for significant improvements are identified. Particular
opportunities for drilling and blasting improvements are also presented.