Haulage Operations Research Articles

The Influence of the Mining Operation Environment on the Energy Consumption and Technical Availability of Truck Haulage Operations in Surface Mines

The Influence of the Mining Operation Environment on the Energy Consumption and Technical Availability of Truck Haulage Operations in Surface Mines

Modeling Productivity Reduction and Fuel Consumption in Open-Pit Mining Trucks by Considering the Temporary Deterioration of Mining Roads through Discrete-Event Simulation

Open pit mining is based on dynamic operations within the open pit, with the haulage operation being the most decisive in terms of the cost and the overall productivity of the operation. A vital aspect for the success of the haulage operation are the conditions of the roads, which change over time due to wear and tear. The present work aims to model and to evaluate the effect of temporal deterioration affecting mining roads in an open pit mining operation through rolling resistance, using the discrete event simulation (SED) tool to evaluate two key aspects of the operation: productivity and fuel consumption. Additionally, to reverse road deterioration, the assignment of a grader with a variable frequency of use will be modeled through a parallel model. The case study is a 5 km road with a slope of 9.5%, a fleet of 10 trucks, and their capacities of 300 tons, loaded in a 24 h simulation model. The results show that not considering road deterioration can mean an overestimation of productivity of up to 600 Ton/hr, and an overconsumption of 78%. The application of a motor grader could decrease the negative effects of roads deterioration, which depends on the frequency of its assignment. The results show that for the rate of productivity and fuel consumption for every hour of frequency that the motor grader does not do road maintenance, the production loss is 600 tons, and the fuel consumption increases by approximately 1800 L in a day.

Environmental and Work Factors That Drive Fatigue of Individual Haul Truck Drivers

Many factors influence the fatigue state of human beings, and fatigue has a significant adverse effect on the health and safety of the haulage operators in the mine. Among various fatigue monitoring systems in mine operations, currently, the Percentage of Eye Closure (PERCLOS) is common. However, work and other environmental factors influence the fatigue state of haul truck drivers; PERCLOS systems do not consider these factors in their modeling of fatigue. Therefore, modeling work and environmental factors’ impact on individual operations fatigue state could yield interesting insights into managing fatigue. This study provides an approach of using operational data sets to find the leading indicators of the operators’ fatigue. A machine learning algorithm is used to model the fatigue of the individual. eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithm is chosen for this model because of its efficiency, accuracy, and feasibility, which integrates multiple tree models and has stronger interpretability. A significant number of negative and positive samples are created from the available data to increase the number of datasets. Then, the results are compared with other existing models. A selected algorithm, along with a big data set was able to create a comprehensive model. The model was able to find the importance of the individual factors along with work and environmental factors among operational data sets.

Rescheduling Plan Optimization of Underground Mine Haulage Equipment Based on Random Breakdown Simulation

Due to production space and operating environment requirements, mine production equipment often breaks down, seriously affecting the mine’s production schedule. To ensure the smooth completion of the haulage operation plan under abnormal conditions, a model of the haulage equipment rescheduling plan based on the random simulation of equipment breakdowns is established in this paper. The model aims to accomplish both the maximum completion rate of the original mining plan and the minimum fluctuation of the ore grade during the rescheduling period. This model is optimized by improving the wolf colony algorithm and changing the location update formula of the individuals in the wolf colony. Then, the optimal model solution can be used to optimize the rescheduling of the haulage plan by considering equipment breakdowns. The application of the proposed method in an underground mine revealed that the completion rate of the mine’s daily mining plan reached 83.40% without increasing the amount of equipment, while the ore quality remained stable. Moreover, the improved optimization algorithm converged quickly and was characterized by high robustness.

Strategies to Enhance the Competitiveness of Malaysia Haulage Operators at Bukit Kayu Hitam-Sadao, Thailand Border in Facing the Establishment of Asean Economic Community (AEC)

The implementation of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) has given some impact towards the cross-border activities for ASEAN countries. Competitiveness, single market, cross border logistics have been the main highlight for the haulage operators that provide a cross border service between Malaysia and Thailand. This paper is discussing the strategies that need to be taken by the government and haulage operators in making Malaysia especially Bukit Kayu Hitam as the logistics hub between Malaysia and Thailand. Malaysia needs to upgrade its Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex facilities, Information Technology investment and address the talent issue for drivers for Malaysia to prepare facing AEC.

Driving Duration Difference in Road Freight Transport Between Vehicles Up to and Over 3.5 Tonnes

Abstract Working conditions for drivers in the European Union and Slovakia are governed by European and National regulations. Regulations lay down rules on driving times, breaks and rest periods for drivers of lorries and buses to improve working conditions and road safety. There is no doubt that with increasing freight performance, the number of carriers and vehicles in the field of road freight transport is also increasing. Therefore, in connection with the current EU legislation, which aims to increase road safety, attention is paid to adopting regulations for all road haulage operators and carriers. The purpose of this paper is to show difference between road freight transport performed by vehicles up to 3,5 tonnes and vehicles transporting goods where the maximum permissible mass of the vehicle, including any trailer, or semi-trailer, exceeds 3,5 tonnes.

Optimising Productivity and Safety of the Open Pit Loading and Haulage System with a Surge Loader

The open pit mining load and haul system has been a mainstay of the mining industry for many years. While machines have increased in size and scale and automation has become an important development, there have been few innovations to the actual load and haul process itself in recent times. This research highlights some of the potential productivity and safety benefits that the incorporation of a surge loader may bring to the load and haul system through an analysis of the system, discussion of component characteristics, and mine planning aspects. The incorporation of the surge loader into open pit loading and haulage operations also enables improved safety. This is a result of a reduction in shovel–truck interactions and the reduced likelihood of truck overfilling and uneven loading. This paper details the number of mine worker deaths that a surge loader may have prevented within the Peruvian and Chilean mining industries.

New Business Segmentation for Haulage Industry in Malaysia

The haulage industry has the biggest fleets as compared to the others road trucking operators in Malaysia. The history of haulage industry started in 1971 until 2004 with five operators and in 2019 and above was recorded to 220 operators in the market. It was demonstrated with the open market which the growth of total fleet from 2,131 prime movers and 10,701 trailers before 2004 and more than 4,500 over prime movers and 31,500 over trailers in 2018 (AMH, 2018). The total number of prime movers and trailers had increased to 111% to overall fleets’ capacity. Haulage market which relate to container throughputs form 2009 - 2019 (ten-year) recorded at 16 million tues to 25 million teus in 2019 (UNCTAD 2019) which increased only by 65%. It was calculated on the surplus by 46 % of holding of prime movers in haulage industry at present. Apparently the market of haulage industry has stagnant and invite further sluggishness on haulage movements. The haulage operators had initiated to downsizing on the fleets due to unstable market and difficulty to sustain in their business. Therefore, the research suggests on appropriate ways to improve on the present condition and making more competitiveness of haulage industry. This research will investigate into three (3) segmentations such as reduction number of fleets, improvement on present activities and changing on other types of trucking businesses. The key respondents of the survey were the haulage operators, customers, government agency and other stakeholders. The survey was conducted among 200 respondents and at the end only 170 answers were accepted. The research uses SPSS version 25 and PLS-SEM to analyze from the collected data. The finding of the research has suggested that the three segmentations are the most appropriate ways to improve the present condition in haulage industry.

Bluetooth Beacon-Based Mine Production Management Application to Support Ore Haulage Operations in Underground Mines

In this study, a mine production management application (app) using a Bluetooth beacon and tablet PC was developed to support the efficient operation of an underground mine loading-transport system. The app receives signals from the Bluetooth beacons attached to major loading points and crushing sites through the tablet PC mounted on the truck and records the time the signals were received as well as the location of the truck. In addition, when the tablet PC receives the signal from the Bluetooth beacon, the truck driver can select and input information such as loading point, ore type, and dumping method on the tablet PC screen. Data recorded on the tablet PC during the haulage operation are automatically transmitted to the cloud server when the truck arrives in a wireless communication area. The cloud server continuously stores and manages data transmitted from multiple trucks equipped with tablet PCs. The performance test was conducted by using the system developed for a limestone underground mine located in Jeongseon, Korea. Results confirmed that the information related to ore production in the field could be effectively collected and managed, and the efficiency of production management could be improved.

The Experience and Management of Fatigue: A Study of Mine Haulage Operators

Fatigue in mining operations is a serious issue and a significant contributor to incidents and accidents. While mine operators are using or introducing new technology to monitor operator fatigue, there is little work that focuses on the subjective experience of fatigue and the use of fatigue monitoring technology. To investigate this issue, eight focus groups with a total of 44 operators of heavy haulage equipment working for two mining companies in the Mountain West of the USA participated in 1-h focus groups. The topic of the focus groups was the experience of operator fatigue and issues surrounding fatigue at the workplace. The results of the content analyses suggest that operators are well aware of the signs of fatigue, and that they understand the severity of these signs as well. In addition, they are aware of the effect of fatigue on driving performance and are using a wide range of methods to manage fatigue. Finally, based on participants’ assessment, current fatigue monitoring systems lack face validity and reliability and are perceived as not being effective. The results of this study emphasize the importance of a socio-technical systems perspective in the context of miner health and safety management. Only such a comprehensive perspective can result in improvements that are sustainable.

DROP TRAILER METHOD (DTM) MONITORING IN MALAYSIA HAULAGE INDUSTRY

Haulage operators had implemented drop trailer method (DTM) monitoring not merely focus to the drivers and prime movers but also it trailers. Movement monitoring has been the culture of the haulage operator’s which consists of two areas; local (LD) and out station (OS) delivery. The hauliers had implemented trailer movement tracking and terms and conditions of services (T & C) to discourse DTM issues as to optimize trailers utilization. This implementation is an important mechanism to ensure that users will be bear on it contract. The hauliers is so anxious on their trailer utilization. Wide-ranging monitoring and coordination of deliveries are efficient and cost effective because they benefit from reduced lost times, opportunity costs, enhanced trailers utilization and better managed trailers detention periods. A large element of this is the correct planning and monitoring for each delivery. This paper had deliberated the aspect of trailers detention that imposed to users in managing DTM. The implementation and enforcement of T & C by hauliers are critical to ensure the trailers utilization can be optimized.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT TOWARDS BETTER SERVICE AMONG CONTAINER HAULIERS IN PASIR GUDANG

This paper examines the performance measurement focusing on operational activities of a container haulage industry. Apart from financial performance, satisfying customer via reliable delivery and services is a key factor of sustainability for container haulage service providers. In the highly competitive world of business, getting orders with fulfilment of Seven Rights of Logistics is vital. On the other hand, container haulage operators must always be on their toes as customers have the privilege to choose hauliers from the handful of providers available in the market. The operational performance is one of the metrics to measure the effectiveness of haulage operation. Therefore, the researcher needs to identity the availability of measurement at the company in order ensure its give efficiencies to the operation of haulage. The scope area is in Pasir Gudang and the searcher has chosen Pos Logistics Berhad (Southern Region) to analysis the data. The factors that affect the measurement of operational are availability of equipment, speed and time which referring to deliver services and number of complaints by customer. The operational issue performance usually can be seen in terms of speed, cost, dependability, quality and flexibility. In order to get the information regarding the title, the researcher will need help by the important person which are head of operation, executive maintenance and head of customer service. Those peoples will make the research objective achieved by answering all the relatable research questions. The qualitative method that has been chosen is semi-structured. The researcher will conduct an interview session as to receive the information and fit with the related data. Developing an interview guide regularly begins with outlining the issues or topics that should be included. After the interview is done, the researcher will analyze the data to make sure the data is parallel with research objective. The researcher creates the coding based on the transcript of interview. Nevertheless, a few recommendations are recommended to make sure the effectiveness of measurement keep giving the best result at the end of haulage operation itself at Pos Logistics Berhad.

Simulation and Real-time Visualization of Truck-Loader Haulage Systems in an Open Pit Mine using AnyLogic

In this study, we proposed a method to simulate a truck-loader haulage system in open-pit mines and visualize the results in real time using the software AnyLogic. An open-pit limestone mine in Korea was selected as the study area. The time parameters for each unit operation of the haulage system were measured via a field survey. A discrete event simulation model for the mine was then developed using AnyLogic. We intuitively confirmed the simulation results with key production indicators and visualized the truck-loader haulage operation over time. This study was thus able to overcome the limitations of previous studies, which could not measure key production indicator values and the status of haulage systems in real time during simulations.

Sequential glory hole approach as a new mining method for sustainable operations

Some mines use shafts to outflow the material mined by surface methods aiming to reduce the average distance of haulage. However, this application is restricted due to the unavailability of a methodology devoted to integrating the underground structures with surface mining plans. This mismatch implies an intensive use of trucks for haulage operations. How can open pit mining operations with mobile equipment be developed without using trucks? The present study aims to develop a mining method that integrates underground structures, for material outflow, with the surface mining development reducing the truck fleet. Considering this innovative mining geometry, haulage can employ alternative equipment or even adopt the truckless concept. After the geometric simulations using mine planning software tools, the proposed method has reached a strip ratio reduction of 8.3%. In addition, the method allowed the stacking of waste rocks and dewatered tailings in mined areas during the mining of subsequent pushbacks. These results make mining more sustainable, since it reduces area affected by waste piles and tailings dams.

Simulation of Truck Haulage Operations in an Underground Mine Using Big Data from an ICT-Based Mine Safety Management System

Information communication technology (ICT)-based mine safety management systems are being introduced at numerous mining sites to track the location of equipment and workers in real time and monitor environmental changes. This paper presents the results of a case study in which the big data created by an ICT-based mine safety management system are used for simulating truck haulage operations. An underground limestone mine located in Danyang, South Korea was studied, and the data generated over three months, from October 1 to December 31, 2018, were analyzed. Truck tag packet data recognized by relays were extracted and analyzed to calculate the averages and standard deviations of the truck travel times of each mine segment. A discrete event simulation program that simulates truck haulage operations in the study area was developed. Haulage times, the number of haulage operations, production output, and truck delay times were predicted, and results were compared with the actual operation results that were obtained on January 2 and 9, 2019. The difference between the predicted and actual results for the total amount of loaded ore was 30 tons for January 2 and 0 tons for January 9. The mean absolute error between the predicted and observed truck travel times was 0.13 min for January 2 and 0.14 min for January 9. The truck travel times that were measured differently according to the data aggregation period were set as temporal factors, and truck haulage simulations were performed. The results showed that more reliable simulation results were obtained as data accumulation time increased.

Analysis of Weather On Haulage Operations: A Case Study of Road Connecting South-West to Northern Nigeria

Analysis of Weather On Haulage Operations: A Case Study of Road Connecting South-West to Northern Nigeria

A METHODOLOGY FOR TRUCK ALLOCATION PROBLEMS CONSIDERING DYNAMIC CIRCUMSTANCES IN OPEN PIT MINES, CASE STUDY OF THE SUNGUN COPPER MINE

Truck allocation problems are considered as one of the most substantial factors in the achievement of planned produc- tion capacity in the mining industry. Traditional truck allocation techniques (e.g. mathematical programming, queueing theories) have undergone different levels of simplifications in formulating actual haulage operations under heterogene- ous circumstances. In this study, the truck allocation problem is analysed through the development of the simulation- based optimization (SBO) method for the optimization of truck assignment considering uncertainties during fleet op- eration. This method provides an integrated structure by the simultaneous combination of optimization and stochastic discrete-event simulation. The objective function is to minimize the total number of trucks for haulage operation with discrete-event simulation employed to model the constraints. As a case study, the fleet operation of the Sungun copper mine is investigated to accomplish an optimal truck allocation for various working benches in the mine site. Operation details are evaluated through different indicators such as utilization, waiting times, and the amount of transported ma- terials for each working bench. Finally, the operation bottlenecks are recognized for each situation.

BBUNS: Bluetooth Beacon-Based Underground Navigation System to Support Mine Haulage Operations

A Bluetooth beacon-based underground navigation system (BBUNS) was developed to identify the optimal haul road in an underground mine, track the locations of dump trucks, and display this information on mobile devices. A three-dimensional (3-D) geographic information system (GIS) database of the haul roads in an underground mine was constructed, and the travel time for each section was calculated. A GIS database was also constructed for 50 Bluetooth beacons that were installed along the haul roads. An Android-based BBUNS application was developed to visualize the current location of each dump truck and the optimal haul road to the destination on mobile devices, using the Bluetooth beacon system that was installed in the underground mine. Whenever the BBUNS recognized all of the Bluetooth beacons installed in the underground mine, it could provide the dump truck drivers with information on the current location and the two-dimensional (2-D) and 3-D haul road properties. The operating time of each dump truck and the time spent on each unit task could be analyzed using recorded data on the times when Bluetooth beacon signals were recognized by the BBUNS. The underground mine navigation system that was developed in this study can contribute to the improvement of haul operation efficiency and productivity.

Impact of climate change on Australian forest operations

ABSTRACTFew studies have considered potential climate change impacts on forest operations. A review of the literature found that predicted changes to Australian forest growth and mortality varied between regions depending on the models and assumptions used. Impacts of climate change on forest operations will depend on the magnitude and speed of the climate changes and the management decisions used to adapt to these changes. If forest growth declines and management changes are not able to maintain current mean tree sizes at final harvest, costs and productivity of forest harvest and haulage operations at an individual harvest unit level will be affected. Slower forest growth would also mean that less harvest and haulage capacity would be required, unless additional forest planting occurs.The literature review identified the potential for substantial areas of the Australian Eucalyptus globulus plantation estate to be less productive in the second rotation due to the impacts of climate change on growth and the management decision to regenerate many areas using coppice. A higher risk of fire due to the effects of climate change was also identified as likely to reduce the number of days that forest harvesting operations can be conducted in many parts of Australia. The results of modelling based on these potential climate change impacts suggested that supply chain costs might increase by up to 10.9% in comparison to the base case scenario, with the major differences being explained by harvesting and transportation operations. In Australia, the effect of climate change on the economics of harvesting and transport operations might be mitigated by the introduction and implementation of new technology, optimised transport systems and log drying in the forest.

A New Method for Haul Road Design in Open-Pit Mines to Support Efficient Truck Haulage Operations

The design of a haul road for an open-pit mine can significantly affect the cost associated with hauling ore and waste to the surface. This study proposes a new method for haul road design in open-pit mines to support efficient truck haulage operations. The road layout in open-pit mines was optimized by using raster-based least-cost path analysis, and the resulting zigzag road sections were simplified by applying the Douglas-Peucker algorithm. In addition, the road layout was modified by reflecting the radius of curvature suggested in the road design guides. Finally, a three-dimensional model reflecting the results of the road design was created by combining the road layout modification result with the slope of the open-pit mine and the bench design result. The application of the proposed method to an area containing gold deposits made it possible to design a haul road for open-pit mines such that it supported efficient truck haulage operations; furthermore, the time required for truck movement along the road could be estimated. The proposed method is expected to be useful for planning and designing open-pit mines and to facilitate the improvement of the road design function of existing mining software applications.