Analysis of shovel-truck system for optimal selection at Tororo cement quarry.

Abstract

This project report entails the analysis of shovel-truck system for optimal selection at Tororo Cement Limited Quarry, in Tororo-Uganda, with the basic aim of optimizing cycle time, material size, loading distance through and cost of shovel-truck system. This is justified by the fact that, Material handling account for 60% of the total operating cost of the mines, so it is desirable to maintain an efficient material handling system. This is due to the facts that as the size of fleet being used increases, shovel productivity increases but truck productivity decreases, so an effective fleet size must be chosen that utilize all equipment. (May et al. 2012) This was done by thoroughly reviewing literatures of shovel-truck productivity, cost of handling material, effects of field parameters and application of models that optimize the time parameter and general impact on a company's productivity at the quarry. Shovel-truck system operational data from the quarry was analyzed and applied to a multi-channel queuing model representative of the loading process of the haul cycle. The outputs of the model was compared with actual data to evaluate the validity of the queuing model used-(May et al. 2012) The end aim of project is to optimize the time to ensure that the practices is conducted in the fastest means possible with maximum utilization of the availed equipment for output and profit maximization.