Evaluating and optimizing the effectiveness of mining equipment; the case of Chibuluma South underground mine

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. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.