In open cut truck and shovel mines haulage accounts for 50 to 60 per cent of the total mining operation costs. Haulage includes the transport of both coal and overburden waste carried out by large rear dump haul trucks run predominantly by diesel engines.

What are the cost benefits of tracking haulage?

These large production costs affect the base $/tonne rate of producing coal. However, different programs have been developed to track and calculate the haulage routes to aid in improving efficiency. Coal mines in operation need to constantly evaluate and update both the short and long term mine plans based on many external factors. However, these programs are reliant on constant use by mining engineers, and do not adapt to changes on the production level until the information is relayed to the engineer and the next short term plan is carried out.

Australia has the fourth largest reserves of coal in the world. 80% of these reserves are mined through open cut mines (Geoscience Australia)

This constant change introduces a risk of errors. Technology needs to move towards helping mines make correct real-time decisions. Real time data will also help make operator improvements regarding truck queueing times, and to determine the correct amount of bucket passes. There are several factors to analyse: perhaps it may make sense to remove/add a truck if the excavator driver loads lighter/heavier with more/less passes?

How is iVolve involved in tracking haulage?

This is where iVolve comes in. Real time data can be stored and used as historical information to feed back into the algorithms used. Data on specific excavator/truck rates, operator rates and fuel used can be used to make a pre shift decision on the short term plan and then be monitored throughout the day.

Technology needs to drive improvements, especially in the current industry climate. The old saying ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, which is so prevalent in the culture of mining in Australia, needs to change. Otherwise, Australian sites risk being outperformed by the more tech-forward, resource-heavy countries. Luckily, iVolve is helping to drive that change by transforming haulage data analysis from paper-based to a digital, fully-automated operation.