Application of high precision mining as a way of optimizing loading and hauling operations at Kansanshi mining Plc, Zambia.
| dc.contributor.author | Katongo, Kangwa | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-07-07T07:32:43Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-07-07T07:32:43Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2021 | |
| dc.description | Thesis | en |
| dc.description.abstract | Mining at Kansanshi is currently conducted in two pits namely Main and North West pit. Mining at both pits is conducted by conventional open pit methods involving 18 hydraulic excavators and a mining fleet of haul 86 trucks.There has a been a general concern on the mined material tonnes (BCMs)/reconciliation and misplacements of material at Kansanshi Mining site which has led to increased mining costs as a result of: reduced truck deployment, increased truck and shovel waiting time, reduced production and reduced grade/quality of ore delivered to crushers.With the in-pit haulage distance increasing from 1335 RL to 1195 RL, there is need to address the issues causing the increase in mining cost which currently stands at US$12.4/BCMs as a matter of priority. The other problem has been on the inconsistencies of reporting fleet performances in terms of Availability and Utilisation. This has resulted into manipulation of figures by some operators. This study therefore seeks to monitor and compare the application of high precision mining through optimised loading and hauling operations. The study focuses on the optimization of haulage using High Precision Mining (HPM) through use of Wenco’s dispatching algorithm, which is designed to automatically assign trucks in order to achieve the best utilization of all mining equipment and maximize production. In order to accomplish the set objectives, the study involved establishing the precise bucket positioning, determining production rates and monitoring the material type and quality /grade of ore delivered to the crushers. With the tolerance of X=0.5m, Y=0.5m and Z=0.5m, it was noted that the events of a bucket mining out of the assigned polygon were reduced to a few cent meters in distance from 34% to 15% and from 10% to 8% in terms of mismatches and cannot reconcile bucket loads respectively. This entails a reduced mining dilution in the X and Y axis of about 85% based on the quality of ore delivered to the crushers. In terms of mining to correct elevations, a tolerance in the Z axis of ±0.3m was achieved based on the bucket size of the loading equipment. The X and Y axis tolerance was also reduced to ±0.3m for improved accuracy in between boundaries of various material types. The use of precision mining has therefore resulted in reduced mining cost of about US$10.3/BCM, improved fleet/production reporting, high grade of the material delivered to the crushers of about 75% from the previous 65%. | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://dspace.unza.zm/handle/123456789/8060 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | The University of Zambia | en |
| dc.subject | High precision mining. | en |
| dc.subject | Mining--Operations. | en |
| dc.subject | Mining--Zambia. | en |
| dc.title | Application of high precision mining as a way of optimizing loading and hauling operations at Kansanshi mining Plc, Zambia. | en |
| dc.type | Thesis | en |