Reference no: EM133913632
Fundamentals of Mining Engineering
Assignment - Loading and haulage fleet calculations
Scope
Your task is to work out the most appropriate fleet required for the removal of waste rock from a proposed open pit operation with a mine life of 6 years. You will need to present the step-by-step calculations for the most appropriate fleet combination chosen in Word or PDF format on LMS and upload all your calculations in a well- labelled and set out Excel document on LMS. Note that you do not need to consider a mixed fleet therefore, there should be one type of loader, and one type of truck recommended. However, you will need to consider multiple combinations to work out the most appropriate fleet needed. In both submissions it needs to be clear what the haulage and loading costs are for every year, with their associated costs per tonne. These need to be graphed for all years. In addition, you need to present the combined overall total cost (for all years) and combined cost per tonne. It must be clear what the chosen loader and truck models are, with the number of loaders and trucks specified. Get top-rated assignment help now.
Inputs and assumptions
Main general inputs
It has been decided that the required waste removal rate is 30 Mtpa. All the following costs are given in Australian dollars.
Inputs needed for the calculations are:
It is projected over the mine life that the diesel costs will be $2.10 per litre
The in-situ rock density is 2.7 t/m3
The swell factor of the rock is 20%
Overall utilisation is predicted to be 65%
There needs to be 4 workers per piece of equipment
Each worker will be paid a base salary of $150,000
For each worker there is 12% superannuation, and 30% attributable to overheads
Configuration
The configuration shown in Fig. 1 is to be used for all 6 years, with Table 1 providing the average pit floor depths for each year. The 50 m flat near the loader has a 20 kmph speed limit, while the rest of the mine has a speed limit of 40 kmph.
State the source or justify assumptions/formulae
e.g. don't just state "fill factor=77%", explain why 77%
Reader is an engineer, so omit obvious things already known, e.g.
total cost = number of shovels × cost per shovel
time = distance / speed
Avoid repetitious calculations - just describe one example, and summarise the other results in a table
Avoid huge tables in main body, put in Appendix
Only 1 loader
what happens when it is being serviced, or has broken down?
Assignment - Feedback from Previous Years Common Possible Improvements
Explain choice of truck / loader
Usually based on $/t
Spread CAPEX over life of equipment (inc. extra trucks)
but trucks purchased in later years don't reach their life!
Date on title page
Numbered headings, sub-headings e.g. "4.1 Haulage costs"
Headings that mean something, not "3.0 Main Section"
Assignment - Feedback from Previous Years
Common Possible Improvements
Keep a table on one page!
Don't create a table by simply screen-capture from Excel
at least ensure it is readable!
Tidy up appearance, e.g. not messy tables like these:
These are much clearer:
Assignment - Feedback from Previous Years
Common Possible Improvements
Do not use 1st person e.g. "I", "We"
Make long numbers appropriate in accuracy
- 23,700,000 not 23789527.32 tonnes
Make numbers easy to read
- 23,700,000 not 23700000
use appropriate units, e.g. 23.7 Mtonnes, not 23700000 tonnes
Format
Layout
use the same font for headings and text
Serif font (e.g., Times New Roman) for print
N.B. use sans-serif (e.g., Arial) for on-screen
Include important document information in header/footer
Label all graphs, tables, and equations
refer to them in the text, e.g., the results are shown in figure 2.4.1
put graph title below it, table title above it
put immediately after the sentence that first mentions it
stop text above and below, do not wrap around to left or right
don't be scared of white space
keep tables on one page if possible
Format
Graphs
can you use colour?
will it get photocopied/printed in black and white?
many people are colour blind to some degree
clear ‘thick' lines with markers
clearly label axes with units
try to have axes starting at 0
Format
Graphs
better two simple graphs than one complex graph
KISS = Keep It Simple Stupid
Numbers
Use consistent, and standard SI units
Use appropriate units
which is easier to read?
98,342,174.52t
98,300,000t
98.3Mt
Display to appropriate accuracy
what is accuracy of input data?
usually 3 significant figures
Style
Generally, use past tense
In some cases, the present tense can be used to describe a general procedure - e.g. if describing how to do a triaxial test in general, you might use the present tense (but do so consistently): "... a triaxial test is carried out by first selecting the sample. The sample is then set up in the cell ....."
- however, when talking about a particular experiment or series of experiments that you did, use the past tense
Be consistent