Justification of low mining equipment reliability in a longhole production system at Bulyanhulu Gold mine using failure characteristics

This study revealed the reliability level of the components of Longhole Production System (LHPS) based on their failure behaviour. Failure data collected over one year at Bulyanhulu Gold Mine (BGM) were analyzed using SPSS and Microsoft Excel to generate descriptive statistics and identify failure trends across components. The study identified 49 failure types that cause downtime in LHPS, 12 of which were common in the Jumbo drills, production drills, and LHDs when used in ground rock rehabilitation, drilling production holes, and mucking, respectively. Jumbo drills, production drills, and LHDs experienced six, eleven, and ten different failure types, respectively, each contributing to downtime. Failure type frequencies varied across components and equipment models of the same type. Such situation is regarded as complex scenarios that have a significant contribution to the low reliability of LHPS. Furthermore, all the components of LHPS had MDT ranging between 1.9 and 5.4 hours, which was considered to be on the high side. Apart from mucking and paste fill pouring with MTBF > 20 hours, all other LHPS components had MTBF values ranging between 5 and 20 hours. Further study is recommended to assess the operational performance of components whose failure behaviour was derived from limited data.