Applying the Queueing Theory Approach to Determine the Most Economical Number of Trucks Matching Shovel for Overburden Removal in a Coal Mine

On a given project involving overburden removal, the most economical number of trucks is the number that will give the lowest cost per cubic meter of waste, considering the combined cost of the shovel and the trucks. Additionally, effective and efficient haulage systems can only be developed through a detailed consideration of inventory, waiting line, allocation and replacement processes in a system. Otherwise, overloads and production bottlenecks will result at unexpected places in the mining system. Large numbers of heavy earth-moving equipment have been analyzed so that the required production targets would be achieved. Because of the huge investment involved, no mine design engineer can accept equipment sitting idle unnecessarily. For this reason, it is unavoidable that the proper matching of equipment has to be considered during the selection process. Within the scope of this paper, the most economical number of trucks matching a shovel has been evaluated and then compared in terms of cost per cubic meter of material.