Analysis of Production Operations in Abadeh Fireclay Mine by Simulating the Haulage System

The main production operations in most mines are drilling, blasting, loading, and hauling. Therefore, the optimization of each part causes an increase in profits and a decrease in mining costs. About 50 to 60 percent of mining costs are related to machinery, and the major share of them belong to loading and hauling machine. So, the correct utilization of the haulage fleet is very important step to increase productivity and to reduce production costs of the systems. In this study, by using simulation method and utilization of Arena software, the operation of the current production system of Abadeh Fireclay mine have been studied. Results showed that the productivity of loading machines in mine is low and due to the shortage of trucks the unit production costs of haulage system be increased.  By using the high-capacity machines in mining operations, mine production will be increased and also production costs will be reduced significantly. Moreover, when flexible dispatching approach is used with proportionate loading and hauling machines, production will incr ease by 4 to 8 percent with a given number of trucks and also production costs will decrease by 5 to 7 percent.