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By J. Sulaiman Lubis

Indonesia is a developing country in Southeast Asia with a population of some 180 million people. It has a stable political environment and currently enjoys high rates of economic growth. Indonesia has abundant reserves of natural resources, ample for its own needs and for export. Energy resources include oil, gas and coal. The oil and gas industries are well established domestically and for export. In the last few years, though, coal industry development has been rapid. Coal resources from bituminous to lignite amount to more than 30 Gt (33 billion st). That is more than enough to meet domestic needs and provide significant amounts for export. Figure 1 shows coal basins in Indonesia. Coals in Indonesia are generally young steaming coals. They are very low ash and sulfur, high volatile, bituminous B and C. The Indonesian government's state coal company is called Perum Tambang Batubara. The company has actively promoted the development of its coal for domestic and export markets. In particular, the government has placed priority on non-oil exports of which coal is a major element. The government strives to honor all contractural commitments for the export of Indonesian coal from contractor, private and government mines. From 1987 through 1989, coal production has increased from about 3 Mt (3.3 million st) to 9 Mt (9.9 million st). Exports have grown from I Mt (1.1 million st) to 3 Mt (3.3 million st). These are significant increases for a small industry with limited infrastructure. But with growing investment and development, these production and export levels will increase substantially, and Indonesia will be a significant world supplier of coal in the 1990s.

Jan 1, 1990

By Gordon M. Pugh, David G. Rasmussen

INTRODUCTION This method is a variation of cut-and-fill mining where either the wall rock or the vein is too unconsolidated to permit safe mining by conventional cut-and-fill methods. Basic development consists of driving a 2.4 x 2.7-m (8 x 9-ft) haulage heading laterally in the footwall side of the vein. Crosscuts are driven over to the vein at 91-m (300-ft) intervals. Then the vein, at each inter¬section, is mined out to a distance of about 9 m (30 ft ) above the track level. After the installation of an ore chute, scrams or intermediate drifts are driven in both directions along the vein. Mining then starts imme¬diately below the level bounding the upper limit of the stope. A cut varying between 3 and 4.2 m (10 and 14 ft) in depth and mined for a distance of 45.7 m (150 ft )along the strike is taken from the orepass in each direction (Fig. 1). In this mined-out void, the floor of the cut is equipped with 203 x 203-mm (8 x 8-in.) caps hitched into the wall with steel saddle hitches installed on 1.5-m (5-ft) centers. Double wood stringers, 152.4 x 152.4 mm (6 x 6 in.), are then installed on 1.2-m (4-ft) centers longitudinally down the length of the stope. Reinforc¬ing wire mesh is also placed, overlying each mat of timber. Directly above the stringers, stulls are installed from hanging wall to footwall to hold the timber in place during the sand-filling operation. Then a cement¬sand mixture in a ratio of about 1:10 weight is poured to a depth of about 2.4 m (8 ft). The entire cycle is then repeated down to the scram drift. Another variation of timbering is illustrated in Fig. 2. There is a vein width of approximately 5.5 m (18 ft) with the same unconsolidated ground conditions. The primary difference between handling this situation and the previously described undercut-and-fill method is that standard timbered sets are installed in each excavated stoping void rather than stulls. Once again the basic method is to work down the ore block from an upper timbered drift to a lower timbered drift. Cuts are taken from a timbered raise with a chute on the stope side. Each piece of ground excavated is essentially two sets high, 5.5 m (18 ft), by two sets wide, 5.5 m (18 ft), by the length of the cut along the strike of the vein. The timbered sets are 2.4 x 2.4 x 2.4 m (8 x 8 x 8 ft). The net result is, therefore, two sets of timber on a top floor separated by doubled-up 76-mm (3-in.) lagging from

Jan 1, 1982

By William Gleason

"It is the largest mining exhibition in the world that attracts thousands of attendees from around the world to Las Vegas, NV once every four years. Despite the recent struggles in the mining industry, MINExpo International 2016 promises to be as big as ever. In the following pages, Mining Engineering takes a look what some of the more than 1,800 companies plan to showcase during the three-day exhibition.CaterpillarCaterpillar will support MINExpo 2016 with an exhibit showcasing machines, technology, expertise and practical knowledge that miners can apply to help address their cost, productivity and efficiency challenges in today’s mining environment.Caterpillar will once again occupy the largest space at the event and will showcase both surface and underground machines, but the talk at the booth will focus on how Cat technology and know-how combines to help mining operations address and solve the issues that are most important to them. The main stage in the exhibit will feature presentations describing how mining companies, Cat dealers and Caterpillar work together to improve operations.“The challenge for all in the mining industry now is to optimize operations — to drive costs down while creating sustainable businesses that can weather downturns,” said Caterpillar Resource Industries group president Denise Johnson. “We believe that through our expertise and the knowledge of our dealers —combined with innovative technologies and our growing data analysis capabilities — we can help them not only survive, but thrive in these challenging times.” Johnson was selected by the National Mining Association (NMA) to chair MINExpo 2016. “Chairing this show is a great honor, and it’s a testament to Caterpillar’s partnership with this critical industry,” she said. “We’re proud to be a long-time supporter of the NMA, and we are excited to participate in another MINExpo. It’s an opportunity for us all to learn from each other how to increase productivity, control costs and improve overall operations.”Surface mining displays. The surface mining section of the Caterpillar exhibit will showcase the new MD6420C rotary drill. This is autonomy ready and optionally equipped to leverage the safety and productivity benefits of Cat MineStar Terrain. This high-precision drill management system optimizes utilization and improves drilling and blasting operations by accurately guiding the operator and improving precision of hole placement and drilling depth — and the next step is fully autonomous operation, Command for drilling. The third-generation drill incorporates proven Cat components throughout for superior reliability and durability."

Sep 1, 2016

By H. E. M. N. Moursy, Hassan El-Shall, M. N. Ahmad, Ponisseril Somasundaran, C. R. Holland, D. Chandler, G. Walker, Regis Stana, Patrick Zhang

The reaction kinetics of the acidulation of Moroccan phosphate rock (32% P?05) using 45% nitric acid were investigated using the Shrinking Core Model (SCM) , a newly developed Diffusion Model (DM) and a newly developed Combined Reaction and Diffusion Model (CRDM). This was achieved buy conducting a number of experiments in a controlled batch reactor system at different temperatures. The conversion and the reaction rate were calculated at different time intervals. The SCM based on reaction time and the CRDM characterize the acidulation process of phosphate rock. Diffusion of nitric acid and the products of acidulation at the early stages of reaction through the phosphate rock were found to be the rate-controlling step, resulting in a dif- fusion coefficient, which controls the mass transfer process. The reaction kinetics were found to fit first-order kinetics especially during early stages of reaction time. The deviation of the kinetics from first-order at later stages was due to the fact that the overall reaction was mass transfer controlled with respect to nitric acid and products diffusion.

Jan 1, 2002

By Evgueni Jak

Pyrometallurgy is an important sector of modern industrial society actively participating in solving current environmental, economic, materials scarcity and other challenges. Recent advances in analytical methods, experimental techniques, thermodynamic, phase equilibria and process modelling tools provide new opportunities to increase the productivity of pyrometallurgical reactors, the treatment of complex feeds and metal recoveries. Fundamental theoretical models can now be used to make a significant next step towards the development and implementation of computerised models describing real industrial processes—Virtual Reactors, and computer-aided smart-decision-making systems that may be called Pyro-GPS by analogy to GPS; these developments can facilitate knowledge-based improvement and optimization strategies. The implementation of these improvements require ongoing collaboration between researchers, industry and government

By John L. Stafford

The ROEMMC combustion system was originally conceived as a means of utilizing solid fuels that would otherwise have been wastes requiring disposal and convert these fuels into useful energy sources. This concept follows as an extension of the application of residual waste incineration with energy recovery practiced in the lumber, manufactured board, sugar cane, and other industries. The incineration of these wastes in the furnaces of steam generating equipment is thoroughly described (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). The fundamental principle of the ROEMMC system is temperature control which makes possible the maintenance of the non-combustible fraction of these solid fuels in a dry solid state and their separation from the gaseous products of combustion. This philosophy of ash removal and the "slagging" philosophy are compared. The ROEMMC equipment function and applications are described.

Jan 1, 1978

By John B. Goddard

In-situ leaching of uranium by aqueous ammonium carbonate containing oxygen or hydrogen peroxide as oxidant results in the partial dissolution of sulfides. While some of the sulfide sulfur is oxidized to sulfate, a considerable portion is oxidized only to thiosulfate and polythionates. Polythionates poison the anion exchange resin used to extract uranium. At the Palangana operation in southeast Texas, the trithionate ion (S3062-) was found by infrared spectrometry to be the major resin poison. Treatment of ion exchange feed solutions with hydrogen peroxide only resulted in partial conversion of reduced sulfur species to sulfate, and trithionate conversion was particularly slow. Poisoning of the resin also occurred from the ammonium chloride eluant, which built up trithionate because of recycling. This was essentially eliminated by chlorinating the eluant prior to yellow cake precipitation.

Jan 1, 1984

By Kevin Lundberg, Philip Sander, Daniel Weinberger, John Reilly

Since the early days of risk management, developments in technology and guidelines (ITA, ITIG, OGG, UCA) have advanced risk management and probable cost estimating, which are now widely recognized. WSDOT’s CEVP risk-based cost validation process is now established after 20 years. This paper traces these developments, summarizes advanced techniques, and presents examples of US and international projects with results. A particular case of using advanced risk evaluation to allow enhanced-capability TBMs to be considered in a competitive bid process is presented. Further advances, including the use of digital twin risk-based representation of complex projects, are described.

Jun 13, 2023

By Quispe Mamani, Mayra Casas Azañero

The research is located within Asuncion and Cospan districts, which according to their geological features in contrast with previous studies pointing out Au, Mo and Pb anomalies create an environment of prospective interest. The objective is to use ASTER Satellite Images to identify ore-bearing hydrothermal alteration zones. To do this, processing techniques such as the combination of bands by RGB 943 and 461, band ratio 4/6, 4/5, 5/8 and 2/1 to identify advanced argillic, argillic to phyllic and propylitic alterations. In addition, indices defined by Ninomiya were used as a third technique in order to reinforce the data obtained from the previous techniques. The results in the study area are confirmed by the SAM spectral mapping technique using spectral signatures from the USGS library. Identifying kaolinite, alunite and pyrophyllite, assemblages of the advanced argillic alteration. Concluding in 3 areas of interest with the band ratios, 5 areas with the Ninomiya indexes and 9 areas validated with SAM, which were contrasted in 13 areas of prospective interest with well-marked argillic alteration.

Feb 1, 2025

By Marcus Digre

The autogenous grinding method has been progressively employed in mineral dressing plants during the last 15 years. The term has been used with somewhat different meanings (1), (2), (3). In this paper the author will use it in the most restricted way, for processes where run-of-mine ore (rock) in one step is reduced to a grind product by the action of the ore itself without any other grinding media present. The pebble grinding process where the major part of the ore enters the mill as finely crushed product which is ground further with selected coarse ore pieces acting as grinding media, is not considered autogenous grinding. Processes where a minor amount extraneous media as steel-balls is added to supplement an autogenous mill charge will be called semiautogenous. Other terms need also to be defined. "Mill charge" will be used about the active part of the mill content which performs the grinding, that is the steel balls in ball grinding and the coarse ore pieces in pebble and autogenous grinding. The interstitial nearly finished material is not included in the term "mill charge", and for the wet grinding operations is called the "mill pulp' The term "pebble" will be used for any rounded ore or rock piece in the mill charge whether it is an autogenous or a pebble grinding operation.

Jan 1, 1970

By Emily Wortman-Wunder

As the 2012 president of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc., I am pleased to present the 2012 issue of the Transactions of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Vol. 332. A significant portion of the contribution that we make as a professional society is the publication of professional and technical papers that accelerate the advancement of scientific knowledge and enable the transfer of technology. Communication within the mining community is the key to a successful society. This technology exchange continues a tradition that dates back to the 1871 meeting of 22 mining engineers in Wilkes-Barre, PA, that resulted in the founding of AIME; those individuals envisioned that these transaction volumes “would form a most valuable and greatly needed addition to our professional literature.” This volume fulfills that pledge. The 2012 Transactions is the third Transactions to take advantage of new publication technologies. It is available solely as an online subscription. The new format better suits the way this material is used and, ultimately, better enables the transfer and dissemination of knowledge. The 2012 Transactions contains some of the most interesting research from the past year, including a paper on the uranium boom in Namibia, work on improving the safety of coal pillar extraction, ways to improve the optimization and efficiency of various mine activities and the newest research from the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The 2012 Transactions consists of a total of 67 technical papers (550 pages, including index), including all 18 papers published in 2012 in the Technical Papers Section of Mining Engineering magazine (Vol. 64) and all 31 papers published in 2012 in Minerals & Metallurgical Processing (Vol. 29). Additionally, this volume contains 18 papers that are being published for the first time in this issue. The papers presented in this volume were written by some of the most distinguished professionals in the industry worldwide. All 67 technical papers were peer-reviewed. The process of review and publication requires much hard work by authors, reviewers and our publications staff. As the 2012 president of SME and on behalf of all our members, I would like to extend our gratitude to all whose volunteer efforts contributed to the publication of this volume.

Jan 1, 2012

By Brenton Fletcher, Yongjun Peng, Wonder Chimonyo

As a cheap, renewable and non-toxic material, starch can contribute to the sustainability of the flotation process, albeit in a minor way as one type of reagent in systems involving materials with far greater impact. But the physical and chemical versatility of starch can help address another issue, namely, that of processing complex ores with decreasing grades of valuable minerals and increasing mixtures of gangue. This paper compares the results of two lab scale flotation studies where starches (native wheat starch (NWS), dextrin and two oxidised wheat starches) were used to depress two common gangue minerals, copper-activated pyrite and carbon (graphite), over a range of dosages. The oxidised starch with the larger molecular weight structures depressed copper-activated pyrite best, and the oxidised starch with lower molecular weight structures was better at depressing graphite. In both cases, the oxidised starches allowed greater recovery of chalcopyrite, pointing to selectivity potential. The extent to which the carbonyl and carboxyl moieties of the oxidised starches contribute to depressant performance is difficult to quantify, but it should not be discounted. Importantly, the results demonstrate relatively simple modifications of native starch by oxidation can yield structures suitable for depressing gangue minerals with diverse surface properties. The challenge remaining for greater application of modified starch depressants is being able to replicate the desired structures at scale in cold-water-soluble form.

Jan 18, 2021

By J. C. Watts

Monitoring and control of conventional industrial wet grinding circuits is conceptually straightforward. However, since production objectives and operating constraints can vary widely from plant to plant, there is probably no single overall grinding circuit control strategy which is "best" in all cases; in-variably some compromise is necessary between performance desired under ideal conditions and performance achievable in practice. The recent advent of relatively low cost, reliable, high speed small computer systems is revolutionizing daily operations in increasing numbers of metallurgical processing plants. Of special power and capability is a hierarchical computer network like that currently in use at the Pinto Valley Operations of the Cities Service Company. Several satellite processors for key plant areas communicate with a master computer operating under a powerful multitasking real-time operating system. Hardware and software structure is such that downtime on one of the processors -including the master -does not have a major impact on overall system operation. Admittedly, the powerful, core efficient table driven satellite software, which handles process/computer communication, calculation of nonmeasured process variables, and basic Direct Digital Control functions, is difficult to modify. However, important high level process monitoring, report preparation, graphic display, and supervisory control functions -including economic optimization -can be implemented by project engineers at the plant site. Thus, for example, new control strategies can be quickly examined and rapidly evaluated. Such computer monitoring capability also permits use of short duration process pulse tests for approximate dynamic modeling and rapid calculation of controller tuning constants for single loop dominant systems. Following a brief back-ground discussion of the Pinto Valley Project, we present some of the more interesting results and conclusions of our work over the past year.

Jan 1, 1978

By Robert Hochscheid

When the original water-only cyclone patents were established in the 1950?s, the supplies of low cost oil and natural gas were abundant and low selling prices for metallurgical and steam coal provided little incentive for developing more sophisticated coal cleaning systems. Bituminous coal sold for less than $5.00 per ton, and in this period many domestic coal producers discarded to the slurry pond the coal finer than 0.5-mm. For many producers, the selling price would not permit the recovery of the capital and operating costs required for dewatering and drying the fine coal. Water-only Cyclones Clean Fine Metallurgical Coal The first broad interest in the water-only cyclone became evident in the mid- 19601s, and though some work was done on coarser coals, investigators were particularly interested in cleaning coal finer than 0.5-mm. Flotation was the only fine coal cleaning method that was broadly accepted, but short-comings were recognized and investigators were looking for an effective fine coal cleaning device or system. Because of the greater market value and the need for reducing pyritic sulfur in metallurgical coals, much of the development work of the 1960's was done on coking coals.

Jan 1, 1981

Brace yourself-what used to be a 1 billion ton deposit is now a 1 Gt deposit. And that 1520-hp ball mill is now a 1.134-MW ball mill. Beginning with this issue, all engineering units and statistics in MINING ENGINEERING will be reported in SI units. The exception to this is the Technical Papers section, where units may still be reported by dual notation. For the past four years, ME has reported all units of measurement first in SI, followed in parentheses by the equivalent English value. This metrication policy, adopted by the SME-AIME Board of Directors in September 1975, was designed to aid magazine readers through a transitional period from English unit reporting to SI unit reporting. In October 1979, the SME-AIME Publications Board completed the English-to-SI transition by requesting the editorial staff, beginning February 1980, to report exclusively in SI. The Publications Board also requested the editors to prepare a chart of SI conversions useful to ME readers; this information follows on pages 156-157. The What and Wherefore of SI In 1960 the General Conference on Weights and Measures met in Sevres, France, and recommended that a new metric system-one that could uniformly cross all international borders-be adopted to replace all other metric systems. The outcome of this recommendation was the SI system of units, an abbreviation for le Systeme International d'Unites (the International System of Units). It replaces the more familiar cgs (centimeter-gram-second) system and the m/ksA (meter-kilogram-second-Ampere) system. SI consists of seven base units, two supplementary units, and a number of derived units. Other units, called allowable units, may be used even though they are not part of SI. The seven base units are: meter (length); second (time); kilogram (mass); mole (amount of substance); kelvin (temperature); ampere (electric current); and candela (luminous intensity). The two supplementary units are radian, a measurement of plane angle, and steradian, a measurement of solid angle. Supplementary units can be used in combination with SI units, e.g., radiant intensity is expressed in W/sr, watts per steradian. Derived units are combinations of base and supplementary units. Velocity is expressed as meters per second (m/s), and acceleration as m/s'. Using the relation established by Newton's second law of motion, force is expressed as kg-m/s2, more commonly known as the newton (N). Energy (work) is force times distance, expressed as kg-m/s2 and known as the joule (J). Power is work per unit time, expressed as kg, m2/s3 and known as the watt (W). Allowable units are the exception to the rule-they are not taken from base or supplementary units but, nevertheless, are used in the SI system. Volume units are normally expressed as the cubic measure of a length, such as cm 3. But a fluid volume of a cubic decimeter (dm3) is called a liter (L); the "L" is capitalized in another special SI rule to keep the lowercase "1" from being confused with a numeric "1". Other allowable units are degrees Celsius (°C) for temperature; and the minute (min), hour (h), day (d), and year (a) for time measurements. The prefixes in the table on the following page are used with SI units to express the magnitude of a measured quantity. A mill that processes 1000 tons of ore per day would be designated a 1 kt/d mill; a mine producing 10 million tons of ore per year would be called a 10 Mt/a mine. The rule here is to use prefixes that keep the value in a convenient range from 0.1 to 1000. In other words, it would be incorrect to write 25 000 kg-the prefix should be changed to indicate 25 Mt. One of the distinct advantages of SI is that it retains the decimal relation between multiples and submultiples of the base units for each physical quantity except for time. One more rule of SI syntax-numbers are separated into groups of three with a space between each group rather than a comma, e.g., 3,839,174 becomes 3 839 174. By the same token, a decimal number is also broken by spaces, e.g. 0.738153 is written as 0.738 153.

Jan 2, 1980

By William X. Chavez

The Mantos Blancos copper-silver district, a major copper-producing area since 1961, is located on the Tropic of Capricorn about 45 kilometers northeast of the northern Chile port city of Antofagasta, as shown in Figure 1. Copper oxide minerals occurring as atacamite (Cu C1(OH)3) and chrysocolla (copper silicate-hydrate) were discovered in the district in the early 1900's (Knobler and Joseph, 1962). The mine is situated in the northern Atacama Desert, one of the most arid regions on earth, and presently receives less than 1 cm per year of precipitation. The extreme aridity of the Atacama Desert is thought to have prevailed since at least Middle Miocene time (Mortimer et al., 1978) when development of important supervene copper enrichment was slowed in many areas of northern Chile (e.g., Chuquicamata, Exotica). Despite the paucity of precipitation, landform development is mature, with large alluvial fans and alluvial-filled valleys covering much of the region. In addition, the aridity and presence of salts have led to the formation of a sub-surface cementing of alluvium and colluvium by halite-rich caliche ranging from a few centimeters to over 3 meters in thickness. These factors, resulting in poor outcrop exposure, make even reconnaissance mapping difficult.

Jan 1, 1983

By R. W. Bartlett

High salinity geothermal brines typically contain up to several hundred parts per million of valuable heavy metals, and because of the large potential flow of geothermal brines from future power plants, metal production as a by-product could be significant A-planned 55-MW demonstration plant near Niland, California should generate enough spent brine to contain approximately $670,000 per year in gross metal values. Lawrence Livermore Laboratory estimates (1) a Salton Sea Geothermal potential of 1300 to 8700 MW, which would translate to possible yearly heavy metal values between $5,800,000 and .$l05,000,000. Since these estimates were made on a conservative basis, this geothermal reservoir is potentially a large ore deposit. The heavy metals in order of decreasing abundance in high salinity brines from the Salton Sea geothermal field are usually manganese, zinc, iron, lead, and silver. All but manganese and iron are valuable enough to be of commercial interest. Minor amounts of copper and arsenic are also present. Although heavy metal precipitates, particularly lead, have been found in scales within pipelines and obtained from steam flashing, most of the metals remain soluble during steam production; hence removal of the valuable metals from the spent brine before reinjection in ground reservoirs is indicated. Because the heavy metal concentrations are low, a very simple and inexpensive process is required. The heavy metal value in Niland brine is only ' about $1 per 1000 gallons; see Table 1. The brine composition shown in Table 1 was taken from one of the brine samples used in our study. Projected post-flash brine from a steam plant has somewhat higher Zn and Pb values, but the gross heavy metal value is still less than $2 per 1000 gallons.

Jan 1, 1980

By John P. Anderle

A tectonically disturbed sequence of Mississippian age evaporites expressing a 5 milligal negative gravity anomaly near Sussex in southeastern New Brunswick, Canada, was investigated by a program of drilling, geologic and geophysical work over the past 27 months. Seventeen of twenty-one drill holes have penetrated 10 to 140 feet of potash mineralization in a salt sequence underlying 2 000 to 3 000 feet of arenaceous, conformable red beds, also of Mississippian age. Bromine and borate studies, lithological characteristics and geophysics, have facilitated improved understanding of the salt structure. The salt sequence has been affected by f1owage which has resulted in both major and minor folding. In the more disturbed areas, the potash interval was extensively subterraneally eroded at the upper anhydrite-salt contact.

Jan 1, 1978

The Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research has been developing models of wireless signal propagation in underground coal mines since 2007. The current mine propagation modeling software, named COMMS, is able to locate potential broadcast points for underground wireless mesh systems and estimate their coverage. COMMS utilizes programmed routines to calculate necessary values to both quantitatively and qualitatively solve and analyze predicted coverage areas. The program approximates the spatial relationships that are encountered, such as ventilation regulators, belts and other obstructions. Using this model for propagation allows the optimal communications node locations to be calculated, by using lessons learned from current installations and experience with the new technology. In addition, the optimization can be calculated by checking all possible combinations of broadcast locations. This paper compares these optimization calculation methods. The ability to solve a mine?s communication network provides a pre-installation mine network design map, creates coverage maps of the mine and allows planning for future communication activities

Jan 1, 2011

By J. Paraszczak

Underground metal mining involves many challenges. Economic slowdown, tough international competition and sometimes volatile metal prices put constant pressure on mine operators to increase productivity and to reduce production cost. At the same time, countries such as Canada, the United States and Australia are experiencing skilled labor shortages that might even stall development of certain mine projects. Furthermore, some stages of underground production take place in particularly hazardous environments where the safety and health of miners is at risk. Automation of some processes in underground mining is one of the promising avenues to alleviate some of these problems. Loading and haulage are among the most critical operations and areas where implementation of autonomous vehicles has been targeted. However, although health and safety issues are a primary driver to opt for automation, the latter should ensure an acceptable level of productivity and pro?tability. With this in mind, this article focuses on the factors affecting operational effectiveness of autonomous underground loading and haulage equipment and the means to maximize it.