Effect of Variation of Dragline Bench Height and Cut Width on Performance of Tandem Dragline Operations in Large Opencast Coal Mines in India

Abstract

Increasing demand for power supply in the country has put pressure on producing more coal at a faster rate. A tandem dragline system has become popular in recent times and is used to remove overburden from opencast coal mines. The amount of overburden removal and coal production are directly proportional. Overburden removal typically makes up more than 60% of the total mining costs in surface coal mines. As the cost involved in the tandem dragline system is thousands of millions of rupees, proper planning and seating arrangement of draglines are the most important to optimize efficiency and manage project costs. Tandem dragline operations involve two draglines to work together in horizontal tandem or vertical tandem to maximize overburden removal and coal exposure while minimizing rehandling. To simplify complex tandem dragline operation planning and various calculations, an interactive, graphics-based program was developed in C + + using graphics API to help generate three-dimensional balancing diagrams for draglines operating in horizontal and vertical tandem. This program can be adopted for all decision-making parameters, such as deciding the bench height for stripping, the width of cut, the rate of coal exposure, percentage rehandle, and annual advancement of each dragline in tandem dragline operation. Bench height and cut width are the most important parameters in planning dragline operation. Hence, this research paper critically analyzes the effect of dragline bench height and cut width in different modes of tandem operations on the performance of draglines by evaluating the rehandling percentage of overburden, coal exposed by the dragline, and the annual advancement of draglines. © Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration Inc. 2024.