Investigating the effect of excavator operators on- the-Job coaching on ore hauling and dumping productivity. Study Case of Frontier SA -Preprint

Ore excavation, hauling, and dumping are critical upstream operations that determine both open -pit and underground production performance and, by extension, the overall efficiency of a mining enterprise. The achivement of the mining production objectives first of all require competent machines operators. Besides aspects relating to planning, ore fragmentation quality and hauling and dumping machines compatibility. The study findings reveal that there is a negative or inverse relationship between the number of refresher training participants and number of vehicles operational incident-based damages on one hand; and, a positive or directly proportional relationship between the number of vehicles driving and operational based damages and vehicles maintenance related cost on the other hand. And that, the cause-effect relationship between variables is confirmed by the pearson correlation coefficients sitting at -0.61 and 0.47 respectively for the relationship between the number of annual vehicle driving refresher training participants & the number of vehicles operational incidents-based damages; and, the relationship between the number of vehicles incident based damages and damages related maintenance cost. The coefficient being respectily between the intervals [-1,0] and [0,1] confirm the study alternative hypothesis (Ha) whereas it rejects the null hypothesis (H0). A particular attention should be given to regular refresher training program of vehicle operators to proactively avoid vehicle incident-based damages implying equipment maintenance cost.