Coal Handling and Equipment Selection In Mui Basin, Kitui County, Kenya

Abstract

This research work is related to selection of mining equipment, which is a function of mine plan. Proper choice of mining equipment is critical for technological, economical and safety criteria that must be satisfied during mining and material handling; which rely mainly on mobile drill rigs, hydraulic shovels, front-end loaders, scrapers and haul trucks to extract ore and initiate ore processing. Large mining operation, such as coal mining in Mui Basin, requires larger equipment capacity to maintain the mine plan while simultaneously considering mining constraints that often influence mining operations. The research goes on to give a detailed way on how the production/output of the selected equipment should outweigh its capital outlay before such equipment is purchased and this must be factored in advance by a mining engineer before selecting and calculating the cost effectiveness of any mining equipment.