EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENT IN AN OPEN-PIT MINING TRANSPORT SYSTEM VIA DISCRETE-EVENT SIMULATION: THE ROLE OF AUTONOMOUS TRUCKS

This study develops a discrete-event simulation model to evaluate efficiency improvement strategies in an integrated mining transport system, explicitly incorporating operational variability. We analyze different fleet configurations by varying fleet size and haulage technology-autonomous versus human-driven trucks. The results reveal that under truck-limited conditions (reduced fleet), autonomous trucks achieve 4% higher utilization and recover baseline production from the original fleet. These findings demonstrate that operational availability improvements from automation can offset fleet downsizing, offering practical support for cost-efficient technology adoption and fleet sizing in large-scale mining operations.