JUSTIFICATION OF TRANSPORT WORKS IN THE CONDITIONS OF A BLOCK QUARRY

The increase in oil prices, consumables and tools is necessitate the re–equipment of mining enterprises in Ukraine. The share of automobile transport reaches 35–50 % in the dimension blocks production costs. The purpose of the work is to determine transportation costs (TC) of 1 m3 of blocks depending on the volume and transportation distance within the quarry; improving the transportation plan by solving transportation problems of linear programming. Fuel consumption and dimension block TC for three models of front–end loaders (FEL) were newly calculated on the basis of a comprehensive study. A comparison of the economic feasibility of FEL and dump truck (DT) use in certain mining conditions have been made. The rationalization plan (RP) of dimension blocks transportation within the quarry was newly proposed. The research was performed at the dimension gabbro quarry, blocks transportation in which is performed using FEL CAT 988F (1) and DT KrAZ–256B. FELs CAT 988H (2) and CAT 986H (3) were adopted for comparison. The average annual fuel consumption is determined: among the FELs considered in the research, the (3) consumes the least, and the (1) currently used at the enterprise consumes 22.7 % and 9.7 % more fuel compared to the (3) and the (2), respectively, in similar conditions. Trade blocks transportation using FEL is economically more expedient in comparison with the DT at transportation distance up to 300–400 m. It is determined that the trade blocks TC using the (2) and the (3) is 5.3 % and 12.6 % lower, respectively, compared to the (1). This paper also considers the transportation problem for FELs, in which blocks from several banks must be distributed between several storage areas, provided to minimize TC. According to the proposed RP of transportation, the savings will be up to 13 % compared to the initial conditions, which in monetary terms is 41538–48639 UAH/year depending on the FEL model. The replacement of the (1) for the (3) will reduce block TC by 12.6 % (47000 UAH/year) in the current conditions. The TC using the (3) will be 285303.5 UAH according to the proposed RP, which is 23.7 % (88476 UAH/year) less than the (1) application before the rationalization.   Keywords: dimension stone; front–end loader; commercial blocks transportation costs; transportation problem; cargo traffic rationalization; fuel consumption; haul road gradient.