Mining Equipment Productivity: Why More Machines Don’t Mean More Output

A mine can buy another haul truck, put more equipment into service, and spend millions on extra capacity, yet barely increase the amount of ore it produces. The new truck may spend part of its shift waiting for a shovel. The shovel may have nowhere to send the material. Further down the line, a crusher may already be running at its limit.

These situations are not unusual. Mining operations depend on several activities working together, from drilling and blasting to excavation, haulage, crushing and processing. Improving mining equipment productivity requires understanding how each stage affects the others.

That is the real question behind mining equipment productivity: are machines holding production back, or is the problem somewhere else in the system?

The answer matters because buying equipment is a major financial decision. Before approving another truck or excavator, mine operators need to understand where production is being lost, what causes those losses, and whether additional capacity would solve the problem.

Start with the constraint, not the fleet size

A good way to analyse equipment productivity is to look at how your material is moving throughout your operation. Long haul distances, shovel waiting, and dump delays can all negatively impact production. However, they will all require a different solution.

Match trucks to the work at the shovel

Fast loading shovels can still be idle due to trucks taking too long to return. If more trucks arrive than the shovel can load, they will queue at the loading point. This creates unnecessary waiting time and reduces the time trucks spend moving material. Both situations waste productive time, but adding trucks will only help if haulage capacity is the actual constraint.

A study published in the Journal of Advanced Transportation in 2025 titled “Simulation Optimization of Shovel-Truck System in Open-Pit Mines Considering Rockmass Parameters” looked at how haul trucks were allocated to an open-pit coal mine in Pakistan. They developed a model to see how rock conditions influenced shovel loading times and how many trucks were needed at each loading point. This helped reduce both truck waiting times and shovel idling.

The study shows why mines should avoid using a fixed truck-to-shovel ratio across every loading point. Rock conditions and loading times vary, so operators need to adjust truck allocation to match the demands of each location. Due to rock conditions affecting loading times, having an allocation that works for one bench may cause delays at another bench.

Look at how much time is being spent on loaded and unloaded travel, loading, queuing, and shovel idling. If haul truck queues are building, identify their cause before changing fleet size. Adjust truck allocation/improve dispatch if these measures can reduce waiting time without taking a hit on production. If your shovel is regularly waiting for the next truck, consider changing the allocation. Optimising your haul fleet means making sure your haul fleet matches your real-world conditions.

Follow the material to the plant

Your bottleneck may be outside the pit. If you are getting more ore to the crusher but it cannot process any faster, then you have more haul but not more plant throughput. You may start getting haul truck queues at the dump and increased fuel, tyre, and maintenance costs.

If the crusher consistently limits plant throughput, see whether expanding its capacity would increase overall production. If breakdowns cause the delays, lean more on improving equipment reliability instead. Ore hardness, fragmentation, & feed size can also affect throughput.

Once you address the main constraint, reassess the production chain to identify any new bottlenecks. If the crusher still limits throughput, adding haul trucks will not solve the problem. If lost operating time is the main issue, improving reliability may deliver better results.

Measure the hours that disappear

Availability, utilisation and production are all linked. They can help provide insight into why a piece of equipment isn’t performing as well as expected. 

Availability is not the same as useful work

Availability tells you whether your equipment is available for use. Utilisation tells you how much of the relevant time your equipment is being used. This can vary between sites. A truck could be mechanically available but spend a large portion of its shift waiting for the shovel, queuing, or idling.

A study published in the International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management in May 2026 titled “Analysis of major operational KPIs and overall benchmarking for shovel–truck fleets in open-pit mines” found an average utilisation of 61-65%, availability of 77-78%, and OEE of 41-44%. This will depend on your sample and methodology, so this doesn’t apply to all mines. It will, however, show you why looking at availability alone is not giving you the full picture.

To understand equipment utilisation, examine cycle times, payloads, & tonnes moved alongside idle time/equipment reliability. These measures help separate operational delays from mechanical losses and low output. Look at your utilisation by shift, area, and haul fleet to ensure you aren’t missing any consistent losses within your mine.

Separate the losses before setting a new target

Look at your current data. Use dispatch records to identify truck queues, route delays & cycle times. Furthermore, maintenance logs can show recurring equipment failures, while shift reports can help explain delays caused by blasting/shift handovers.

Don’t group all your lost hours into one downtime category. The reasons for your haul truck downtime can vary. It could be mechanical failure, queuing, long haul distances, and low payloads. There may be several small delays adding up.

Assess haul truck productivity by route, shift & loading point rather than relying on a fleet-wide average. Some trucks may lose time on longer return journeys, while others may experience delays at the dump. Breaking down the data helps explain these differences. It also prevents you from applying the wrong solution to the entire fleet.

Once you know what your main losses are, you can calculate how much they are affecting your production and how much it will cost to fix. This means you can get a clearer picture of your haul truck productivity. This will turn the general goal of improving equipment productivity into a tangible operational question. It will also give your team a clearer understanding of what they should focus on.

Calculate whether the investment pays

Adding equipment increases ownership and operating costs. A sound investment proposal should explain where the additional output will come from, whether the rest of the operation can handle it, & how much the investment will cost.

Compare the purchase with a practical alternative

Adding a new truck will cause additional costs including fuel, tyres, spares, servicing, labour and increased workshop requirements. It could also cause additional costs to improve the roads, increase maintenance space and change dispatch/loading.

Adding another haul truck can be a sound investment if haulage limits production & the crusher has spare capacity. However, buying a truck before confirming the constraint could increase costs. That too without delivering the expected production gains.

Before buying another truck, assess whether you could achieve similar gains by adjusting truck allocation, returning an out-of-service vehicle to operation/improving dispatch. Compare the cost of each option with the additional production it could deliver, using consistent assumptions. 

A simple example: what does each extra tonne cost?

Let’s say you have a hypothetical mine and are looking to add a haul truck with a 90 tonne payload. For this example, assume the truck adds US$1.2 million in annualised ownership and incremental operating costs. Actual costs will vary by truck class, site, contract and operating conditions.

If this haul truck can make 3 extra loaded runs per shift, you will move 178,200 extra tonnes per year (2 shifts per day x 330 operating days). This means your incremental costs per extra tonne are ~$6.73.

However, if the haul truck can only make 1 extra loaded run per shift, then you will only move 59,400 tonnes per year. This means your incremental costs per tonne are ~$20.20.

This is not an in-depth investment appraisal. It does not take into account ore grade, recovery, waste movement, taxes, or downstream bottlenecks. However, it shows how much the financial argument can change if the haul truck isn’t able to complete the expected number of runs.

Before approving the investment, establish whether the plant can process the additional material & whether the resulting saleable output will generate enough margin to cover the costs. Moreover, higher haulage capacity does not automatically create value. Compare the cost of moving the additional tonnes with the revenue/economic value they are expected to generate.

Judge the result across the whole operation

Sometimes moving more tonnes doesn’t mean you are getting more valuable material. Deep pits and long haul distances can mean you have to put in more effort to get to the ore. Lower grades can mean you have to mine and process more material to get the same amount of metal.

According to McKinsey’s Global Materials Perspective 2026, productivity in mining and metals was flat in 2025 despite increased access to technology. They estimate there is an opportunity to improve productivity by US$450 billion to US$750 billion per year across the sector. This is just an industry estimate.

Look at how efficient your mining operation is based on your priorities. Are you getting more recovered metal, ore processed, lower costs per tonne, or improved reliability? Sometimes increasing tonnes can increase your costs. It may be more beneficial to reduce the amount of waste you are moving.

Before making any changes to your operation, identify a baseline for availability, cycle times, queuing, payload, maintenance downtime, and plant throughput. Decide what metric you want to improve.

Each solution addresses a different constraint. Improving dispatch will not increase throughput if the crusher is already at capacity, just as adding a haul truck will not resolve recurring mechanical failures. Furthermore, improving mining operational efficiency means identifying the cause of the problem & choosing a solution that addresses it in a direct manner.

Compare your results to your baseline. Has the downtime reduced? Has your processed output increased? Was it worth the cost? If not, then reconsider your assumptions. This means you can compare your mining equipment productivity to your original business case.

Sometimes your bottleneck will change once you have fixed the original issue. You may go from having an issue with your shovel and haul trucks to having an issue with your crusher. Regular reviews will help you identify what your next bottleneck is.

To sum up

Increasing equipment productivity starts with identifying your bottleneck. Simply adding more equipment does not guarantee increased output. Make investment decisions using operational data. Identify where production losses occur, trace how material moves through the mine/processing plant, & compare the cost of addressing the constraint with the cost of adding capacity. You may still need to add a haul truck, but you should be able to justify why, quantify how much you expect to gain, and confirm the results.

The 9th Mining 4.0 Europe Mining Operations & Performance Summit will take place on the 10th & 11th November 2026 at the H10 Marina Barcelona Hotel Villa Olímpica, Barcelona, Spain. This event will bring together professionals from the mining industry to discuss operational performance, modernising your fleet, asset reliability, and connected operations. Find out more about the summit agenda and plan your attendance.