Improvement of coal tonnages with minimum capital investment at TFR Coal Export Line

Abstract

Transnet Fright Rail (Formerly Spoornet) the largest division of Transnet limited intend to increase the amount of export coal through Richards Bay Coal Terminal from 65Mtpa to 81Mtpa with a minimum of capital expenditure .Various projects were initiated with the purpose of supporting this improvement. Currently TFR does not reach the capacity that the export line could actually carry per annum. The project will focus on one of the aspects and will aim to perform in depth research about the problems faced by the loading operations at the drop-off mines which includes Uitkyk which is one of the busiest mechanical loading sites. The project will aim to improve the tonnages shipped per period by developing an optimal routing model based on the hypothetical analysis of the process that will aid the users to schedule and control planned as well as unplanned operations. The use of operations research and simulation- based procedures will aim to develop a solution to increase the amount of tonnage and also ensure that all capital investments required are minimized. Basic Resource allocation techniques will be used to accomplish maximum loads with minimum resources (i.e. Locomotives and wagons)