How to resolve Diggers not Digging in ATS

A digger may appear scheduled and active in some periods but stop moving material in others. This occurs when the conditions required for mining are not met in that specific period. The cause will always fall into one of the following areas: calendar availability, truck capacity, production rates, agent limits, dependencies, destination logic, or constraints.
 

Follow the checks listed below to isolate the blocking condition and resolve it efficiently.

If you see Overflow warnings, fix those first. Do not troubleshoot diggers until overflow is resolved.

Check 1: Schedule > Calendar > Loaders

Make sure: 

1. Number of Loaders > 0

2. Direct Utilisation > 0

Check 2: Schedule > Calendar > Trucks

If trucks are fully utilised, diggers will stall. Make sure: 

1. Actual Units < Number of Units

If the diggers are limited by trucks capacity, consider reducing waste movement, dumping on shorter hauls, increasing trucks availability (if realistic).

Check 3: Schedule > Calendar > Agents

Make sure: 

1. Agent rates for defined material groups > 0.

Check 4: Schedule > Animation

1. Move the time slider to when the digger stops mining.
2. Select the current or next logical block.
3. Click on a block to see Dependencies arrows:
   • check On Bench dependencies between blocks, 
   • check Expand Distance,
   • check Max Active Benches,
   • check Max Agents on Bench / Blast,
   • check Custom Dependencies.

Check 5: Read Dependencies and Traces

1. Right click > "Show Dependencies and Traces" > filter the Agents column by the digger name.

2. Read through the activity section to find out why the digger shut down.

   Normal Behaviour. If you see these, the digger is behaving correctly.

• Block created, and added to ASL

• Selected block (ranked #1)

• Removed <amount> quantity from block

• Block completed and removed from ASL

Dependencies related	Where to fix
Waiting for mining block to be released by dependencies	Setup > Dependencies
Hit a proximity constraint (...) - so cannot choose block	Setup > Dependencies > Between Benches > Max Agents on Block
Blasting Delay holding up mining of block	Setup > Dependencies / Refinements

Destinations and Constraints related	Where to fix
Could not find applicable destination rule	Setup > Destination Logic > review the rules
Constraint (...) prevented sending to (...)	Calendar > Constraints > review constraint limit
There is no remaining volume in destination (...)	Setup > Waste Dumps > Capacity Calendar > Dumps > capacity limit

Equipment related	Where to fix
Agent cannot operate on the block	Calendar > Agents > check that Agent capacity is > 0 Calendar > Incentives > check Maximum/Minimum mining grades
Blocked by priority incentive (...)	Schedule > Priority > review blockers
Constraint (Equipment - Step Rule <RULE>) prevented sending to (...)	Trucks exhausted in one of the fleets. Check: Setup > Step Logic > review the fleets used in this movement. Setup > Fleets > see what diggers and trucks are assigned. Calendar > Loaders | Trucks | Fleets > find the exhausted equipment. This may result from over-assigning ROM loaders on ex-pit movement, or from exhausting the available rehandle trucks.
Blocked due to exhaustion of available equipment	Calendar > Fleets > check number of units available in fleet
Ignored destination due to no travel time available (...)	Haul Infinity > Network > invalid cycle time Haul Infinity > Setup > Settings and Trucks > rimpull/retarder use ATS > Setup > Dynamic Haulage

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