Abstract
<jats:p>The paper examines the digging process with an excavator bucket. Numerical simulations of the excavation process with variable chip size, particle size and bulk density of the rocks were carried out in order to establish these parameters for the digging force and the power. As the result of numerical experiments, the adequacy and accuracy of the numerical model have been confirmed using the criterion of compliance of the values of the digging force and the volume of the scooped rock with the physical model. The functional dependencies have been determined for calculating the values of the digging force and the power depending on these parameters. It has been established that, based on the energy approach, it is possible to change the time between overhauls and the type of MRO operations for a mining machine depending on the intensity of the resource utilization. Numerical modeling of the work processes taking place in these machines is an effective tool that makes it possible to accurately assess the contribution of various factors to the intensity of their resource utilization.</jats:p>