Cable shovel is a primary excavation unit in many surface mines around the world. The capacities of the shovels have seen an ever increasing trend to achieve the economies of large scale operation. The modern day shovels have 100+ tons per pass production capacities. The dynamic force of 100+ ton material combined with the dynamic cutting, friction and acceleration forces during the excavation result in severe stress loading of the shovel front end components. Stress and fatigue cracks appear, as a result of this cyclic stress loading, resulting in expansive breakdown of shovel components. Numerical and analytical techniques can be used to model the stress and fatigue failures. This paper outlines the causes and some of the strategies to model stress and fatigue failure of shovel components and to predict shovel component life.