Abstract: A bucket conveyor assembly includes both a bucket endless conveyor and a cover endless conveyor, with the cover endless conveyor being located inside a horizontal section of the bucket endless conveyor. The cover endless conveyor is driven so that covers (40) mounted on its lower flight are superimposed with gaps (44) between buckets (24) mounted on the bucket conveyor at a loading zone (26). Material to be loaded into the buckets is gravity-fed between the top and bottom flights (36A and B) of both the bucket endless conveyor and the cover endless conveyor and dropped into bottom-flight buckets (24) through the bottom-flight covers (40). The covers have an unsymmetrical inverted V-shape, with the leading side (46) of the V being on a steeper angle than the trailing side (48) of the V.