The purpose of this paper is to digitally simulate a voltage source inverter (VSI) fed permanent magnet brushless DC Motor (PMBLDCM) with buck-boost converter for power factor correction (PFC) and adjustable speed along with developing a hardware prototype. The buck-boost converter is preceded by a single-phase AC-DC converter. The concept of DC link voltage is used in the control scheme proposed in this paper, whereby the required speed of the brushless DC motor is proportional to this voltage. To regulate the motor speed PI controller is used. The design of the aforementioned PFC buck-boost converter based brushless DC drive is done along with the simulation model using MATLAB-Simulink environment for mining applications. This system provides greater efficiency, improved power factor and dependable operation ranging from a speed of zero to high value. The proposed control strategy was implemented in hardware and a comparative analysis is made with conventional methods. With buck-boost converter, the power factor is found to have improved. The proposed PFC converter has improved power factor, reduced harmonics and simplified the control strategy. The experimental based results were compared with the simulation results. © 2006-2017 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved.