CRADLE TO GRAVE
the winches was a mere three weeks. It cost the mine about
R80 000 to rebuild a single winch and it had to rebuild about
150 winches a month.
In addition to their short lifespan, the scraper winches had
constant leakage between the clutch drums and gearbox
section, occasional overheating, and decibel and vibration levels
signifi cantly outside of the acceptable ranges.
According to Jurie Reichel, a consultant at Lubrication Engineers
(LE), the company suggested that the mine test its Almagard
1 000T TRANSPORTED OVER 1 000KM
Five Caterpillar 793D mining trucks with a payload of 200t each
were recently transported from Kumba Iron Ore’s Sishen mine
in the Northern Cape province of South Africa to the Port of
Durban and then onwards to Australia.
ALE was chosen to act as the single point of contact for the
transportation of these trucks over more than 1 000km
across South Africa; an operation spanning fi ve months.
ALE is a transportation company that specialises in moving
abnormal loads.
The project began in Sishen, where the fi rst three trucks were
loaded onto three 12-axle Goldhofer trailers widened to 4.3m,
using the hydraulics of the trailers themselves. Two prime
movers provided the traction for each mining truck.
The mine then ran a trial of the Almagard on four of its scraper
winches, with excellent results. The four winches used in the trial
ran for a year with no breakages or leaks and are still operational
over two and a half years later.
The initial trial was so successful that the mine extended its
used of the Almagard to another trial on 20 additional scraper
winches.
If a suitable route could not have been found, then the bodies
and chassis would need to have been split. In this case, time-
consuming reconstruction would have been needed at the
Port of Durban or the fi nal destination.
The travelled route required ALE to obtain a wide range of
permits. Exemption permits for the transport of abnormal loads
were required from the local department of transport for each of
the four provinces the convoy passed through.
This work included the identifi cation and clearance of the
route itself; the establishment of the structural integrity
of bridges along the route; authorisation from each
municipality the convoy travelled through; liaising with
telecoms providers to arrange the lifting of telephone lines
and liaising with power companies to lift or de-energise
power lines.
Upon arrival at the Port of Durban, all three mining trucks
were unloaded by lowering the trailers and were then driven
onto a ro-ro vessel bound for Australia. The entire journey
was then repeated with a further two mining trucks, which
were then loaded onto a breakbulk vessel with the ship’s gear.
The trucks are now en route to Australia for use on a range of
mining projects.
The trucks’ laden height of 6.8m was a major challenge during
the project due to many overhead restrictions along the route.
ALE identifi ed a route that could accommodate passage at
this height, thus allowing each vehicle to be transported as a
complete unit.
Vari-Purpose Lubricant (3752 and 3750) as an alternative
lubrication option for the scraper winches.
ALE recently transported fi ve Caterpillar 793D mining trucks from the Northern Cape province to Australia.
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African Mining Publication
African Mining
African Mining November 2019
63