WORLD PROSPECTS
Traction in Australia for Liebherr T 264
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iebherr’s new 240 t class T 264 electric AC
drive truck is starting to make strides, with
AngloGold Ashanti announcing that six
units are being added to its Tropicana gold mine
fleet in Australia, upping the ante from the
current Caterpillar 793 227 t class fleet. The new
machines are being operated by contract miner
Macmahon and are equipped with DT HiLoad’s
Hercules truck body, a heavy duty, lightweight,
durable, dump truck tray designed to suit all
OEM makes and models.
Macmahon was originally awarded a 10 year
mining contract for the Tropicana gold operation,
with mining commencing in July 2012, with the
end date now April 2027. The Tropicana Gold
Project is part of the joint venture between
AngloGold Ashanti Australia Pty Ltd (70%) and
Independence Group NL (30%). The project is
located 330 km north east of Kalgoorlie on the
edge of Western Australia’s Great Victoria Desert.
Macmahon’s scope of work includes mine
planning, drill and blast, load and haul, crusher
feed and other associated works.
Liebherr says the T 264 in its 240 t class
matches both ultra-class hydraulic excavators, as
well as electric shovels and wheel loaders. Its
unique combination of a high-horsepower engine
(2,700 hp), an efficient Litronic Plus AC drive
system and powerful electric wheel motors
(4,425 hp) allow for faster cycle times, “making
the T 264 exceptionally productive and cost-
efficient.” At Tropicana the loading tools are all
hydraulic machines including a Cat 6060 FS
excavator (600 t); a Cat 6050 excavator (500 t); a
Cat 6040 excavator (400 t); and a Hitachi EX3600
(350 t). Along with the new Liebherr trucks there
are 19 Cat 793 trucks and three Bucyrus (now
Cat) SKF15 drills.
www.liebherr.com
Sandvik develops new battery-assisted LH514BE LHD
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t the IOM3 Mining with and for the
Electric Vehicle conference in London 29-
30 January 2020, Sandvik Mining & Rock
Technology Parts, Service and Warranty Lead
and Sales Manager, Brian Carroll talked about a
wide range of underground electric
developments at the company in his talk
‘Electrification and Automation: The Future of
Mining.’ This included a video showing the new
25 t capacity LH625iE LHD in operation before
shipping to LKAB Kiruna as well as discussion of
the attributes of electric LHDs from an
operational point of view including more peak
torque due to the electric motor meaning faster
bucket filling. There is no delay in reaction time
as there is with a diesel engine plus the electric
motor can be overloaded temporarily.
On Sandvik electric machines, there are two
major pieces of news. First, LKAB have
announced that the record capacity electric LHD,
the LH625iE, arrived at LKAB’s underground
Kiruna iron ore operation in late January 2020 to
start trials. The LHD features a 9.5 m³ bucket
and 25 t payload capacity. The basic LH625iE
design is well-proven being based on the
tethered LH625E that has already been used at
the mine for many years.
Today’s Sandvik LH625iE belongs to its i-
series, featuring advanced technology, latest
digital solutions and smart connectivity. As
examples of the loader’s intelligence, the new
Sandvik LH625iE is equipped with the Sandvik
Intelligent Control System and My Sandvik
Digital Services Knowledge Box™ as standard,
and to fully utilise the enormous capacity it
offers, the loader can be fitted with Sandvik’s
Integrated Weighing System (IWS), as well as
AutoMine ® and OptiMine ® solutions.
“The collaboration between Sandvik Mining
& Rock Technology and LKAB’s mine in Kiruna
goes back 20 years. We are satisfied with the
loaders delivered from Sandvik, and have 14 in
production today. We have had a long and good
collaboration and look forward to continuing,”
says Michael Palo, Business Area Manager at
LKAB. The LH625iE is currently being prepared
for the mine in terms of safety, then drivers and
maintenance personnel will be trained. The first
machine was expected be in operation by end
February said the mining company.
The second piece of news is that Carroll said
in his talk that Sandvik is working on a battery-
assisted version of its highly successful
tethered machine the LH514E which will be
known as the LH514BE. It is understood this will
still use a combination of tethered cable and
battery, using battery for tramming and the
cable when mucking out. The development of
horizontal cable reeling means there is the
possibility to operate with the connecting point
on either side of the unit. Low cable tension
means long cable life and a lower cable reeling
point means no cable damage on drift corners.
Carroll said that the LH514BE is in the factory
acceptance testing stage in Finland with field
tests set to start soon.
Moving to Sandvik-owned battery mining
machine specialist Artisan Vehicle Systems,
there are 10 t (A10) and 4 t (A4) LHD models and
50 t (Z50) truck models available. Both the Z50
truck and the A10 loader have autoswap
functionality, in which battery swapping can be
done without using a crane.
www.rocktechnology.sandvik/en;
www.artisanvehicles.com
ALROSA seeks Perfect Shift at Jubilee
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4 International Mining | MARCH 2020
“The Perfect Shift has been successfully
piloted at Nyurba and Udachny Divisions.
Preliminary results showed higher performance
and lower downtime of the mining fleet. Now we
need to change the mining and transportation
processes and minimise unproductive time at
Aikhal Division,” said Artem Polyvyanny, Head of
the Aikhal Production System Development
function.
The Perfect Shift at Aikhal Division will focus
on pit stop, hotseat and flexible swing shift
initiatives. Pit stop means that full maintenance,
refuelling and inspection of the mining fleet
between the shifts will take place at a fixed time
LROSA’s Production System Development
Centre (PSDC) and Aikhal Mining and
Processing Division are gearing up to
launch the Perfect Shift project, which is set to
improve performance and reduce downtime of
the mining fleet. Aikhal Division started to look
into organisational changes required for the
mine’s efficiency improvement initiatives back in
late 2019. To adapt the Perfect Shift to the Jubilee
mine, ALROSA’s PSDC created an Aikhal
production system development function.