ON THE GROUND
www.equipmentandhire.co.za
of its staff. “We have just as many people
getting long service awards for 20 plus
years as for five years,” says Harding.
“We don’t hire our equipment because
one of our market segments is the plant
hire business and we would be competing
with our own clients.” ELB does not
manufacture its own equipment but over
the past century has cemented ties with
best-of-breed OEMs and distributes on
their behalf. “The world’s best from a
single supplier,” Harding describes.
The culture of conservatism when
choosing equipment is rapidly changing.
Previously an entire multi-operation group
standardised on a single brand but the
realisation that different sites are suited
to different equipment, has effected a
change. Customers realise that where
a supplier is assured of their business
they tend to become complacent and
lack urgency regarding after-sales service.
It costs a quarry a great deal of money
every hour their plant is down. That is the
dilemma facing mining operations that
have purchased cheaper Chinese plant,
when it breaks down it can be out of
operation for months awaiting a technician
from China.
Hiring versus buying
Hiring rather than buying equipment is
often more practical at the beginning of
a quarry’s lifecycle and at the end when
remaining life of mine doesn’t warrant it.
In the middle phase, plant and equipment
suppliers will advise companies on the
merits of buying their own equipment as
opposed to hiring contractors to do the
job. The advantage of using a contractor
is that if tonnage targets are not met, or
there are problems with the equipment, it
is the contractor’s issue not the quarry’s.
But it comes at a rand-per-tonne cost. If
a quarry has engineers and technicians
on site, as the bigger ones do, plant and
equipment can be run much cheaper,
salesmen argue.
It depends on the operation as there
are situations where the quality of the
contractor or the remaining length of mining
suggest outsourcing may be superior, or
even the only way to run operations.
Local manufacturer Metal’lum is
constructing a large warehouse to ensure
easy availability of parts for its range of
screens and crushers - parts which are
standard to almost any machine. New
plant sales are relatively rare but parts
for screens, crushers and feeders are an
everyday event, so manufacturers are
increasing their stocks of spares to meet
this demand.
“Plant and equipment can last 20
years and more but regularly require
maintenance and spares, which the
technicians on site can undertake,”
concludes Bajkay.
offers product and operator training for all
equipment that we sell.
“When selecting plant, it is important
to consider the size of the rock that
needs to be crushed, the capacity
required (how many tonnes need to
be processed), size of final product as
well as material type (for instance rock,
coal, manganese). It is also important
to consider the aftersales service that
you will receive from the OEM to ensure
quick turnaround times for repairs and
maintenance. Standing machines can be
very costly for the customer. HPE Africa
values the relationship that we build
with our customers and we spend time
with each customer to get to know their
operation and their requirements,” says
Van der Watt.
The process of selecting plant and
equipment starts, with a formal technical
analysis of the nature of the rock on site.
Is it blasted rock or just dug up rock?
What size is it, what are the specifications
of the rock such as its hardness and what
size should the final product be? After the
analysis, suppliers give an entire solution
based on the final product.
Feeding, crushing and screening plant
is not high-tech and all the competitors –
Osborn, McCloskey, Metso, Weir, Finlay,
Bell and ELB – offer a similar product
ranges. Consequently, the differentiator
is the relationship that the supplier has
with the mining company, its depth of
experience and after-sales service. With
Osborn, for instance, after-sales is more
than half its business. Customers typically
think they know what they want, but
sometimes what they want isn’t right for
the conditions. Sometimes customers
can save money by having the right
equipment which can reduce the number
of crushers or feeders to achieve the
same result.
Among the other factors to consider,
says ELB Equipment divisional sales
manager Wakefield Harding, is the life
of mine remaining as well as tonnages
mined. ELB Equipment is focused on the
owner-managed mining operation as well
as the corporate sector. ELB turns 100
this year, and its longevity over the past
30 to 40 years, he says, is a result of its
focus on the owner-managed segment,
which the larger players have not focused
on to the same extent. This manifests
in a direct-access philosophy where any
customer has direct access to Harding
and any other ELB director.
Another reason for the longevity of
ELB, he says, is the depth of experience
Quarrying and mining sites are surely at the top of the list when it
comes to demanding conditions for equipment.
SEPTEMBER 2019
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