Capital Equipment News November 2021

COVER STORY

excavator to load our 45 t articulated dumpers hauling material from the mine face to the processing plants. The SY500H has been paired with our 30 and 35 t dumpers. During a few months of operation, the SANY machines have proven to be much better than the ones we had. They are running smoothly with no issues whatsoever,” says Mabena. Meanwhile, the five wheel loaders are working at Overlooked Colliery, where they are tasked to load trucks, feeding plants and stockpiling. Value offering Mabena has been impressed by the availability of the machines thus far, mainly due to the service being provided by GEM. To maximise uptime, Overlooked Colliery has taken a service contract, which will see GEM servicing machines at 500-hour intervals. Central to the deal was GEM’s ability to provide a total solution to the customer. The machines were financed via Goscor Finance, the Goscor Group’s own captive finance facility. Also included in the package deal are insurance and service. After 36 months of instalments, Overlooked Colliery will have an option to

The 50 t SY500H SANY excavator.

Overlooked Colliery’s acquisition of Exxaro Resources’ coal assets. In a review of its business, Exxaro deemed Dorstfontein, Forzando and Tumelo operations – collectively known as Exxaro Coal Central (ECC) – as non-core to the company’s future strategic objective, which entails diversifying away from coal into renewable energy. Overlooked met Exxaro’s selection criteria for a potential buyer, which included value maximisation, broad-based black ownership and sustainability of the new operator. Prior to the acquisition of the Exxaro assets, Overlooked Colliery was producing 2,4-million t of coal a year from its existing three operations.

With capacity from the new assets, the company plans to double to 4,8-million t per annum by next year. The fleet of SANY machines, deployed at two different operations – Schoonland Colliery and Overlooked Colliery – is playing a major role in the company’s quest for increased production. Tshepo Mabena, operations manager at Schoonland Colliery, where the two excavators have been deployed, tells Capital Equipment News that the machines have thus far lived up to expectations. The 75 t SY750H and the 50 t SY500H SANY excavators are at the centre of production at Schoonland, loading haulers in the pit. “We have deployed the 75 t

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CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS NOVEMBER 2021