Caqital Equipment News October 2018

MINING TIPPERS

R. Davis and Co. has deployed Scania tippers to haul run-of-mine material from the pit to the processing plants at the Cam and Motor Gold Mine in Eiffel Flats, near Kadoma, Zimbabwe.

Moving more payloads for less

A fleet of Scania mining tippers is proving its worth to a Zimbabwean mining contractor with its overall equipment effectiveness – high availability, utilisation, productivity, quick cycle times and lower fuel consumption – allowing the contractor to haul more volumes for less, writes Munesu Shok o.

G iven that transportation, on average, accounts for 30% of total mining costs, it’s imperative that mining contractors place efficiency of their hauling gear at the summit of their priorities. Conventional thinking has always been an obstacle to identifying the most cost-effective ways and means for improvement. While mining companies are start- ing to understand implicitly that productivity carries a value, many are still not armed with the right information to make informed choices on the rewards involved. A case in point is the migration from conventional yellow metal haulers to on-road type of haulers, such as Scania’s mining tippers. While this solution has gained popularity in developed markets, local miners still need a complete paradigm shift when it comes to their selection of hauling gear, which still favours yellow metal solutions,

mainly driven by the conventional “bigger is always better” mentality. However, it’s encouraging to see that as local mines start to look for ways to reduce the gap between earnings and operating costs, they are opening up to new and cost-effective solutions. It is for this reason that R. Davis and Co., a mining contractor operating in Zimbabwe, has chosen to deploy Scania mining tippers at its gold mining project at the Cam and Motor Gold Mine, operated by Rio Zim in Eiffel Flats, near Kadoma. Having always operated yellow metal haulers, R. Davis and Co first experienced the Scania mining tipper’s capabilities when it took two G380 8x4 first generation mining tippers on hire from another Zimbabwean contractor. Since then, the management team has never looked back. This prompted the decision to invest in its own first four G410 8x4 (single-cylinder) mining tippers in June 2017,

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