Modern Mining June 2020

COVER STORY

of these machines in the first six months of opera- tion,” he says. Product support was also a key consideration. De Kock says every machine is as good as its support. The establishment of its local subsidiary, LiuGong South Africa, has allowed the LiuGong brand to be a force to be reckoned in the African yellow metal equipment sector. Burgers Equipment & Spares as the sole dealer has also given the brand the support muscle which has been central to the acceptance of the brand in the mining sector in recent years. As a key example of going the extra mile for the customer, Burgers Equipment & Spares will issue a consignment stock of critical spares to the customer, which will be kept at the customer premises. “We will, on a monthly basis, check what we have used and get invoiced for that, which will really assist in keeping machines running all the time. That was also a determining factor, apart from the independent ref- erences,” says de Kock. Burger concludes: “We want to offer the local market earthmoving and construction machines that are cost-effective, easy to maintain and fuel effi- cient. We want to ensure that every job gets done with the highest productivity and minimal downtime. Customer support and satisfaction are our key pri- orities. We want to ensure customers are always informed, valued and appreciated by our team of experts. I am also extremely proud to say that LiuGong is the largest wheel loader manufacturer in the world, based on units sold per year.” 

Systems, which was installed onto the loaders on the day of delivery. The mine already uses this technol- ogy on some of its own trackless mobile machinery in line with the Department of Mineral Resources’ safety regulations. “Burgers also upgraded the tyres from an L3 to an L5 radial, to make sure we have a higher quality tyre that can last longer, given the uptime demands of a 24/7 operation,” says de Kock. Burger adds: “The L5 tyre can take more punish- ment than a normal L3 tyre.” Additionally, the machines have been delivered with the BEKA-MAX automatic lubrication system from BEKALube South Africa, the sole importer and distributor of BEKA products in Southern Africa. “Due to the 24/7 nature of the project, we requested an automatic greasing system which will make sure that the machines are well-lubricated all the time. For greater longevity of our capital equip- ment, we believe that it should be maintained in the best possible way,” says de Kock. Why LiuGong? A major factor in the decision to purchase LiuGong loaders was the price. De Kock believes the LiuGong offering is better priced, yet it boasts a range of tried and tested components that make it competitive in arduous mining conditions. “The powertrain, for example, comprises a 6LTAA9.3L Cummins engine, Kawasaki pumps and a ZF drivetrain. These are not foreign to us; these are components we understand and trust, and are well equipped to service them,” says de Kock. “We are quite confident that the product is the right fit for the task at hand.” A market research, adds de Kock, was also conducted prior to the acquisition of the LiuGong wheel loaders. Several independent references approached by the MKO JV sang praises of the LiuGong wheel loader. “We did a bit of our own market research by investigating other companies in the area and there were two strong references who expressed great satisfaction with the LiuGong product. For us, these are the first LiuGong machines we have purchased, but we are happy with what we have seen thus far. However, we will have a good picture of the nature

Left to right: The machines had to come installed with the Loadrite L3180 loader SmartScale. The machines have been delivered with the Bekalube BEKA-MAX automatic lubrication system. The machines have been equipped with mine spec LED lights, moving away from the conventional halogen light.

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Key takeaways  Burgers Equipment & Spares has delivered eight LiuGong 856H wheel loaders to the MKO JV, a contract mining joint venture between M Civils and MKO Pallet Services, for use in a chrome handling application  The five-year, 1,5 million tonnes per annum project, which commenced on June 1, 2020, is a 24-hour operation which will see the contractor deploy- ing seven LiuGong wheel loaders round-the-clock, with the eighth being a backup machine  Due to the short turnaround time between the delivery and the deploy- ment of the machines to site, the client requested that Burgers Equipment & Spares deliver the loaders ‘mine-ready’  Because the contractor is handling a chrome product, which by its very nature has a higher density than several other ores, the machines have been equipped with a 2 m³ bucket instead of the standard 3 m³

June 2020  MODERN MINING  13