Modern Quarrying January-February 2015

ON THE COVER

BELAZ set to increase local

Mynbou Rigs Afrika, distributor of the BELAZ brand of heavy-duty rigid dump trucks, has increased its offering to the local market with its 450 t BELAZ-75710 haul truck, a follow on from its 220 t capacity 75302 units which are working very successfully in a challenging environment at Sishen in the Northern Cape.

offer superior fuel efficiency with fuel consump- tion being between 10-15% lower than those of its competitors.” The trucks have also been proven in some of the harshest mining conditions in the world, oper- ating equally well in the cold of Siberia, the high- lands of South America and the heat and dust of Sishen. “They have been designed for easy mainte- nance and operation as they have less dependence on electronic systems than their competitors, which we see as a direct advantage,” he says. “They are manufactured in accordance with all the appro- priate international standards and codes and the Belarus factory is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities to guarantee an advanced, high-quality product.” The range can be tailored to customer speci- fications; in the case of the units leased by Tau for Sishen several modifications were made including engine cooling systems, custom-made buckets, and enhancements to the cabs to ensure comfort and safety. This Jet Park-based company, while being rela- tively small in industry terms, is well equipped to maintain its machines. It holds a generous stock- holding of parts in South Africa, and on the rare occasions when a part is not available, Mynbou Rigs Afrika is able to air-freight this in from its fac- tory in Belarus. In the case of Sishen, the company has its own technicians on site, while also using sub-contrac- tors such as MTU South Africa and others. According to Venchik, while the BELAZ trucks are not so numerous in South Africa, globally they account for 30% of rigid dump truck sales. They lead the market in Eastern Europe and are also extremely popular in China, Mongolia and other Asian countries. The trucks are manufactured in Belarus, a country which was previously part of the old USSR, but which has been independent since the early 1990s. The manufacturer Belaz (JSC Belarusian Autoworks), is based in Zhodino, Belarus, where its factory produces around 2 000 units a year. BELAZ first introduced its trucks in the early 1960s as small machines with 27 and 40 t payloads. However, the range has broadened over the years and today the company supplies mechanical drive trucks in the 30-60 t payload class and electric drive trucks in the 90-360 t payload class. Its 360 t (or 400 t) machine is equivalent to the top-of-the-line machines from Caterpillar (with its Cat 797F and

D etailing the advantages of buying BELAZ, Mynbou Rigs Afrika director Dmitry Venchik says the machines are typically 20-30% more economi- cally efficient than competitive ma- chines and yet comparable or even better in terms of performance. “We believe that the BELAZ trucks

A 220 t capacity BELAZ-75302 truck, one of several BELAZ machines supplied to mining contractor Tau Mining by Mynbou Rigs Afrika.

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MODERN QUARRYING

January - February 2015