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CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS
SEPTEMBER 2017
4
COVER STORY
C
hange, in any form, is often diffi-
cult. Many businesses often find
themselves resisting change, per-
haps because of the perceived risk or fear
associated with it. In mining and quarrying,
tippers have always been regarded as
ideal for light duty applications such as
re-handling of ore and hauling of crushed
material from the crushing plants to stock-
piles. For long, tipper vehicles have been
excepted from some arduous applications
such as hauling run-of-mine (ROM) mate-
rial from the rock face to the processing
plants, where yellow metal haulers have
always been the preferred solution, es-
pecially reinforced by the ‘bigger is always
better’ mentality.
For PPC Slurry, the decision to ditch its
conventional yellow metal rigid dump trucks
(RDTs) it had trusted for over 100 years to
haul ROM material from the quarry face
to the processing plants, and opting for
Scania mining tippers for an application
often regarded a no go area for this type of
vehicles, called for a complete “paradigm
shift”. “To change to Scania, after running
a specific brand of RDTs for over a century,
took a complete change of mind-set for us as
management, as well as our people,” says
Andre Niemand, technical advisor: Mining at
PPC Slurry.
Key considerations
Several factors were behind PPC Slurry’s big
shift from conventional yellow metal haulers
to Scania mining tippers. The unavailability of
tyres for this range of RDTs became a turning
point for an operation where downtime,
due to any standing equipment, is out of
question. Tyre companies that previously
supplied tyres for this range of haulers had
ceased to import them. Slurry started looking
for alternative suppliers, but the TKPH of
the alternative tyre range was very low, and
during hot seasons, tyre bursts became the
order of the day.
For an operation that has embarked on a
major expansion programme, looking for a
cost-effective hauling solution as part of the
larger cost-cutting initiatives to support the
financing of its ongoing expansion project was
another major driver in relooking the hauling
gear. As part of its strategic approach that
aims to double its business every 10 years
through a diversified product and solution
strategy, PPC recently invested a whopping
R1,7 billion to upgrade Slurry’s Kiln 9, which
is scheduled for its first clinker production
at the start of 2018. The brownfield project,
which kicked off in October 2015, will
increase cement production at Slurry from
1,2 million tonnes per year (mt/y) to 1,9 mt/y.
To be able to finance such a capital-in-
tensive project, a number of cost cutting
initiatives were identified. Transport – which
In a fundamental change in approach that dispelled the conventional
‘bigger is always better’ mentality, PPC Slurry took a decision in 2015 to
replace a fleet of its rigid dump trucks – a hauling solution it had run for
over 100 years at its limestone operation – with four Scania mining tippers
to load run-of-mine material from the face to the processing plants. Two
years on, the decision is paying substantial dividends through several cost
advantages, writes
Munesu Shoko.
PPC Slurry has deployed a total
of four Scania mining tippers to
haul ROM material from the face
to the processing plants at its
limestone operation.
AT THE FOREFRONT
OF A PARADIGM SHIFT
With its 2 x 900 kg front axles, a 32 000 kg
Bogie GVM and a 50 t chassis, the Scania
G410CB8x4EHZ has a payload of 34 t.
“We needed to look at something
else. We decided on a construction-
type of a vehicle, but one that would
be able to carry larger payloads that
we wanted to.”