8 / 44
CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS
APRIL 2017
6
F
or any contract miner, equipment
availability and reliability is the
basis at which its success on a
project is determined. Any minute
lost through machine downtime
is money down the drain. This is even
more so for a 24-hour operation where
every minute and second are so carefully
balanced between working time and
planned standing time, with any unplanned
stoppage absolutely out of question.
Maintaining optimal mine site produc-
tivity ensures continuity in achieving tar-
gets of production and sustainability. To
achieve this, the scope of work targets
must always be met – hence reliable and
consistent equipment is required. This
is exactly what a fleet of LiuGong wheel
loaders is offering to a contractor working
at a 24/7 coal mining operation in Mpuma-
langa, South Africa.
Balele Contractors, a contract miner that
specialises in coal mining and processing,
has deployed a fleet of nine LiuGong
CLG856 wheel loader models on a round-
the-clock operation at Elandsfontein
Colliery. The fleet comprises both the older
CLG856 and newer CLG856H models.
Balele Contractors trialled its first
LiuGong loader back in 2009, and never
looked back. To date, the mining contractor
owns a strong 25-unit fleet of LiuGong
front-end loaders, and counting. At the
time of its first purchase, there was general
sentiment in the local market that Chinese-
made construction gear would not stand
the tough African working conditions, yet
alone a 24/7 mining application. But, eight
years down the line, Balele Contractors is
proving this to be a baseless myth with an
enlarged fleet of loaders that are proving
their worth.
“We run a 24/7 operation, of which 22 of
the 24 hours, the machines are physically
working,” says Edmund Johnstone,
operations manager at Balele Contractors,
who tells
Capital Equipment News
that the loaders have even surpassed the
expectations of both the manufacturer and
the equipment owner. Local dealer, Burgers
Equipment & Spares, at some point brought
over LiuGong engineers from China to
witness the working environment in which
these loaders are subjected to. “On one of
the first visits by the engineers, they were
surprised to see that these loaders were
actually working in excess of 20 hours a
LOADING
BEYOND
EXPECTATIONS
A fleet of LiuGong wheel loaders working round-the-clock on a
taxing coal mining project has surpassed the expectations of both the
manufacturer and the equipment owner, writes
Munesu Shoko
.
JOBSITE REPORT