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PRODUCT News
60
MODERN MINING
August 2017
Index to advertisers
AEL Mining Services
32
Afrimat Shared Services
58
ALCO-Safe
56
Allied Crane Hire
27
Babcock
OFC
Barloworld Equipment
15
Barloworld Power – Industrial
IBC
Bell Equipment
2
BME
41
BMG
57
Booyco Electronics
45
Brelko
48
CDE Global Limited
59
DRA Projects SA
IFC
FLSmidth
49
Joy Global
7
Kwatani
51
Loesche SA
39
Maptek
40
Metso Minerals
34
MMD Mineral Sizing
37
Mynbou Rigs Africa (Belaz Africa)
55
Osborn Engineered Products
36
PANalytical
54
Powermite
53
Sandvik Mining & Rock Technology
30
SEW EURODRIVE
OBC
Specialised Exhibitions
Insert
The Joburg Indaba
20
Weba Chute Systems
9
Winder Controls
11
Wirtgen
46
WorleyParsons
17
Zest WEG Group
13
Extreme weather, a remote location, and
mountainous terrain over 3 100 m above
sea level: these conditions – at a Lesotho
mine site – have not prevented Johnson
Crane Hire from delivering the safe and
reliable service for which it has become
known.
According to Johnson Crane Hire’s
Vanderbijlpark branch manager, Dean
Wepener, the team has fine-tuned its oper-
ation in the ‘Mountain Kingdom’ to ensure
that the customer can run operations effi-
ciently and can rest easy in the knowledge
that safe lifting services are taken care of.
Johnson Crane Hire has provided a
35-tonne mobile all-terrain crane on the
mine site for an extended period of time,
along with trained and experienced opera-
tors to ensure there are no hitches in the
lifting duties required.
“This contract presents a number of
unusual challenges, but none that we can’t
meet,” says Wepener. “Our main task is to
keep the on-site crane operating in top
condition and compliant in terms of our
own operational policies, national regula-
tions and customer requirements.”
Working in weather that regularly deliv-
ers searing heat, freezing cold, torrential
rain and howling winds, the crane operates
12-hour shifts for seven days a week. Its
duties are focused on the range of main-
tenance activities that the mine demands,
especially as the harsh climate increases
the rate of replacement of many items of
equipment on site.
“Our service offering to the mine
includes a four-pronged application of
specialist skills,” he says. “An operator is
permanently on site and rotates with a
standby operator to ensure compliance
with Lesotho’s labour regulations and
Johnson Crane Hire’s best practice policies.
Secondly, a maintenance mechanic visits
the site regularly to service the machine,
replacing oil and filters, and attending to
any other mechanical issues arising.”
The third leg of responsibility and
support is the certified lifting machine
inspector (LMI), who visits the site quar-
terly to conduct the required compliance
check on all aspects of the crane.
“We also have a Johnson Crane Hire
foreman who makes on-site inspections,
checking on both the machine and the
operator,” says Wepener. “In addition to
those four interventions, I also am at the
site regularly as the branch manager, and
will do my own assessment of the crane’s
condition and general operations.”
The aim of all this attention, he says, is
to help ensure that there is no unneces-
sary downtime on the mine, which suffers
substantial losses for every hour of lost
production.
There are also other, larger cranes that
Johnson Crane Hire makes available to this
mining customer for specific short-term
jobs. Here, cross-border administration
and logistics add a host of other demands
to the project, and the team must keep
a number of bases covered if they are to
meet the customer’s deadlines.
A recent contract involved making a
275-tonne mobile crane available on site.
This required transport arrangements for
the crane and support vehicles in order to
mobilise the crane’s extensive components
– including counterweights, hook-blocks
and outrigger pads – to make the 400-km
journey to site. Apart from stringent and
onerous paperwork relating to the crane
and trucks crossing the SA-Lesotho border,
the convoy had to negotiate the narrow,
twisting mountain road with the help of
escorts and traffic authorities.
Elmari Snyman, Johnson Crane Hire, tel (+27 11) 455-9242
Crane hire company up to the challenges of Lesotho
Johnson Crane Hire undertaking a lift on a mine site in Lesotho.