Modern Mining August 2017

PRODUCT News

Crane hire company up to the challenges of Lesotho

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

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

Johnson Crane Hire undertaking a lift on a mine site in Lesotho.

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60  MODERN MINING  August 2017