SOUTHERN AFRICA Sishen doing the maintenance mile Big trucks need big facilities, and South Africa’s largest iron ore producer Kumba Iron Ore, a business unit of Anglo American, has pulled out all the stops to ensure that its Kathu-based Sishen operation has sufficient maintenance facilities for the first new ultra-class Komatsu 960E trucks. Already in use at the mine, they are the key to moving substantially higher volumes of waste in coming years to sustain iron ore production at a 37 Mtpa capacity, writes Mining Review Africa. that it had to be fast-tracked, says Hamish Riddet, project manager of WorleyParsons RSA. IN SHORT R1 billion has been invested at Kumba Iron Ore’s Sishen mine for its new life- of-mine (LOM) heavy mining equipment (HME) workshop – part of a larger- scale project which will see the mine retain its high profitability as it ages. A s one of the world’s five largest open pit mines, Sishen mine is no stranger to big sizes. As the ore body dips and thins to the west, waste stripping of up to 270 Mtpa is required for the production of 37 Mtpa of iron ore. To provide for these increased material movement requirements the fleet has been expanded to include 81 Komatsu 960 and 860E haul trucks, all fitted with collision avoidance systems. According to a review conducted in 2010, the maintenance facilities and outside storage capacity was insufficient for the fleet and much The new Komatsu trucks which will use the new HME workshop are huge 10 MINING REVIEW AFRICA ISSUE 2 2014 larger facilities would be needed to correctly and safely maintain the giant 960E trucks, which measure in at 7.37 m in height, 9.6 m in width and 15.6 m in length and boast a carrying capacity of 350 t. Construction fast-tracked Soon after the review result was revealed, WorleyParsons RSA was appointed by Kumba Iron Ore as the EPCM consultants for the pre- feasibility and feasibility studies to investigate methods to accelerate the project’s design, procurement and implementation. The implementation phase of the project was so urgent “The project aim was to find an optimised solution to cater for the additional service demands. We also needed to ensure the sustainability and improvement of safety and operational standards. To achieve this, we investigated the bulk infrastructure for the new tyre workshop and associated services because the development of new infrastructure is an essential part of future expansion.” Bigger and better The trucks, which needed to be serviced outside the workshop with mobile cranes while the facilities were being completed, now have 16 roomy working bays available to them. With 416.7 m² of floor space per bay, there is plenty of space for the mega trucks and the haul fleet can be increased