Ground Control 14 - Luyckx

Job siteThe Moatize coal reserve is 954million tonnes and its life expectancy is35 years. There are over 1,100 Vale employees and 600 subcontractorspresent on the site. They work across three shifts and in four teams,with one of these on standby. The overall proportion of Mozambicans is84 per cent, despite the scarcity of skilled human resources.“The civil war ended 20 years ago and the 20- and 30-somethingslack sufficient education and work experience,” says Mamoru Sawabe,President of Hitachi Construction Machinery (Mozambique), Ltd., thefirst local subsidiary established by a Japanese company in the country.“In these circumstances, it is no easy task to maintain a high operatingrate, while hiring and training local workers. Fortunately, Hitachi hassome Japanese Brazilian staff, who have come from HCM’s head officein Tokyo and are helping to support the local workers and developtheir skills.”The mining method is an open pit through sequential layers usingexcavators, wheel loaders and rigid dump trucks, in which theproduction and rehabilitation process runs simultaneously. With vastquantities of overburden to be removed and dumped in designatedpiles, and layers of coal to be collected and transported to the primarycrusher, Vale has invested heavily in its mining equipment.The line-up includes two EX8000-6s (with 43m 3 coal buckets) andthree EX5500-6s (34m 3 ) – the largest two excavators manufacturedby Hitachi. The machines are subjected to one of Africa’s harshestenvironments, where temperatures exceed 50°C, and they come witha bespoke after-sales support package to meet Vale’s requirements.One of the EX8000-6s had already been operational for three monthswhen Ground Control visited Moatize in May 2012. However, the secondmachine was being assembled by a team of specialist sub-contractors,overseen by Hitachi Construction Machinery Southern Africa Co., Ltd.’sNational Product Specialist, Dave Thomas.Dave has worked in the industry for almost 30 years and already spentsix months at this mine to manage the installation of the EX5500-6s andEX8000-6s. “Each of the disassembled EX8000-6s was transportedon 29 trucks from the port at Durban in South Africa to the site on arigorous two-week journey,” he explains.“The first one took eight men – one rigger and seven fitters – only 19days to prepare, due to the urgency required by Vale to get the machineworking on the site. When the EX8000-6 is ready for action, it takes us1.5 days to walk it down to the pit!”The decision regarding which mining excavator to purchase is onethat Vale takes very seriously. It not only compares different machinesfor productivity, but also for the level of technology that contributes tothe safety of the operators and support offered by the manufacturer inremote areas such as Tete.“We have a dedicated department in Brazil that is responsible foracquiring new machinery,” says Mário Carpegiane, Vale’s MaintenanceSupervisor at Moatize. “They know the level of equipment required tostart operations at the mine and have knowledge of the availability andsupport for other equipment that we are using around the world. Hitachihas a good reputation and is renowned for continuously developing itsmining equipment.”After one year of production, Mário had nothing but positive feedbackabout the first two EX5500-6s. The availability was excellent and thequality of service and support had exceeded expectations. On thisbasis, it was decided that Vale would continue to operate Hitachiexcavators at Moatize, so another EX5500-6 and two EX8000-6s wereordered to assist with the expansion of production.The EX8000-6 offers a quiet working environmentThe EX8000-6s and EX5500-6s are subjected to one of Africa’s harshest environments, where temperatures exceed 50°C14 Hitachi Construction Machinery (Europe) NV GROUND CONTROL15