product news
52
06.13
Tenova TAKRAF Africa (formerly Bateman
Engineered Technology) recently supervised
the commissioning of the bucket elevators it
had supplied to Aveng EPC, the main EPC
contractor for the plant at Moma Sands, the
minerals sands mine in Northern Mozam-
bique, owned and operated by Kenmare Re-
sources.
The Moma expansion project – for which
the bucket elevators were supplied – is aimed
at increasing the current production capacity
of the mine to 1,2 Mt/a. The bucket elevators
are used to elevate heavy mineral concen-
trate in the dry circuits of the mineral separa-
tion plant from the lower floors to the gravity
The accessibility of Bell Equipment is one
of the qualities of the company that have
impressed Japie Botes, Managing Director
of Genet Mining, the South African contract
mining subsidiary of Genet SA, which oper-
ates on the larger African continent. Other
subsidiaries include Genet Mineral Process-
ing, McPhails and Econoslag.
Genet Mining is heavily involved in contract
coal mining for some of that industry’s major
players. Typical contracts last three years al-
lowing Genet to commit to capital-intensive
purchases of earthmov-
ing equipment. The
very nature of contract
mining dictates that it is
production driven with
the client demanding
maximum uptime from
its mining contractor
and his earthmoving
and material handling
equipment.
“To attain this bench-
mark for production, we
as a company have the
policy to maintain our Bell earthmoving equip-
ment with original OEM spares and we adhere
to strict service intervals of 250 hours,” says
Botes. “The advantages of this policy can be
found in some of our 2007-model Bell B40D
articulated dump trucks (ADTs) that despite
having done in excess of 23 000 hours are still
in productive use each day.”
Genet Mining’s fleet of Bell machines now
numbers just over 130 units and comprises
L1806D and L2606D front-end loaders, Bell
B40D and B50D ADTs and Bell 770G and
Bell machines at work on one of Genet’s contracts.
Japie Botes (left), Managing Director of Genet Mining, with Bell Equip-
ment Middelburg Sales Representative Carel Venter.
Mining contractor sold on Bell machines
870G graders. Bell 315SJ tractor loader
backhoes complete the fleet. Bell manufac-
tured machines are generally acquired with
extended warranties on their wet drive trains,
which the company believes adds to their
working life.
Genet Mining offers total pit services
starting with overburden removal, drilling
and blasting and coal extraction using doz-
ers, ADTs and mechanical shovels. Product
stockpile and discard management are also
offered. Even when full mining is not required,
material handling, haul road maintenance, re-
habilitation and civil construction projects are
tackled with equal commitment.
In the Mpumalanga coal mines, rollover
mining is generally practised where reha-
bilitation is carried out concurrently with the
mining process.
“Each of our mining projects is treated as
an individual business unit and our managers
have single-point accountability,” Botes says.
“It must be said though that the advantage for
us with our coal projects in the Middelburg,
Mpumalanga area is that Bell Equipment has
a Customer Service Centre on our doorstep.”
According to Botes, earthmoving equip-
ment performance is reliant on the technical
back-up service available and this is where
Bell Equipment has a distinct advantage with
its well-established and wide service net-
work.
“Bell Equipment’s B40D and B50D ADTs
have made their mark as good all-wheel
driven haulers in challenging underfoot con-
ditions in many places but I want to point
out how we’ve come to enjoy using their Bell
770G and 870G graders,” he says. “We be-
lieve we were the first Southern African con-
tract mining company to use these Bell grad-
ers and we have been mightily impressed
with their performance where they are used
to maintain our many haul roads and loading
platforms.”
Backing this statement of confidence in
the Richards Bay-based brand is the fact that
Genet Mining recently took delivery of three
Bell 870G and three Bell 770G graders with
the aim of complementing its Bell fleet on its
coal mining projects.
Bell Equipment, tel (+27 11) 928-9700
Tenova TAKRAF bucket elevators commissioned
distributors situated on the top floors of the
building.
Tenova TAKRAF’s scope of work included
project management and planning, the de-
sign, engineering, procurement and manu-
facture of the bucket elevators, as well as
loading them onto the client’s transport.
Tenova TAKRAF supplied five new eleva-
tors and also made modifications to another
15. “These modifications involved changing
the elevator dynamics to enable them to be
used at the increased tonnage rates,” said
Tenova TAKRAF Project Manager Hector
Matake. “We achieved this by making modi-
fications to the head stations and changing
the discharge characteristics by modifying
the speed and bucket design.”
“It was a difficult order from our side,” said
Aveng EPC Mechanical Engineering Manager
Jacob Poulsen. “It was not simply the deliv-
ery of new elevators, but the refurbishment
of a large number as well. There were several
challenges to overcome, but overall it went
very well. We received quality drawings and
good technical support from Tenova’s side,
and the design sheets received from them
were comprehensive and contained detailed
information.”
Hector Matake, Tenova TAKRAF,
tel (+27 11) 201-2300
