On the Cover: Under ‘the Eagle has landed’ theme, CASE Construction Equipment has launched the long-awaited CX 220C LC Heavy Duty excavator in South Africa. Key talking points on the new 22-tonne excavator are the viable price point and up to 10% fuel economy compared with the predecessor model, giving CASE the edge to compete for a larger share of the lucrative, yet competitive 20 – 25 t local excavator market.
Latest on CASE Construction Equipment’s arrival lounge is the 22-tonne (t) CX 220C LC Heavy Duty excavator which, according to Graham Forte, Divisional MD of CASE Construction Equipment South Africa, strengthens the CNH Industrial brand’s offering in this market segment.
The CX 220C LC, which replaces the company’s previous offering, the CX 210, is suited for a range of applications, including quarrying, forestry, roadworks, earthworks and general construction. “We are targeting the main sectors of the market, principally construction, plant hire and agriculture,” says Forte, adding that the agricultural sector remains a lucrative market for CASE in South Africa, accounting for 56% of the company’s sales.
The making of SA’s equipment one-stop shop
Having successfully backed the JCB brand in South Africa and neighbouring countries for the past 18 years, Kemach Equipment has over the past year adopted a multi-brand approach, following the signing of new strategic distributorship agreements with several leading global OEMs. The strategy behind the ‘one-stop shop’ approach, explains CEO Les Lothian, is to provide customers with the convenience and efficiency they need by offering a multitude of products and services under one roof.
Established in 2003, Kemach has over the years been the force behind the JCB name in South Africa and neighbouring countries such as Lesotho and Eswatini (previously Swaziland). However, following the end of the JCB dealership agreement in 2021, Kemach has adopted a multi-brand strategy that has seen the company entering into distributorship agreements with several premium equipment brands.
The business realignment strategy was put in motion in March 2020 when, in partnership with Anhui HELI, Kemach introduced its Kemach Forklift range, giving the company a footprint into the booming materials handling market.
The distributorship agreement with McCloskey International in October 2020 was a further coup for Kemach in its quest to expand its products and services in the mining, aggregates, construction and demolition, recycling and infrastructure markets.
In July 2021, Kemach was appointed as the new supplier of the full range of BULL backhoe loaders in South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini. This was followed by yet another strategic distributorship agreement with BOMAG GmbH in August 2021, allowing Kemach to market and support the full range of BOMAG’s heavy and light machines in South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini.
During the same month, Kemach Equipment signed a distributorship agreement to sell and support the full range of Liebherr earthmoving equipment in South Africa. The range includes excavators (20 – 100 t), wheel loaders (10,4 – 25 t), bulldozers (20 – 73 t) and a line of telehandlers.
With effect from September 1, 2021, Kemach also took over the distributorship of the Torpedo range of breakers from Maximum Equipment.
Getting the better of water management challenges in wet processing
While wet processing is a crucial part of mineral processing, water scarcity remains one of the burning environmental issues that operations have to contend with. However, wet processing solutions from various OEMs are helping mining and quarrying companies overcome water management challenges.
Within the extractive industries, the value of materials is significantly increased when washed, but water is a sensitive subject.
According to Gerrit du Plessis, product specialist at Multotec, a major problem for mines and quarries currently is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain the requisite water use licences for expansions.
“Another challenge is that deteriorating water quality due to reuse without treatment can have knock-on effects such as lower recovery rates where chemicals are involved and scaling due to an increase in the hardness of the water. There is also, of course, an increase in costs when contaminated water has to be stored,” explains Du Plessis.
Wayne Douglas, head of R&D, Innovation and Minerals Testing & Research Centre (MTRC), Mining Industry, FLSmidth, reasons that with growing populations, a larger middle class and the transition to a low-carbon, green energy future, the demand for minerals will only increase in the next decade. This means a greater environmental impact from mining. A more sustainable future, he says, requires action and FLSmidth is leading the move towards zero emissions in mining, without compromising quality or its customers’ commercial competitiveness.
“An average size concentrator with a capacity of 100 000 tonnes/day can require 50 000 to 70 000 m³ of makeup water per day. Often our largest mineral resources are found and mined in highly water-stressed regions. To address this challenge, FLSmidth provides a full suite of technologies for water recovery, including thickened tailings, paste tailings as well as filtered tailings solutions that can recover up to 95% of the water used in the process. With our full tailings solutions, EcoTails, we can provide fast filtered tailings that can be blended with waste rock to form a geotechnically stable GeoWaste that can then be conveyed and stacked,” explains Douglas.
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