SA Earthworks grows its Cat articulated truck fleet to meet mining sector expansion.
Deploying across mining sites in the North West and Gauteng provinces, Midrand based contractor, SA Earthworks is working on a range of medium to longer-term projects that, combined, add up to the loading and hauling of millions of tonnes of overburden and blasted rock annually.
These activities run in parallel with the company’s bulk earthworks and civil infrastructure contracts, which includes extensive expertise in railway construction. At Hernic Ferrochrome in the North West, for instance, SA Earthworks completed a private rail siding and accompanying bridges; works here entailing a cut to fill operation with associated layer works, plus the blasting of around 40 000m3 of rock, together with storm water reticulation and service access roads.
Current examples in the building sector include the importing of around 50 000m3 of fill material for a new building platform at Distell’s distribution centre in Springs, Gauteng. The project scope includes internal roads and a new car park. SA Earthworks has also just completed a similar earthworks contract for Amalgamated Beverage Industries (ABI) in Olifantsfontein during the first half of 2011.
On the mining side, resource demand continues its upward trend with SA Earthworks adding to its ongoing contracts for leading cementitious and aggregate producers, PPC Cement, and Afrisam (Olifantsfontein and Jukskei quarries), with major new extraction jobs at Hernic Ferrochrome and at Mintails’ Mogale Gold Mine on Johannesburg’s West Rand.
Typical materials handling requirements in the quarrying sector vary according to market demand. At PPC’s Mooiplaas quarry outside Pretoria, for example, volumes vary from 150 000 to 220 000 tonnes per month. Outside South Africa, SA Earthworks is also the contractor at PPC’s Kgale operation in Botswana, a country which is experiencing a boom in mining and related infrastructure expansion, such as dams and proposed new coal-fired power stations.
Commencing in May 2011, work at Hernic Ferrochrome, the world’s fourth largest integrated ferrochrome producer, extends over approximately four months and involves the cleaning out of sections of the mine’s slimes dam.
“We need to move between 300 000 to 400 000m3, operating in very wet underfoot conditions,” explains Danie van der Westhuizen, SA Earthworks’ founder and chief executive officer, “a haulage environment best suited to articulated trucks. The same is true for overburden removal, where rigid trucks would not be suitable.”
SA Earthworks currently owns around 130 earthmoving units, including a dedicated Cat 140 grader fleet employed either on mine haul road maintenance or on construction sites. This plant complement was recently expanded with the addition of two new Cat 740 articulated trucks, supplied and supported by southern African Caterpillar dealer, Barloworld Equipment. These units are now operating at the Hernic slimes dam contract.
“Generating a net power output (ISO 9249) of 327 kW via its Cat ACERT C15 engine, the Cat 740 has a maximum payload capacity of around 38 tonnes, making it an ideal match for 50 tonne class excavators like the Cat 349D L,” explains Barloworld Equipment Cat sales professional, Jackie Kriel.
Meanwhile, at Mogale, new gold reef mining activities are underway and SA Earthworks is tasked with moving in the order of one million cubic metres in the first phase, extending over some seven months. In addition to this new venture, mine owner, Mintails continues with its tailing recovery operations, processing the gold content from the old Randfontein Cluster dumps.
Adds Van der Westhuizen: “Whether on the civil or the mining side of our business, we are responding positively to market demand, the minerals resource segment showing particular promise. The rising number of green field mining operations in South Africa is particularly encouraging and we are well placed to support these initiatives with our modern earthmoving equipment fleet.”
For further information, contact:
Danie van der Westhuizen
Chief Executive Officer
SA Earthworks
Tel: 011-314-2446
E-mail: admin@saearthworks.co.za