A Hitachi dump truck EH4500 powered by an MTU 16V 4000 C21L engine with an output of 2014 kW on site at the Lumwana mine in Zambia.
Barrick Gold signed a 13-year service contract with MTU that covers regular maintenance of 30 Series 4000 engines in use on Hitachi haul trucks at the Lumwana copper mine in Zambia. Lumwana extracts ore from the central Africa copperbelt, one of the world’s most copper-rich nations.
“Everyday mining operations are a hard business — for us and for the engines,” said Dan Gray, maintenance manager for Barrick Gold at Lumwana. “That means we must be able to count on things running without a hitch. To make sure that happens, we opted for the reliability of the service provided by MTU.”
“Our 16-cylinder Series 4000 engines will be serviced after every 500 hours of operation and more than 10 of our service technicians will be stationed on-site at the mine to ensure that happens as smoothly and quickly as possible,” said Bernd Krüper, vice president industrial business at MTU.
Sulphides extracted at the site are processed in a conventional flotation plant to produce copper concentrate for smelting. In 2016 alone, the Lumwana mine produced 271 million pounds (lb) of copper. Barrick Gold expects production to reach between 250 and 275 million lb in 2017.
MTU also provides the drive power and service facilities needed at a number of other mines in Zambia.
