Barloworld Equipment recently entered into an agreement with Caterpillar Global Mining to acquire for $50 million the former Bucyrus distribution and support business in Barloworld’s dealership territories in the Siberian and Far East Regions of the Russian Federation. On the closing of the transaction, expected in early December, Vostochnaya Technica LLC (VT), part of Barloworld Russia, will be entitled to distribute the extended product range throughout the VT Dealer Territory.

IM Editor Paul Moore has just returned from the Tehgormet mining conference in St Petersburg, where the importance of new more productive equipment in Russia’s mining industry was highlighted by several domestic mining groups. Sergey Yacyuchenya, Technical Director at leading surface and underground coal mining group SUEK, highlighted a programme of production improvement at their Tugnuisky operation in the south central Siberian region of Buryatia, which has included the commissioning of two Bucyrus 495HD electric rope shovels. According to the company, these have achieved record production rates of overburden using double-sided truck loading of BELAZ AC drive 7530 series 220 t trucks. The mine is to date the only one in Russia using these large capacity Bucyrus (now Caterpillar) shovels but could be an indicator of market potential for VT going forward.