Rexx, the 20-wheel mine haul truck designed and built by Bis, has been drafted in for a challenging assignment at the Granny Smith gold mine in Western Australia, Bis says.
The Gold Fields-owned mine, near Laverton, identified the dual powered 20-wheel dump truck as being suitable for the task of helping shift thousands of tonnes of waste material out of the Wallaby Pit to a stockpile 15 km away.
Bis CEO, Brad Rogers, said the campaign not only capitalised on Rexx’s strengths, including its versatility and range, but also provided a challenging environment to further test the truck in different conditions.
“Rexx is performing extremely well at the mine, proving its ability to come out of the Wallaby pit with a 160-t payload,” he said. “As part of the testing during the trial, Rexx has also completed numerous hill starts fully loaded, on the incline.”
Rogers said the work at Granny Smith provided a “perfect demonstration” of the range capability of the new truck, with Rexx required to complete round trips of 30 km from the pit to the stockpile location.
He added that Rexx has more than four times the distance capability of competing dump trucks and an on-demand power system that lowers fuel consumption. The vehicle also has the capacity to carry enough fuel for at least two 12 hour shifts, eliminating downtime needed for refuelling.
Granny Smith General Manager, Andrew Bywater, said: “We are embracing innovation and technology across our mining operations and this is a great example of how we can work with our business partners to create advances in the industry. We see this as a real opportunity to explore potential improvements in trucking efficiency, and are encouraged by what we have seen to date.”
The work at Granny Smith follows extensive testing at Glencore’s Murrin Murrin mine where Rexx proved its ability to deliver up to a 30% reduction in operating costs, compared with conventional dump trucks.
The truck has also operated fully loaded in pits below the water table and handled the sticky and boggy conditions with ease, Bis said.
Rogers said the versatility of Rexx, including interchangeable bins, had sparked interest not only in the resources industry – internationally and in Australia – but with potential customers across a range of sectors including construction and civil.
“Rexx is the latest example of how Bis finds the best and inventive ways to haul, transport, handle, process and deliver our customers’ critical commodities,” he said.
Bis has been shortlisted for the Australian Financial Review Most Innovative Company awards, which is set to be announced in August 2019.