Russia’s UZTM-KARTEX is the leader by a significant distance in the CIS electric rope shovel market (for example 77% by sales in the Russian Federation) but is bringing its designs right up to date with major design refinements and improvements giving mining customers higher capacity and efficiency with their loading tool fleets. UZTM-KARTEX has two main mining shovel factories – P.G. Korobkov IZ-KARTEX in St Petersburg and Uralmashplant (UZTM) in Ekaterinburg, formerly competitors but now unified under one company since 2015 that is majority owned by Gazprombank.
Recently, Kuzbassrazrezugol Coal Company (an enterprise of UMMC) put into operation a new EKG-18M rope shovel at the Kedrovsky opencast coal mine. This is the second machine of this upgraded series that has produced by Uralmashplant. On May 19, 2020 the first EKG-18M in Russia, which got the number 300 in honor of the upcoming 300th anniversary of the discovery of Kuzbass, was formally commissioned at the Bachatsky opencast coal mine.
When creating this upgraded model, the company says it drew on the nine-years’ experience of operating the previous series EKG-18 at the Kuzbassrazrezugol. Today, ten such excavators operate at Kuzbassrazrezugol sites.
The changes aimed at improving machine reliability, service life and operating safety were made in most of the main components, structures and systems of the shovel. The EKG-18M has an upgraded mechanism of bucket door opening, enhanced design of the boom and undercarriage, better tightness of the housing, more convenient conditions for the operator, a multi-camera CCTV system, an information and diagnostic system, and an automatic fire fighting system made in the Kuzbass region.
“Each shovel is unique to some extent, as we are constantly changing its design and are working in a close contact with the manufacturer. The EKG-18M operated at Kedrovsky also differs from the Bachatsky one,” comments Roman Sivtsov, Head of Department, Equipment Maintenance, Kuzbassrazrezugol. “This time, we got some new technical advances that improve the tightness of the housing and collection of spent lubricant from the hoisting cable. These improvements were proposed by the miners, who are going to work on this machine.”
The second EKG-18M was entrusted to the crew of Andrey Yegorov who was the best operator of excavators with bucket volumes up to 18 m3 at Kuzbassrazrezugol’s 2020 professional skills competition.
By the end of 2020, the coal mining company plans to put into operation three more EKG-18M shovels: two at the Bachatsky and one at the Kaltansky opencast coal mine.
Elsewhere, P.G. Korobkov IZ-KARTEX recently completed the manufacture of a modernised power shovel known as the EKG-20KM (equipped with a 25 m3 capacity bucket unlike the serial EKG-20K model). The machine was due to be shipped to the customer, Almalyk Mining & Metallurgical Combine (AGMK) in Uzbekistan in August 2020.
A contract between Amalyk and IZ-KARTEX for the supply of sixteen EKG-20K-class machines was signed in the end of the previous year. AGMK are buying the new equipment for the implementation of their new Yoshlik-I copper mine which is adjacent to the existing major Kalmakir copper mine. By 2023, the mine should reach an annual rate of 65 Mt of copper ore extraction, reaching 74 Mt by 2035.
Since the beginning of the year IZ-KARTEX has shipped three EKG-20K machines to the customer. The fourth machine which is planned to be shipped in the first week of August is the modernised EKG-20K model, an EKG-20KM. One of the main features of the new model is its improved bucket capacity making it possible to efficiently use the new machine with 220 t dump trucks reducing the loading cycle to four or five buckets. Yoshlik-I is using a fleet of 54 BELAZ trucks.
According to the Lead Project Designer of IZ-KARTEX, Andrey Emelianov, changes have also been made in the design of the main units to enhance the load-bearing capacity of the frontal equipment (the boom, the handle, and the A-frame). The machine, as all other serial excavating machines made by IZ-KARTEX, is equipped with a modern automated diagnostic system for mechanical and electrical equipment, a fire-fighting system, and a video-monitoring system. The machine will also be provided with a Red Kill Zone system to ensure safety during night operations.
All main units of the EKG-20KM, including the carriage and the rotary platform frame, are highly unified with the EKG-15M, the EKG-18R, and the EKG-20K models as regards their design and the parts and blanks required for their maintenance. The carriage, the rotary platform, the roller circle, and the gearbox unit of the machine had successfully passed factory acceptance testing before the shipment.
“The commercial launch of an improved rope shovel model is a very important event for us as the manufacturer and for the users of our products as well. When developing the EKG-20KM we used the most advanced design solutions available based on our experience in the operation of our machines in actual working conditions considering the specific features of a certain open-cast mine,” says the Chief Designer of IZ-KARTEX, Dmitriy Melnikov.
At the moment the EKG-20KM is the only modernised model in the project of supply of power shovels to Uzbekistan. A decision regarding the manufacture of more such machines under the contract will be taken basing on the results of the trial operation of the EKG-20KM machine at the customer site. Three more EKG-20K machines will be supplied to AGMK by the end of the year by IZ-KARTEX.
