On August 8, seven NTE240 electric-wheeled mining trucks made by Inner Mongolia North Hauler Joint Stock Co (NHL) left Tianjin Port and set sail for Europe. This will be the first time that China’s large mining trucks will have entered the European market, representing another historic breakthrough for NHL after it recently completed its first NTE360A with Wabtec AC electric drive for Yancoal in Australia – this is one of 28 and it expects to have shipped four by end-2020.

The seven NTE240 mine trucks are to be used by Zijin Mining at its 63% held Serbia Zijin Copper Doo Bor operations which consists of four copper mines including JM, VK, NC and MS, and one smelter. The company is carrying out a major technological transformation and expansion of the operations and for the year 2020 plans to have processed 437,000 t of copper concentrate to produce 122,000 t of copper anodes, 90,000 t of copper cathodes, 370,000 t of sulphuric acid, 1,833 kg of gold and 11.9 t of silver.

At the same time, the Serbia Zijin Copper truck fleet’s 15-year operation and maintenance services have also been fully contracted by NHL, it says “becoming a successful model of the company’s business model with the lowest operating cost throughout the life cycle of the mine truck.” This model has a Cummins QSK60 engine and Wabtec AC drive.