MineWare’s new Argus Wheel Loader has made its debut in North America, with the OEM-independent wheel loader monitoring system having recently been installed on a CAT 992K operating at a gold mine in Nevada, USA.

The system, purchased to improve wheel loader truck payload management and performance at the operation, was installed in July by the company’s North America team.

On top of it being the first commercial deployment of MineWare’s Argus WL monitoring system in the North America region, it is also MineWare’s first system installation on a CAT 992K wheel loader, the company told IM.

The release of Argus WL in February followed 18 months of field trials conducted across three Western Australia mine sites.

Argus WL improves wheel loader efficiency, effectiveness and payload accuracy, according to the Komatsu-owned company. “The system weighs each bucket in real time, without the need to stop and calculate payload before dumping the load,” it said.

“Often dubbed as ‘support’ equipment, the wheel loader makes it possible for the primary loading and hauling equipment to do their jobs more efficiently,” MineWare said. “When a large wheel loader has the capacity to replace a small digger, it’s vital not to forget the importance of these assets and the impact they have on mining productivity and profitability.”

The company concluded: “MineWare’s Argus Wheel Loader system is OEM independent/agnostic. Our ‘all makes, all models’ approach gives customers the best opportunity to standardise systems across mixed fleets of equipment.

“For example, on this one particular customer site, MineWare supports three different equipment makes and models: Komatsu, Hitachi and CAT.”