Chinese NHL 240 t mining trucks get to work at Serbia Zijin Copper

Posted by Paul Moore on 12th January 2021

One of a handful of Chinese large mining truck projects outside Asia, the first of a fleet of seven 236 t payload NTE240 electric drive mining trucks from Baotou-based Inner Mongolia North Hauler Joint Stock Co Ltd (NHL) recently started work at the operations of Serbia Zijin Copper, part of Zijin Mining, having been assembled, tested and handed over to the customer. The trucks were shipped back in August 2020 from Tianjin Port and started arriving in Serbia in October 2020.

Serbia Zijin Copper includes three open pit mines – Majdanpek, Veliki Krivelj and New Cerovo. In addition to this new truck fleet the company last year committed to a new $20 million ore conveyor system. The complex was expected to produce some 55,000 t of copper concentrate and 90,000 t of copper cathode for the year 2020. Zijin also owns the huge Timok (Cukaru Peki) underground copper-gold project in the country which is in advanced development.

NHL said the successful contract win was due to the model’s high efficiency, low fuel consumption, high durability, high reliability, and low full life cycle operating cost. The 15-year operation and maintenance services of the trucks in the mine have also been fully contracted to NHL, a big milestone for the company in overseas markets. This NTE240 model has a Cummins QSK60 engine and Wabtec AC drive.

Zijin Mining now owns significant stakes in three of the world’s ten largest copper deposits discovered in the past 20 years – the Kamoa-Kakula copper project in DRC, the Timok underground copper-gold project in Serbia, and the Qulong copper operations in Tibet. Their copper reserves and resources total 70 Mt, which it says accounts for 39% of those found in the world’s top ten copper mines (178 Mt).