Karora Resources has become WesTrac’s first customer to take delivery of the powerful new Cat® AD63 Underground Mining Truck. The WesTrac Kalgoorlie team completed the build of Karora’s newest addition before it makes its journey to the Beta Hunt gold mine, located in the Kambalda mining district 600 km east of Perth.
The new AD63 joins Karora’s existing underground Cat fleet which includes other heavy hitters like the Cat AD60, R1700 and the R2900. The WesTrac Kalgoorlie team welcomed Neil Miller, Shaun Schultz and Ricky Parish from Karora Resources to the branch to mark this important milestone – all of whom it said are keen to see the new truck in operation. They were joined by WesTrac’s Dan Laing and Andrew Read.
WesTrac said: “The design of the Cat AD63 has evolved over the years to be able to withstand the toughest mining conditions. The redesigned AD63 has undergone a series of upgrades which have improved on the design and performance of its predecessor, the Cat AD60. The new model now includes a 63-tonne payload, a new tilt cab for easier servicing, operator eHVAC air con, five new dump body sizes and is powered by the Cat C27 EU Stage V engine. WesTrac are proud to support Karora Resources and we thank them for their continued partnership.”
In its Q3 2022 results, Karora Resources reported record tonnage performance at Beta Hunt for the second straight quarter with 313,000 t mined. Tonnes mined through the single decline continued to increase as productivity and operational performance improved.
It adds: “On an annualised basis, this equates to mined production of ~1.25 Mt/y, well above the targeted mining rate of 1 Mt/y in our growth plan from a single decline. This is a significant achievement by our operating team and provides further confidence in our ability to ramp up production to 2 Mt/y once construction of the second Beta Hunt decline is complete. Construction of that second decline continues to advance well and we remain on track to reach our accelerated completion date in the first quarter of 2023.”
