Eti Bakir to acquire Epiroc drills, trucks and loaders, as well as trial battery-electric Minetruck

Epiroc says it has won a large order from Eti Bakir for underground mining equipment that will be used at a new copper mine in Türkiye.

Eti Bakir, Türkiye’s largest mining company and a long-time customer of Epiroc, has ordered a fleet of face drilling rigs, production drilling rigs, mine trucks and loaders. The machines will primarily be used at a new copper mine currently under development near the city of Elazig. Some of the ordered units will be utilized at other existing Eti Bakir sites to strengthen operations there.

The order is valued at about SEK280 million ($27 million) and was booked in the December quarter of 2023.

“We are happy to get the opportunity to continue supporting Eti Bakir to operate its mines in the safest and most productive way possible,” Helena Hedblom, Epiroc’s President and CEO, says.

The ordered machines include Boomer S2 face drilling rigs, Simba E70 S production drilling rigs (one pictured), Scooptram ST14 loaders, and Minetruck MT42 and Minetruck MT436B haulers. The drilling rigs will come equipped with Epiroc’s Advanced Boom Control solution, ABC Total, enabling the operator to drill a sequence of holes automatically and to control more than one boom simultaneously. All the ordered machines will feature Epiroc’s fleet management system, which allows for intelligent monitoring of machine performance and productivity in real-time.

Delivery is expected to begin in the first half of 2024. Also, as part of this capital equipment deal, Eti Bakir will get to test run one of Epiroc’s battery-electric Minetruck MT42 SG haulers at the Kastamonu Küre underground copper mine.

Gökhan Zengin, Eti Bakir Machinery Manager, said: “We have a long history of collaboration with Epiroc, and at our new copper mine in Elazig, we have chosen Epiroc products whose efficiency and performance we know and trust from our existing mines. We are also excited to experience the performance of the MT42 battery-driven mine truck, which we will be testing for the first time in Türkiye as part of our sustainable mining approach.”

In 2021, Epiroc announced that it had won a large order from Eti Bakir for equipment to support the expansion of three underground copper mines.