Due to good experiences with Eickhoff shearers and services for more than half a century, the company says that Balkan-based customers from Slovenia and Bosnia have opted to rely on Eickhoff Bergbautechnik and modernise their range of machines by acquiring new high power Eickhoff shearers of type SL 300. Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s the Bosnian coal mines in and around the city of Breza gained long lasting good experiences with Eickhoff shearers of the type EDW-170-L, leading to new investments into Eickhoff EDW-300-L shearers in the 1980s.

In those days, the EDW-300-L continuously mined coal at cutting heights of up to 5 m – groundbreaking and a world record at the time. Earlier this year, three new Eickhoff SL 300 shearer loaders were installed, one each at the Bosnian-based Breza and Banovice mines, as well as at Slovenia based Velenje mine, recently visited by IM. The Eickhoff SL 300 with an installed power of 1.158 MW is perfectly geared to mid seam applications between 1.6 m and 4 m. Now in total, six Eickhoff shearers are operating in the former Yugoslavia region, enabling the mines in the region to sustainably produce coal from domestic sources.