Leading Indonesia mining contractor Darma Henwa, has made a major hydraulic excavator investment for Pit B in the Bengalon mine of Kaltim Prima Coal, where it has the contract for mining operations and the mine is expanding to a level of 10 Mt/y of coal production in 2016. IM met with Darma Henwa CEO and President Director, Wachjudi Martono, at the Mining Indonesia show in Jakarta, and witnessed the signing ceremony on September 9 between Darma Henwa and PT Liebherr Indonesia Perkasa President Director Gary Gomersall.

The purchase includes two Liebherr R9100 backhoe 108.5 t machines and four 302 t backhoe R9350 machines. These will be used to load 65 t and 150 t trucks; with the smaller excavators mainly to be employed for topsoil removal and site preparation, with the R9350s for main overburden removal operations. The new fleet will be deployed in Q1 2016, and will be shipped to Kalimantan from the main Liebherr mining excavator factory in Colmar, France, via Singapore from where they will be barged.

Martono emphasized that despite the downturn and low price coal environment, that Darma Henwa is continuing to invest in new high productivity equipment to help achieve higher availability and efficiency. The decision to purchase Liebherr machines was based on the contractor’s experience with a R984C excavator at its South Kalimantan operations; where Martono says: “The benefit of Liebherr excavators has been proven, with performance better than expected. The R984C has been achieving 560 bcm/h, well above the average of 490-510 bcm/h with other machines of a similar weight class. We have also been impressed with Liebherr’s after sales support and training.”

The excavators are being delivered under an SSA contract, where after commissioning Liebherr mechanics will assist Darma Henwa with maintenance planning and parts sourcing, but where Darma Henwa will conduct maintenance in its own facility.