Tag Archives: Pilot Crushtec

Metso LT300HP mobile cone crusher hits new milestone for Danoher Group

Comminution of minerals, Mining equipment, , , , , , ,

A Metso LT300HP mobile cone crusher owned and operated by Danoher Group, a leading mining contractor in southern Africa, has clocked more than 30,000 hours and counting.

Acquired in 2012, the Metso LT300HP mobile cone crusher is currently deployed at a job in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, where Danoher Group is contracted to produce 350,000 tonnes of road stone.

Previously, the machine has been deployed on some flagship projects in South Africa and Botswana. In the past 12 years, the machine has been in Botswana on four occasions, where it executed some major projects at flagship mines such as Debswana’s Orapa diamond mine and Khoemacau, a long-life copper-silver mine located on the Kalahari Copper Belt. In addition, it has also been deployed at Danoher’s own Kgale Quarry in Gaborone.

With just over 30,000 hours on the clock, the machine is one of the several Metso units in Danoher’s crushing and screening fleet with such a long lifespan. In fact, says CEO Scott Danoher, the company has neither retired nor scrapped a single unit in the past 15 years, shining the spotlight on its drive to achieve extended operational lifecycles out of its capital assets and a testament to the quality of the Metso products.

Danoher Group places value on several factors when investing in capital equipment, such as standardisation of equipment and relationships with suppliers. However, one of the principle factors that informs the company’s buying decisions is equipment longevity. While there are various elements that influence longevity, Danoher stresses that the fundamental ‘raw material’ is the design of the machine, which is why the company trusts Metso for its comminution equipment needs.

“We do not necessarily buy a crusher or a screen, for example, for whatever amount, we buy the number of hours that the machine gives us,” Danoher says. “For us, it is also not about the price tag, it is more about the cost per tonne or cost per hour – ‘cradle to grave’, which is a totally different approach. We are prepared to pay a premium upfront in exchange for, say, 30,000 trouble-free hours out of our crushing equipment.”

By sticking to a trusted brand like Metso and Pilot Crushtec as well as implementing proactive maintenance strategies, Danoher Group not only extends the operational lifespan of its capital assets, but also optimises equipment performance, minimises downtime and reduces costs to ensure smooth and efficient operations, it says.

“Proper maintenance and care throughout the lifespan of equipment significantly contribute to its longevity,” Danoher says. “To get the best out of our maintenance efforts, we largely use Metso OEM parts and spares from Pilot Crushtec International.”

Over the years, Danoher Group and Pilot Crushtec, the Metso dealer in southern Africa, have built a strong working relationship.

“Relationships play a crucial role in what we buy. For us, Pilot Crushtec are more than just suppliers: they have become trusted business partners,” Danoher concludes.

Pilot Crushtec equips TwisterTrac mobile vertical shaft impact crusher with Stage V engine

Environmental, Mining equipment, Power supply for mines, , ,

Pilot Crushtec International is introducing its new generation TwisterTrac mobile vertical shaft impact (VSI) crusher powered by a Stage V diesel engine in a move that, it says, could unlock new export prospects in highly regulated markets such as Europe and North America.

Designed and manufactured in South Africa by Pilot Crushtec, the TwisterTrac VS350E VSI has over the years gained popularity in export destinations such as Australia and New Zealand. To provide context, since 2013, Pilot Crushtec has sold in excess of 50 units with almost 90% of these deployed into export markets, the company claims.

To further grow its export sales, the company has become one of the first South Africa-based original equipment manufacturers to build a Stage V engine powered machine. Previously driven by a Tier 3 Volvo TAD1651GE engine, the new TwisterTrac VS350E VSI now comes with a Stage V Volvo TAD1382GE motor, allowing Pilot Crushtec to offer the legendary tracked VSI in emissions-regulated markets, in particular Europe and North America, as mentioned above.

Sandro Scherf, CEO of Pilot Crushtec, said: “The Stage V project has been in the pipeline for a while as part of our export focus. Our machine development strategy has always placed greater emphasis on offering exportable products and this move allows us to unlock new markets and grow our export sales. We are excited by the prospects of growth in emission-controlled markets such as Europe and North America. In addition, this project speaks to customers in some of our traditional markets such as Australia, where there is a strong focus on adopting high emissions standards.”

Jorge Abelho, Director Technical Support at Pilot Crushtec, says the company opted for the 13 litre TAD1382GE from Volvo because it is a powerful, reliable and economical motor built on the dependable in-line six design. The engine incorporates a suite of advanced technologies that work together to not only reduce emissions but also deliver significant improvements in power density, performance and operating efficiency. Designed for easy, fast and most economical installation, the engine’s high-tech injection and charging system with low internal losses contributes to excellent combustion and low fuel consumption.

Abelho says: “Volvo has been our preferred engine partner for a while, largely because of the efficiency of their engine technology. In addition, we find them easy to deal with in terms of information sharing and guidance on the technology. To provide context, we had a technical representative from Volvo at our Jet Park workshop for a week-long factory testing, before deploying the machine for field testing in a tough crushing application with great success.”

In addition to the transition to new engine technology, Pilot Crushtec took the opportunity to redesign some areas of the machine. For example, the machine now comes with an integrated cooling pack and the whole power pack base has become much smaller.

Abelho explained: “We have also re-arranged some of the key components to make the cabling and piping shorter and simpler. For instance, we have moved the operator panel from the left-hand side to the right-hand side of the machine. This reduces the number of cables required on the machine by bringing panels closer together. We have also made the operator panel easier to use.”

In addition, the size of the hydraulic tank has been reduced and the tank has been moved closer to the pumps. These refinements were informed by knowledge and feedback gained over the last ten years of operating the TwisterTrac VS350E in the field.

Scherf is confident that the latest developments will further entrench the TwisterTrac VS350E’s dominance in the global marketplace. Designed for tertiary and quaternary crushing applications, the TwisterTrac VS350E is renowned for its versatility, reliability and efficiency. A fully mobile track mounted VSI crusher, the machine can be easily moved between sites or within a site. Its compact design and robust construction make it suitable for a wide range of applications, including mining.

Trollope Mining Services boosting southern African reputation with Metso hybrid crushers and screens

Comminution of minerals, Mining equipment, Mining services, , , , , , , ,

Amid growing demand for its crushing and screening services, Trollope Mining Services, one of the largest open-pit mining contractors in Africa, has continued to increase its fleet of Metso machines from Pilot Crushtec, the South Africa-based company says.

With nearly 500 pieces of equipment in its fleet, Trollope has over the years established itself as the go-to contractor in the open-pit mining sector in southern Africa, it says. Currently operating in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, the company has also previously executed projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea. The company operates across commodities including but not limited to coal, platinum, copper, andalusite, gold, phosphate, lithium, iron ore, manganese, diamonds and limestone.

To establish itself as a total solutions provider in the mining contracting fraternity, Trollope Mining Services added a crushing and screening division to its business in 2016. Managing Director, Guy Hopkins, says that in the past three years the division has seen exponential growth on the back of some major projects, necessitating an expansion of the crushing and screening fleet.

Following the fleet expansion program, Trollope Mining Services now operates a total of 15 machines. Of note is that the whole fleet is made up of only Metso machines.

“We prefer Metso machines because of our experience with the equipment,” Hopkins says. “Fundamentally, the design and build quality of these machines are unmatched. Our buying decision is also influenced by the technological evolution of the Metso offering, which allows us to run ‘hands off’ operations. Apart from improved efficiencies, technology paves the way for improved safety on mining sites.”

Of its 15 Metso machines, six are dual-powered units, making Trollope Mining Services the biggest operator of Metso hybrid crushers and screens in southern Africa, confirms Charl Marais, Sales Manager at Pilot Crushtec. The dual-power fleet comprises two Lokotrack® LT120E™ jaw crushers, a Lokotrack LT330D™ cone crusher and three Lokotrack ST2.8E™ scalping screens. These were expressly purchased for a project in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa.

With their ability to have both electricity and diesel as power sources, Marais says dual-power solutions provide the best of both worlds – significant fuel savings and a marked reduction in carbon emissions. “Significant cost reduction is achieved when the machines are connected to the grid,” he explains.

Hopkins added: “Given the high cost of diesel, dual-powered solutions help reduce operating costs for our customers. In our experience, the cost of running bi-power machines off the grid is 1/20 the cost of running them off a diesel engine. There is therefore a major cost benefit for our customers’ operations.”

Apart from the Metso build quality, Hopkins says the aftermarket support from Pilot Crushtec is crucial to ensuring high uptime.

“In all our buying decisions, having a partner that we can trust for the long term is fundamental,” he said. “Pilot Crushtec plays a crucial role in supporting us with all the necessary spares and technical expertise to keep our Metso machines running.”

Three-machine train Metso mobile crusher ups productivity at chrome mining project

Comminution of minerals, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A newly acquired Metso Lokotrack® LT200HPS™ is winning the day for Zizwe Opencast Mining at one of its strategic chrome mining projects in Steelpoort, Limpopo, according to the leading South African mining contractor.

With productivity high on the agenda in a highly abrasive chrome-processing application, a three-machine train of Metso mobiles – comprising a Lokotrack LT120™ jaw crusher, a Nordtrack® S2.11 scalping screen and a Lokotrack LT200HPS™ cone crusher – is making light work of the 200 t/h production target.

Joe de Beer, Crushing and Screening Plant Manager at Zizwe Opencast Mining, has been impressed in particular by the new Lokotrack LT200HPS cone crusher, equipped with a hanging screen. By featuring a detachable screen and return conveyor on one tracked chassis, he says, the LT200HPS is basically ‘two machines in one’, thus eliminating double-handling on site.

“The fact that the LT200HPS does the job for two machines was central to our purchasing decision,” De Beer says. “It features a detachable screen and return conveyor which guides screened oversize material back to the cone crusher. It is essentially a cone crusher, a screen and a conveyor on one tracked chassis.”

Yeshen Achary, Sales Engineer at Pilot Crushtec, said: “Traditionally, we have always brought the LT200HP in a standard configuration. Because cone crushers by their nature are not 100% efficient, the added benefit of having a screen post the crushing chamber is that it allows for recirculation of any oversize material back to the cone crusher.”

This, explains Achary, eliminates the need for another machine to work in closed circuit with the cone crusher. Having a single machine doing the job of two machines offers significant cost benefits for the customer.

Achary says: “Apart from the obvious capital cost benefit, having the cone and screen on a single chassis means that the machine is powered by a single engine, making one less machine to maintain. Having a closed loop on a single chassis also makes it easy to transport the machine between sites.”

Francois Marais, Sales and Marketing Director at Pilot Crushtec, explains that the LT200HP now comes in three different configurations. Apart from the standard cone crusher configuration, it is now available with a pre-screen called the HPX™, which is placed just before the crushing chamber or alternatively with an overhanging screen called the HPS, located post the crushing chamber.

He said: “In traditional operations, you would need two machines – a cone crusher and a screen – to do the same job done by this single machine. In addition, you would probably have to deploy a minimum of two to three conveyor belts to recirculate oversize material from the screen back to the cone crusher.”

Pilot Crushtec talks up DoppiaTrac DR400 fully mobile double-roll crusher

Coal technology, Comminution of minerals, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining services, , , , , , ,

Pilot Crushtec says Africa’s only locally manufactured, fully mobile double-roll crusher, the DoppiaTrac DR400, continues to perform well in the field of mobile coal crushing.

The DoppiaTrac DR400 now has a decade of success in the field, according to the company, achieving production rates of 300-400 t/h.

“We designed the DR400 from the ground up to give us the flexibility to produce a truly great crushing solution,” Jorge Abelho, Director, Technical Support at Pilot Crushtec, said. “It has proved itself through its combination of throughput, reliability and economy.”

The machine’s ability to reduce the generation of fines is thanks to the double-roll crusher. While a horizontal shaft impact crusher creates more coal fines due to impact energy, the double-roll crusher forces material through a constant gap, according to the company.

Pilot Crushtec Sales Engineer, Ben Armitage, said: “The crusher uses just enough energy to break the material down to the size of the gap. The DR400 generates less than 5% of 0-6 mm fines, compared to around 12% created by impact crushers – depending on coal hardness and crushing ratios.”

The DR400 boasts a large hopper that is readily fed by loaders or excavators. To increase the average production rate, the unit can be interlocked as part of a crushing train. Connected with a Metso LT106 jaw crusher, the two units can communicate to synchronise the feed rate. This optimises throughput by automatically adjusting the rate of material moving between the machines. The on-board hydraulic rock breaker on the Metso LT106 also allows oversize material to be quickly broken, avoiding blockages and preventing downtime, according to the company.

Crushing efficiency is enhanced by feeding material into the crushing chamber at exactly the same speed that the drums are spinning, Pilot Crushtec explains. This minimises attrition and friction, even at high throughput rates.

Armitage said: “The safety features on the DR400 ensure that it is compliant with demanding safety protocols applied by mining companies. These include full guarding around all moving parts, access points, nip points and crushing points – as well as pull cords and emergency stops to quickly isolate the unit when necessary.”

He explained that the efficient Volvo engine delivers the lowest kW per tonne of any mobile double-roll crusher working in the coal sector. Depending on coal characteristics, the engine’s 160 kW output can convert to a ratio of just 0.4 kW/t.

“The fuel consumption is also a significant factor for operators, and this crusher can run on as little as 17 litres per hour,” Armitage says. “This is achieved with a hydraulic load sensing system and an optimised crusher chamber design, which reduce the power needed to crush the coal.”

The quality and simplicity of the DR400 is demonstrated by the fact that over 25 of these machines are currently in operation around South Africa – one of which exceeds 22,000 hours of operation. Pilot Crushtec says it supports the DR400 through its service levels, stock holding and after-market offerings.

SPH Kundalila adds another Lokotrack LT120 for crushing fleet at platinum mine

Comminution of minerals, Equipment maintenance, Mine operation news, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining services, Precious metals, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SPH Kundalila has reaffirmed its faith in Metso Outotec crushers by putting to work another Lokotrack® LT120™ from local distributor Pilot Crushtec at an open-pit platinum mine near Rustenburg in South Africa’s North West province.

The Lokotrack LT120 mobile jaw crushing plant was acquired early in 2021, and has since been added to the fleet at the mine where SPH Kundalila has been conducting crushing operations for the customer since 2013.

“The new machine is part of our ongoing plant renewal process, ensuring that our fleet performs optimally with high uptime levels,” Graeme Campbell, Group Commercial Manager at SPH Kundalila, says. “We already have four of these models on other operations, and they have all been strong and reliable production units.”

The crushing fleet on this project processes 350,000-400,000 t/mth of platinum ore for the mine’s mineral processing plant. Material entering the crusher can be sized up to 800 mm in size, which is reduced to a product of 250 mm or less for transportation to the plant.

The mobility of the track-mounted LT120 provides the necessary flexibility that the mine requires to maintain a consistent grade for the plant, moving crushers when necessary to treat ore from different locations on site, according to the company.

SPH Kundalila Operations Manager, Dean Zeelie, says the Metso mobile crushers have proved themselves as reliable performers in front-line, hard-rock applications in the company’s contracts, with one unit notching up almost 25,000 hours to date.

“The Metso technology allows us to closely monitor machine running time and operating time, so that we can schedule regular service interventions,” he says. “Our on-site maintenance team ensures that all delivery targets are met, as our role in maintaining mine throughput is vital.”

This approach allows these mobile crushers to be completely refurbished at SPH Kundalila’s rebuild workshop in Potchefstroom at long-term intervals. This enhances reliability and lowers the total cost of ownership.

The close relationship between SPH Kundalila and Pilot Crushtec goes back over 23 years, according to Campbell, with the company investing in Metso crushers since 2007. He notes that they collaborate at early stages of potential contract opportunities when Pilot Crushtec will assist with testing and will then provide recommendations on the most suitable equipment for a job. He says Metso’s Bruno simulation software is also a valuable tool that the company uses for finding optimal solutions for its projects.

According to Francois Marais, Director Sales and Marketing at Pilot Crushtec, the Lokotrack LT120 includes a Metso C120 jaw crusher with a 1,200 mm by 870 mm feed opening, providing excellent capacity even in the toughest applications.

“The hydraulic drive ensures trouble-free operation and enables crusher direction to be changed in case of blockage or alternatively the on-board hydraulic hammer can be used, while the Caterpillar C13 engine module delivers optimal power to the high inertia flywheels,” Marais says.

“Its compact dimensions, combined with agile tracks, also make it easy to transport. The chassis design features good clearance at both ends, enabling simple loading on a trailer.”