1 Apr 2014
ERJ staff report (PR)
Duratray International of Melbourne, Australia has been awarded a contract to manufacture and assemble six suspended dump bodies (SDBs) for Caterpillar rear dump trucks at one of the largest gold mines in Central Asia.
The SDBs will be used on the trucks operating at the Kumtor Gold open cut mine, located in the Tien Shan mountain range of Kyrgyzstan, about 350km south east of the capital Bishkek. Delivery of the first units is expected in mid-2014.
Estimated total open pit reserves are 9.7m contained ounces of gold at the mine, where trucks operate in temperatures that range between +23ºC to -49ºC, noted a report in Duratray’s latest monthly newsletter.
Duratray’s design features a rubber mat suspended on elastomeric ropes anchored to the steel frame of the body. The system is capable of carrying from 40 to 400 tonnes, according to information on the company’s website.
Maintenance and engineering teams from Kumtor and Duratray established that the SDBs offered advantages over steel dump bodies in terms of abrasion resistance and payload handling, the supplier said.
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