Rio Tinto Iron Ore Pannawonica’s efforts to improve truck payloads received high praise recently, with Caterpillar Global Mining saying Pannawonica’s payload accuracy was the best they had seen in Australia for Cat 789 dump trucks.
The Truck Output Project, which has included reinstating and calibrating the truck weighing system, has increased truck payloads by an average of 4 t per load per truck, which equates to nearly 4,500 t per day or 1.5 Mt per year.
Project manager Darren Schenck said other improvements in relation to truck availability, reliability and utilisation were also making a big difference in the efficiency of the Pannawonica operation.
“By prioritising repairs on the trucks and allocating more people to do the work we are getting defects repaired straightway and the trucks back into operation sooner,” he said.
“We used to have anywhere from 70 to 80% availability of the trucks, but as of July we were up to 83% availability. That is a massive improvement.
“This increase in truck availability leads to a more efficient and productive operation and reduces waste in time and resources.
“Well done to all those involved.”
This article was first published in Coastal News [September 2007, Issue No. 2] – Rio Tinto’s Coastal Division Newsletter.