Mining Magazine > Panorama > Mengdong Energy orders bucket wheel excavator

Panorama

Tenova TAKRAF has won a turnkey contract to supply an SRs2000 bucket wheel excavator to a coal mine extension operated by the Zhahanaoer branch of the CPE Mengdong Energy Group in Inner Mongolia. Commissioning of the equipment is planned for October 2013.

The company was selected following the successful delivery and operation of two bucket wheel excavators, a belt conveyor system and a spreader to Yuan Bao Shan some years ago, as well as its ability to meet the technical specifications of the project.
 
The Zhahanaoer coal field is located northwest of Togliao city in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous District. The open pit mine is situated just south of the Daxing’an mountain range where temperatures range from +39°C down to -39°C. The coal mine covers an area of 31.4km² and holds an estimated coal reserve of 828Mt of lignite extracted at various levels from 85-356m depth.

The recently ordered bucket wheel excavator is designed to excavate up to 6,600m³/h of overburden, which then will be transferred via a loading unit to the bench conveyor. The excavator will be the largest of its kind in eastern Asia. With a boom length of 44m it will be able to mine a step height of 30m and a block width of 50m. The conveyor bridge connecting the bucket wheel excavator and the discharge module will have an approximate length of 120m.

This bucket wheel excavator is the 56th machine supplied by Tenova TAKRAF so far. The SRs2000 models supplied by Tenova TAKRAF some 30 years ago to mine hard coal in Ekibastus, Kazakhstan are still in operation. Some are currently being refurbished to replace the original bucket wheel drives with new heavy duty Tenova TAKRAF bucket wheel gear boxes, making them fit for many more decades of operation.