The Russian mining company said it intended to meet efficiency and sustainability goals by making sure its core mining equipment met the highest levels of availability, productivity and cost-effectiveness.

Under the terms of the partnership, the financial details of which were not released, VT will provide maintenance and spare parts for the equipment, and will implement new staff training programmes and other initiatives to help the miner improve the efficiency of its Cat fleet.

The agreement also details the continuation of regular site assessments, as well as on-going measurement of dealer performance.

An assessment held in August at the Gross, Taborny and Irokinda mines revealed a "strong operational alignment" between VT and Nordgold, the mining company said.

Nordgold CEO Nikolai Zelenski said the agreement should have a long-term positive impact on its Russian operations.

"The agreement challenges our partner with regular assessments to provide best practice levels of support to ensure the sustainable performance of the mining fleet to meet our production plans," he said.

VT general director Gerhard Vorster added that both companies shared a common goal: world-class best practices of equipment management for a maximum return on investment.

"Signing [this] strategic agreement is another step towards strengthening partnership between our companies and opening up new horizons."

Nordgold said there were currently 40 Cat units in operation at the Gross, Taborny and Irokinda mines. This includes 14 of its 134t 785D trucks.

The pair plans to commission two more trucks in 2019, and five more Cat 785Ds in 2020. Nordgold said VT project managers and service technicians are on-site permanently to maximise fleet uptime.