Swedish mining equipment manufacturer Epiroc expects to start delivery of €60 million (US$65m) of high-capacity diesel underground trucks and loaders next year to the large Ivanhoe Mines-operated Kamoa-Kakula copper complex in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Epiroc is also supplying new development and production drill rigs in its “largest-ever order” from the site.
It previously received orders for about US$26m of equipment from Kamoa-Kakula, which Ivanhoe said would produce up to 430,000 tonnes of copper concentrate in 2023. It is currently expanding to 600,000tpa which, from about Q4 next year, will make it the world’s third largest copper production centre.
Kamoa-Kakula is owned by Ivanhoe (39.6%), China’s Zijin Mining Group (39.6%), Crystal River Global Limited (0.8%) and the DRC Government (20%).
Under its latest sale agreement Epiroc is also servicing the Minetruck MT65 S haulers, Scooptram ST18 S loaders, Boomer 282 face drilling rigs, and Simba E70 S production drills, as well as providing on-site technical support and operator training.
Epiroc said the machines featured its telematics system, enabling “intelligent monitoring of machine performance and productivity in real-time”.
