March 7, 2014
Two more of Stanwell’s massive new Hitachi dump trucks have been hauled into the South Burnett for use at the Meandu Mine.
The partially disassembled vehicles were brought in on heavy transports on Thursday evening with a police escort.
Stanwell has purchased six of the trucks for a cost of almost $50 million.
Stanwell CEO Richard Van Breda said the new, larger trucks would mean the mine would be able to provide cheaper coal to Stanwell’s Tarong and Tarong North power stations.
“Our expenditure of more than $47 million is a strong vote of confidence in the future of electricity generation in the South Burnett,” Mr Van Breda said.
“Stanwell is ensuring that it has the most up-to-date mine machinery to continue coal mining at Meandu and power generation at our two power stations for the long term.”
Stanwell has signed a contract with Hitachi for the six EH5000 trucks. They will replace existing 17-year-old trucks which are well past the normal economic life for mine dump trucks.
They have a tray capacity of 300 tonnes, nearly double the capacity of the 170 tonne trucks they are replacing and equivalent to about 140 Holden Commodores.
The trucks travelled more than 7000km by sea from Japan and were partially disassembled in Brisbane for transport to the South Burnett.
Mr Van Breda said the Meandu Mine was expected to provide coal to the Tarong and Tarong North power stations for at least another 20 years.
“By producing coal more cheaply at Meandu we can boost the profitability of the Tarong and Tarong North power stations and that is good for the South Burnett and for Queensland,” he said.
