Sishen Mining Operations… a new shovel.

Joy Global Services, P & H 4100XPC Shovel.

Kumba Iron Ore has purchased a new Shovel.. and this one is not the garden type variety… Oh no I would want to see someone pick this up and dig in the garden. This shovel is so big it could probably pick up your house in one go. The bucket or “Dipper” as it is known in their terminology has a capacity of 104 tons or 61 cubic metres and a tall man looks a little like a stick insect in the bucket…

 

it will only take four passes to fill a truck of this size that has the capacity to carry 450 tons of ore…

Electrically operated with all the most modern innovations possible, although I suppose with the next model that will have more innovations, this is an expensive piece of equipment to improve the mining capacity.

High in the sky………. in fact 21 metres high…

and the crowd gather around to see how many can fit in the Dipper…. only joking, they have better things to do, or have they?

Photos courtesy of my son… thanks Boy…  and to assist the photos to show its true size, a diagram of the 4100XPC.