OREANDA-NEWS.  July 30, 2013. ThyssenKrupp Resource Technologies has received an order from the state-owned power utility Elektropriveda Srbije (EPS) in Belgrade to design, supply, install and commission a bucket wheel excavator system.

The contract is worth over 30 million euros.

The crawler-mounted system, consisting of excavator (SchRs 1400/3 x28), connecting bridge and loading unit, is scheduled to start operation at the end of 2015. Capable of handling up to 6,600 m? of overburden per hour it will be deployed in the Kolubara coal basin.

The new bucket wheel excavator is part of the investment program “Environmental Improvement Project in Kolubara Mine Basin” being carried out by EPS to secure and expand electricity generation from coal-fired power plants. EPS currently operates five open-pit lignite mines in Serbia in the Kolubara and Kostolac coal basins with a total capacity of approximately 38 million tons of coal per year.

This contract is a further milestone in the long-standing business relations between ThyssenKrupp and EPS. Back in 2010 ThyssenKrupp supplied a comparable bucket wheel excavator system for the Kolubara/Tamnava-West mine and a spreader with tripper car for the Kostolac/Drmno mine. A further contract for a type SchRs 740 L bucket wheel excavator to mine lignite in the Kolubara/Tamnava-West mine is currently being carried out.