OREANDA-NEWS. As part of Metalloinvest's investment programme, Lebedinsky GOK and Mikhailovsky GOK received two 180-tonne Caterpillar dump trucks. These are the fifth and the sixth of the batch of these machines which the plants received this year. The first four trucks commenced operations at Lebedinsky GOK and Mikhailovsky GOK's open-pit mines in August 2013.

Over the period, the machines have already proved their ability to deliver cost savings and increased efficiency and productivity for the team. In particular, during September, at Lebedinsky GOK, each of the Caterpillar dump trucks transported 47% more rock mass than a 130-tonne BelAZ, 22% above its monthly target.

In 2013, as part of Metalloinvest's investment programme aimed at increasing transportation efficiency at the mining operations, the truck drivers at Lebedinsky GOK also received a trial model of a 200-tonne BelAZ truck. A 160-tonne BelAZ truck was purchased for Mikhailovsky GOK. Both plants are also expecting deliveries of Hitachi EX 5600E - 6 LD excavators with a 23 cubic metre bucket. Before the launch of the investment programme, Metalloinvest's trucks' maximum loading capacity was 136 tonnes, and the excavators' bucket sizes were 10-12 cubic metres.

Ahead of the deliveries of large-scale machinery, the plants broadened the roads and expanded reloading warehouses at the open-pit mines to enable 180-220 tonne trucks' operations; reconfigured power supply lines to accommodate for their heights; and constructed and equipped platforms for machines' assembly.