RE: I wonder what they're getting ready for?10 Feb 2021 14:07
I have just done a few little calculations regarding the trucks and only because i am bored.
If the mining plan is to mine 1 million onces of PGM / year and i have taken a ratio of 1 g PGM/ 1 tonne for ease, that equates to 26,000.000 tonnes of rock to move (26 g / ounce)
Divide that by 20 trucks = 1,300,000 divide that by 50 tonnes = 26,000 round trips / truck / year = 520 trips / year
Assume a 7 day working week = 74.2 round trips / day. If 24 hrs /day = 3 RTs /hour which is feasible dependant on RT distance.
Having worked in and open cast mine in a previous life that is a very onerous task , so i would surmise that Triple or maybe 4 x that amount of trucks would be needed to comfortably transport that volume of rock.
Then they would probably need at least 4 of these babies
https://www.hitachiconstruction.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/EX5500-6_specs.pdf
Mindless i know but it may put it into some sort of perspective for people
Now thats an awful lot of round trips