The long-lasting and sound operation experience with the mining equipment comprising two bucket wheel excavators, the complete belt conveyor system and a spreader, supplied by Tenova TAKRAF to Yuan Bao Shan some years ago, the company’s reputation as reliable world leading supplier of bucket wheel excavators, as well as the excellent technical solution for this particular project persuaded the customer to award Tenova TAKRAF with the turnkey contract of supply of one bucket wheel excavator SRs2000. The excavator will be destined for the coal mine extension operated by the Zhahanaoer branch of the CPE Mengdong Energy Group.

The Zhahanaoer coal field is located at the northwest end of Togliao city in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous District. The open pit mine is situated at the ridge of the southern part of the Daxing’an mountain range. In this region the though climate is characterized by temperatures varying from +39°C down to -39°C.

The coal mine covers an area of 31.36 km² and holds an estimated coal reserve of 827.93 million tons of lignite that is extracted at various levels of 85 to 356 m depth. The recently ordered bucket wheel excavator is designed to excavate up to 6,600 m³ overburden per hour, which then will be transferred via loading unit to the bench conveyor. Thus, the designed capacity makes the bucket wheel excavator the largest bucket wheel excavator of its kind in East Asia continent. With a boom length of 44 metres the bucket wheel excavator will be able to mine a step height of 30 metres and a block width of 50 metres. The conveyor bridge connecting the bucket wheel excavator and the discharge module will have an approximate length of 120 metres.

The commissioning of the equipment is planned for October 2013.

This bucket wheel excavator is the 56th machine of this type supplied by Tenova TAKRAF so far, operating reliably under most adverse climatic conditions. The SRs 2000 supplied by Tenova TAKRAF some 30 years ago to mine hard coal in Ekibastus (Kazakhstan) are still in operation all around the year at temperatures even exceeding the levels in Zhahanaoer mine. Some of those excavators in Ekibastus are just under refurbishment, replacing the original bucket wheel drives with the all-new developed extra heavy duty Tenova TAKRAF bucket wheel gear boxes to make them fit for the next decades of operation.