Hitachi Construction Machinery (HCM) has revealed that three massive electric shovels it recently delivered to the Mina Justa Project open pit copper mines in Peru are serving as the main material-loading equipment on the site, lowering the project’s carbon footprint.
The three EX5600E-6LD (Face Shovel) machines, the first Hitachi electric mining equipment in the Americas, join a growing list of Hitachi’s heavy electric mining and earthmoving equipment in countries from China, India and Russia to Bulgaria, Turkey, Zambia and South Africa, numbering 13 major mining countries on almost all continents.
The EX5600E-6LD model in operation at the Peruvian mine has an operating weight of 527t and a shovel bucket capacity of 29 cubic metres while developing 280kW of power. Being an electrically driven hydraulic shovel, it has no fuel consumption and is cost effective.
The Mina Justa Project is owned by Hitachi’s customer Marcobre S.A.C. and is located in Peru’s Ica Province, near the town of Nazca, home to the world-famous Nazca lines – 2,000-year-old geoglyphs carved into desert sands. At its full extent, the project will consist of two open pit copper mines and two processing facilities.
The project is a special one for HCM as it’s the first site in the Americas to have Hitachi electric mining machinery. The three EX5600E-6LD (Face Shovel) machines were delivered by ZAMine, the local dealer and distributor for Hitachi mining equipment in Peru.
According to HCM, ZAMine, as part of the Marubeni Group Inc., is providing an important inventory of main components, spare parts and consumables for the machines which are covered by a Labor Plus Parts (LPP) contract. As part of ZAMine’s extensive support to the customer, its product support team has joined Marcobre personnel during operation and maintenance of the electric excavators.
Hitachi added that the delivery of these electric machines is a milestone for Marcobre, ZaMine and HCM – proving that the construction equipment giant is more than up to the challenge of an electric mining industry around the world.
A senior official of Hitachi Construction Machinery Middle East said: “While environmental concerns were always important, they have become even more prominent for businesses and the general public after the Covid-19 crisis started. At Hitachi CM, we are ready and able to meet this challenge with a range of eco-friendly machines not only in the small equipment category but also in some of the biggest mining equipment segments.”
