Condra has secured an order for two high-lift machines for a diamond mine in Botswana from Canada-based consulting engineering company JDS Energy & Mining.
Manufacturing is set to start at Condra’s main works in Johannesburg after the order was placed through a Johannesburg-based buying house in August.
The delivery to the site, by road, of the two completed cranes is scheduled for the second quarter of 2021, with the time requirement for site mobilisation at the mine extended, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“These cranes will include some interesting features, such as load cells, limit switches, remote control, warning lights and sirens,” says a Condra spokesperson, noting that a competitive price and rapid response times during the tender process all contributed to a successful close.
One of the two high-lift double-girder electric overhead travelling cranes will be for the winder house.
This crane, with a 30 m span, will have a lifting height of 25 m on the 60 t main hoist and 26.2 m on the 15 t auxiliary, and boasts dual-speed movement on the long travel, cross travel and lift.
The second crane, a 20 t machine with a span of 11 m for the mine’s headgear, has dual-speed drives that manage the movement on the long and cross travel.
The Condra spokesperson explains that movement along the extreme lifting height of 60 m will be aided by a variable-speed drive on the hoist, allowing the quickest possible vertical travel across the distance of the lift, as well as very slow speeds for accurate load positioning.
The order was the second from JDS Energy & Mining.
Last year, Condra manufactured an overhead crane and five hoists, two of which were articulated, for the Bonasika bauxite project, in Guyana
.