Here's some pics of one of the laydown areas at a coal mine in East kalimantan, Borneo.
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Lagi...
What kind of truck is that single axle in the first picture?
Renault. The clue is in the photo of a junk engine in the last post, plus the logo on the radiator. Based on experience "junk" is the operative word when referring to Renault heavy trucks. Photos typical of the bone yard in any mine in the less-developed world. I've seen dozens like that .....
They sure don't throw anything away....
Can't tell exactly from the pictures, but the rubbers on the equipment sure looks good enough to make some money off.
It would cost more to haul anything out of there to somewhere civilized than whatever money you could make selling whatever it was you were hauling. Shame but true.
Here is one I found in the area on Google Earth: 0°34'06.24" N 117°29'41.43" E
Nige is right on the money, it'd cost a fortune to transport anything and you'd lose a ton of money. Jerry your pretty close! You landed on KPC mine at Sangatta, the place I go is 60km north of there by road, which takes 2 hours in a good 4wd...
If Its so hard to haul anything and very expensive how are the hauling out the coal and making money on it?
Finding a decent, reliable enough contractor with trucks and trailers big enough to haul that sort of thing is hard in developing countries, as it is, South African heavy haulers are hauling mining equipment from the port of Durban to Kinshasa, Lubumbashi and further, to all the mining operations up there, trips can take up to seven weeks, and that's just from here to there. Getting the coal or copper out is easy compared to that.
Most of the product generally goes out by rail. The problem is that rail tracks in these countries are generally metre-gauge (3'-3") compared to the standard gauge of Europe & the US. That gives you loading gauge and size issues. They happily haul millions of tons of product out but hauling machinery is usually a job that has to be done by road. Frankly by the time a piece of equipment is life-expired in a place like that there really isn't much work left in it, it's only fit for scrap. Tyres that might look good in a photo are probably completely deteriorated by the sun and would blow out if you tried to air them up. Then there are small things like civil wars and the associated issues of land mines to think about. Only if there is a scrap steel industry around the area is it worthwhile to do anything other than pile the old kit up in the bone yard and forget about it. Somewhere I have some photos of the bone yards in the diamond mines in Angola/Namibia and the copper mines of southern Zaire. If I find them I'll post them. Echoing what DoosanFan says above we regularly hauled mining equipment from Durban or Dar es Salaam up to the Zambian & Zairean Copperbelt. Even if everything went perfectly the trucks were on the road well over a month from the port to the mine, that's not counting the return trip empty. If a truck broke down a journey time could double. I use the word "road" in this context extremely advisedly. I remember we used to refer to the road between Lusaka & Kitwe in Zambia as the 300km pothole. In the rainy season there would be potholes caused by erosion so deep you could lose a pickup truck in them, and because they were full of water you could never tell if they were a few inches or a few feet deep ....!!
Nige, that sounds like the "main" road from Nairobi to Mombasa. The worst section being north of Voi. Fun trip in a bus with things like jugs of kerosene, tires, chickens with their feet tied and pretty much anything else you can imagine bouncing around for hours.
I believe some of the border posts have also become worse. I regularly see convoys of Angolan and Zambian trucks numbering up to twenty or more, the thing is they wait for all their buddies to get through the border before they leave, never mind the state some of them are in, its shocking.
We were using 2 companies back then. One was Fox & Bookless out of Bulawayo - this was back in the days when Zim actually functioned as a country. The other was from Joburg, don't remember the name now.
I am sure you have lots of stories from all your time working in these developing? countries.
Transcor? they have always been quite big... But you're probably talking before my time I will admit. Transcor does most of the heavies up to central Africa, there are others, but I don't really keep an eye on cross border heavies like that. There's a big transport group, from Zim, something like 600 Volvo tractors and interlink trailors based in Harare I think, a group called Sabot Management or something like that, regulars on SA roads. The ones I feel sorry for are Zalawi, oh my word, ancient, 300 horsepower merc powerliners that struggle to haul 40 tonnes or more over the pass between Durbs and Joburg, never mind what they look like
At one time a Merc Powerliner was the dog's danglies as far as tractor units went. In Angola we ran a fleet of tandem axle 3648 tractors hauling B trains of 2 x 40ft trailers between Luanda and the mines (about 1500 miles round trip). Those things could fly ........... especially if one ran over one of Mr. Savimbi's land mines ..... Even these days I think you have to go a long way to beat a Merc as something which will stand up to far more abuse than it's designers ever imagined, especially in places like Africa. The new Actros tractors are a fair piece of kit but I admit I've never had hands-on experience of maintaining them. I personally like Volvos and am warming to Scanias. We're running a fleet of them here and they are nice trucks that will stand up to the abuse dished out by let's say intellectually-challenged drivers......... Far more fun than working somewhere "civilized" IMHO .......
You said it, at one time. Look, I know a good few well looked after mercs of that vintage that still do well for themselves, but those Zalawis have really seen better days. Mercs I know of haul timber, and do they not handle the abuse so well anymore, they just start falling apart, and start running hard. Currently the big trend is towards 'SMART' trucks, they are 'performance based standards' trucks, they were being built on merc 6x4s, but the so called 'second generation' is being built on Scania R500 8x4's, pretty cool sight they are, GCM of 67 tonnes, truck and trailer that is, but just a little bit of rain, and they stand. Third world has its perks when trying to find operators and drivers, that is for sure. Its lovely when one tractor driver gets drunk one night at the compound tavern, tells all his friends he can operate all the machines... Next thing you know the grapple loader, in this case a Bell HD820E excavator w/grapple has been started with a postbox key, driven over a THU, and the road roller left over the weekend by the road building crew has been placed on the adjacent school house. Luckily the security guard nearby woke up and called the contractor whose machine it was, needless to say the offender spent the rest of his night sobering up in jail. THU is a temporary housing unit, just a container with an aircon unit used to house operators and labourers.
Nice pictures, pretty interesting! Thanks!
Looked just like the laydown at ok tedi mining in PNG back in the late 80s Nothing much has changed or improved. I remember they got 6 D455 dozers new in 87. 3 years later only 1 or 2 were still going, 1 were lost ? landslide etc and 3 cannibilised. your right about transport to remove them. Maybe still there; just need alot bigger yard. Did bougainville ever start again zed ?
Bouganville is still abandoned AFAIK. I saw some photos a few years ago of what was left of the workshops and machinery lying around everywhere. Sad.
Cool pictures, thanks!
They sure are neat pics. I'd love to wander aimlessly around in one of those laydowns sometime. Bougainville is not going as of right now, however, they are trying to reach an agreement that would allow the mine to reopen. Of course, it would need completely new infrastructure and equipment.
Looks interesting. Similar lays own bone yards here. Don't know about backward country's being the best. Should maybe try some decent forward places first. Won't ever get me back to places life Africa. Don't be silly
Agreed there, though I've never worked in Africa, worked with plenty of guys who have and they all say they'd never go back. Most have nasty tales of malaria, and the usual gun - totin - natives stories... Not worth getting shot at for a tank of Diesel. Alco I spent half an hour walking aimlessly around there, most of the time thinkng "I wish I could get half this crap home!"
great pics, the gear looks fairly straight? would love a 992C sitting out the back to look at
All that old equipment would not be lying there for long if it was in the UK - scrap prices high were up to £200-00 per tonne