Hindustan Zinc will be the first to use Atlas Copco’s MT6020 Minetruck—and a number of other
Atlas Copco models—in an Indian underground application.

Atlas Copco will deliver a total of 24 machines which includes face drilling rigs, long-hole drilling rigs, a bolting rig, loaders and trucks. For the company’s Simba 1254 and Simba 1354 long-hole rigs, 15-mt ST1530 Scooptram, 50-mt MT5020 and 60-mt MT6020 Mine-trucks, this will be the first Indian under-ground application to use these models. Delivery of all equipment will be completed in 2012.

The Atlas Copco fleet will be used by HZL at two of its newest underground mining projects: Kayad and the Rampura Agucha underground project.

The Kayad mine is located 9 km from Ajmer in Rajasthan and will produce zinc and lead. Rampura Agucha, located 230 km north of Udaipur in Rajasthan, currently has an annual ore production capacity of 6 million tons from an open-pit operation that employs Atlas Copco hydraulic DTH rigs.

Anirban Sen, business line mana-ger–Underground Rock Excavation for Atlas Copco India, said, “This equipment is of higher capacity than the existing equipment in the market. HZL has invested in our products to achieve ambitious production targets.”

“Apart from the capital equipment sales, we are in the process of finalizing complete back-up for these machines for a period of twenty thousand hours or five years of operation, whichever [comes first],” said Sanjay Ahuja, general manager, Atlas Copco Mining & Rock Excavation Technique India. “This means that Vedanta would operate the machines and everything else would be taken care of by Atlas Copco.”