Mammoth mining feeders hit long, slow road north

Two huge pieces of mining machinery, each weighing 85 tonnes and stretching more than 32m long, left Bunbury on Friday bound for the Pilbara.

Picture by Jon Gellweiler

Designed and built by Picton-based RCR Engineering, the belt feeders were trucked out of Bunbury with a police escort.

‘‘The belt feeders are among the longest belt feeders designed and built by RCR Mining,’’ an RCR spokesman said.

‘‘Given the size and weight of these belt feeders it’s been a significant achievement to complete all manufacture and assembly under cover at RCR’s Bunbury works.’’

The hydraulically-driven machines took five months to put together and are heading to WA’s iron ore mining precinct.

Moving the huge pieces of equipment was a big task and RCR used heavy-lifting hydraulic gantries to load the machinery onto low-level trailers.

The project comes a year after RCR produced two of its biggest ever apron feeders weighing in at more than 230 tonnes.

The Bunbury operation has been producing apron and belt feeders for more than 30 years.

As the iron ore industry grows, the physical size and capacity of equipment continues to grow to meet increased demands.

Each feeder is designed to deliver 11,400 tonnes of iron ore per hour and, over the expected service life, is anticipated to move an estimated 672 million tonnes.

Building the machines takes a team of engineers, designers, fabricators, machinist and fitters with a big percentage of the manufacturing process completed in WA.

‘‘Our ability to adapt our core products to facilitate a variety of applications makes RCR a popular choice in materials handling equipment,’’ the spokesman said.