Cummins_eMag_Summer_2014 Final Single

EX8000 recently loaded 110,440 tonnes in a day.
The world’s first Hitachi EX8000 backhoe
excavator is in full flight at Stanwell Corporation’s
Meandu coal mine in south east Queensland,
digging the big tonnages expected of it.
With its dual Tier II Cummins QSK60 MCRS engines
pumping out close to 4000 hp, the 837-tonne EX8000
went into service in September and is moving 2700
to 3000 BCMs (bank cubic metres) an hour.
“The EX8000 is expected to move 14 million
BCMs per year over the next three years,
removing mainly overburden,” says Jim
Young, Meandu Mine asset manager.
A pointer to the machine’s capability is that it recently
loaded 110,440 tonnes in a day. The EX8000 is
equipped with a 45 cubic metre bucket and is moving
around 75 tonnes per bucket load, feeding a fleet of
220-tonne capacity Komatsu 830E dump trucks.
One of the biggest hydraulic excavators in the
world, the EX8000’s dual 60-litre Cummins QSK60
engines power its hydraulic system – a system
of 16 main pumps which move 8000 litres of oil
a minute to achieve maximum working force.
Although it’s early days yet for the EX8000
at Meandu Mine, Jim Young is confident the
machine will achieve its targets based on his
extensive knowledge of the Hitachi product.
“We plan to have the machine operating around
5700 hours a year,” says the man who started
at Meandu Mine during its construction in the
late 1970s. It’s not surprising that Jim Young
knows virtually every square metre of the Meandu
complex which today comprises five active pits.
Stanwell is a diverse energy company owned by
the Queensland Government and has coal, gas and
water assets that are used to generate electricity
for Australia’s wholesale electricity market.
Jim Young, Meandu Mine asset manager… “We plan to have the
EX8000 operating around 5,700 hours a year.”