Crushing equipment specialist Pilot Crushtec is seeing growing demand in South Africa from the mining sector as rising commodity prices breathe new life into this industry.
This contrasts with the construction sector, which remains challenged, according to Francois Marais, Director of Sales and Marketing at Pilot Crushtec. Sluggish demand for construction materials has meant that aggregate crushers capital expenditure remain under pressure.
“The upturn in mining is spurring local demand for our mobile crushing equipment as contractors – who are our traditional market – move onto mining sites to conduct crushing contracts,” said Marais. This shift from quarry-based or onsite crushing to the mainstream mining sector is demanding crushing equipment from the larger end of the product range.
“We’ve seen a move towards much bigger equipment than what our customers in aggregates would typically use,” said Marais. “Whereas we might in the past have been supplying operations producing 250 to 350 tonnes per hour, we are now working with customers who work in the region of 500 to 600 tonnes per hour and upwards.”
This is well within the capacity of the Metso crusher range, represented regionally by Pilot Crushtec, which includes mobile units with throughput capacity of up to 1000 tonnes per hour. Recent orders include the supply of a mobile crushing train to an iron ore operation in the Northern Cape, where it is successfully processing up to 550 tonnes per hour.
Metso Outotec recently renewed its distributorship agreement with Pilot Crushtec for another five years, after a very successful first five-year period in a formalised relationship.