Rokbak RA40s at Indonesian Nickel Mine
On an island on the edge of the Pacific Ocean – 2,000 kilometers northeast of Java – a trio of Rokbak haulers “RA40” operate across a 45,065-hectare mining site. At this remote location in North Maluku, Indonesia, the haulers operate up and down steep inclines, through mud, dirt, grit and gravel, for close to 24 hours a day.
Required to move around 450 tons of biomass and quarry materials in a single day, each RA40 will record approximately 6,000 operating hours per year, Rokbak pointed out. The haulers were tasked with removing overburden and providing mine development support for securing high-demand nickel. “Every full-capacity payload sees each RA40 transport overburden two kilometers to a project access road and biomass dump for disposal.”
The three Rokbak haulers were acquired by company PT Hillcon, one of the well-known firms in construction, mining, property and heavy equipment industries in Indonesia. “Since its beginnings in 1995, the company has completed hundreds of projects across the archipelago in coal and nickel operations,” the manufacturer of the haulers informed. “Its current occupation in the world-class nickel deposit of Weda Bay, in North Maluku, is a five-year process that began in September 2021. It will last until Q4 2026, by which time it will have produced an estimated four million tons of nickel.”
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 2/2023, Page 47, Photo: Rokbak)
