BHP’s Western Australian Iron Ore (WAIO) haul trucks are tipped to uplift tens of millions of dollars in revenue a year thanks to an innovative engineering solution to the mine’s truck fleet.

The mine’s truck fleet are tipping around an extra 127,000 t of iron ore a month or about 1.52 Mt a year with the help of newly designed and developed hoist cylinders under the tray of the trucks.

Some of trucks within WAIO were unable to fully empty their loads because the truck’s trays were limited by how high they could hoist and tip.

Thanks to the innovation from BHP’s South Flank Operations and Engineering teams, the newly produced hoist cylinders allow the trays to tip higher, reducing the number of times product is carried back in the trucks by 54%.

Cylinders for BHP in JC Hydraulic test area at its factory in Yuanping, Shanxi

BHP’s Engineering and Global Procurement teams collaborated with Shanxi Jiacheng Hydraulic Co Ltd (JC Hydraulic), a major supplier in China, to develop the fit for purpose engineering solution before trialling and scaling the cylinders at South Flank.

“These bespoke cylinder hoists have been a tipping point for haul truck productivity, resulting in a 54% reduction in the number of times product is carried back in the truck,” BHP Group Procurement Officer Rashpal Bhatti said.

“It’s a small solution with a big impact – we’re tipping the productivity uplift to unlock tens of millions of dollars in additional revenue every year. We see every dollar we spend as a lever for performance and progress. This is how we can help proactively create the conditions for long-term competitiveness and true operational innovation.”

He added: “The scale of our global procurement spend gives us a unique opportunity to shape how we innovate across our supply chain and achieve solutions that deliver cost reduction, productivity, resilience, and safety.”

Bhatti leads the global procurement business from Adelaide, South Australia, where he manages the company’s global spend.

JC Hydraulic was established in 2003 and is a joint-stock private enterprise integrating R&D, manufacturing, sales and service. In December 2012, it moved to its current base in Yuanping Circular Economy Industrial Park, Shanxi Province, covering an area of 160,000 square metres and a construction area of 32,000 square metres.

The company has 530 employees, including 80 scientific and technological personnel. It has branches in Beijing and Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia; with additional offices at ChinaCoal’s Pingshuo open-pit coal mine, TISCO’s Jianshan iron ore mine,plus CHN Energy’s Zhungeer and Xinjiang Zhundong open-pit coal operations in Inner Mongolia.

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