Hitachi’s EX5500-6 ultra-large hydraulic excavator at the Moatize coal mine in Tete Province, Mozambique, has surpassed 100,000 operating hours under Vulcan Mozambique SA’s ownership. The EX5500-6, typically a 533–552 t class machine with a 29–34 m³ bucket, has reached this milestone in continuous overburden and coal loading duty in a high-production open-pit environment. The achievement signals long-term structural and hydraulic durability, with implications for life-cycle costing, rebuild strategies, and fleet availability planning on similar ultra-class excavators.

Palabora Mining Company has upgraded its medium-voltage network with ABB equipment and long-term service support to stabilise power supply at its copper mining and smelting complex in Limpopo, one of South Africa’s highest-demand electrical mining environments. The project focuses on modern protection, control and switching on the MV network, improving fault detection and isolation compared with legacy gear. Higher network reliability directly supports hoisting, crushing and smelting uptime, while reduced manual switching and better arc-flash protection improve electrical safety for maintenance crews.

CITIC Heavy Industries has entered the mobile mining equipment market on its 70th anniversary with the launch of two rigid mining trucks, expanding beyond its established portfolio of AG/SAG mills, ball mills, crushers, vertical mills and mine hoists. The move positions the Chinese OEM to offer both mineral processing lines and pit haulage fleets from a single supplier, targeting large open-pit operations. For mine planners and procurement teams, this could introduce new competition to established truck vendors and enable tighter integration between plant throughput and haulage capacity.