McHale Komatsu fleet for Hemerdon: haulage and pit design notes for mine planners
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on International Mining – News
30 Second Briefing
McHale Komatsu has secured an agreement to supply a large Komatsu mining fleet to Tungsten West PLC for the restart of the Hemerdon tungsten and tin mine in Devon, one of the world’s largest tungsten resources. The deal supports redevelopment of the open-pit operation, which previously used large-scale truck–shovel mining and extensive waste stripping. For geotechnical and mine planners, the new fleet specification will influence haul road geometry, pit slope performance under renewed traffic loading, and scheduling for high-volume tungsten and tin ore movement.
Technical Brief
- Agreement scope covers supply of a dedicated Komatsu mobile mining fleet for Hemerdon’s redevelopment phase.
- McHale Komatsu will act as the primary OEM-support partner for Tungsten West’s restart programme.
- Fleet supply contract is structured specifically around Hemerdon’s open-pit operating conditions in Devon.
- Komatsu equipment package is intended to align with Tungsten West’s revised mine plan and sequencing.
- OEM-backed maintenance and parts support from McHale Komatsu will be critical for fleet availability.
- Contract award timing is coordinated with Tungsten West’s restart schedule to avoid delaying initial production.
- Hemerdon’s classification as one of the largest tungsten resources globally underpins the scale of fleet required.
Our Take
McHale Komatsu’s role at Hemerdon comes as McHale Plant Sales is set to become sole UK distributor for Komatsu construction and utility equipment (per the November 2025 acquisition of Marubeni-Komatsu Ltd), which should simplify OEM–operator interfaces for Tungsten West in Devon over the life of the fleet.
Within our mining coverage, tungsten and tin appear far less frequently than bulk commodities, so a sizeable fleet contract at the Hemerdon tungsten and tin mine signals that niche critical-metal operations in the UK are moving from care-and-maintenance or study phases into capital deployment and execution.
For a Devon-based open pit like Hemerdon, standardising on Komatsu equipment via McHale Komatsu is likely to improve parts availability and maintenance response compared with mixed fleets, which is important for a tungsten–tin operation where ore value is high but throughput disruptions quickly erode margins.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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