High up in the rugged and remote highlands of Papua New Guinea, miners and contractors prize reliability and uptime in the machinery they deploy for vital production, construction and maintenance tasks. It’s crucial to any job that machinery is in prime operating and safety condition.
When Enerpac distributor Bishops decided to refurbish a Liebherr All Terrain Crane LTM1090/2 deployed 770 metres above sea level in the misty jungles near Bulolo, it was no easy task.
Recently the machine had completed five years of service at the Hidden Valley gold and silver mine operated by Morobe Mining, a joint venture between Harmony Gold of South Africa and Newcrest Mining of Australia and it was decided that, after five years of continuous service at the mine, the crane would benefit from a rebuild to as-new condition so it was swapped it with the 100t Liebherr and the other crane shipped back to the workshop and machine shop facility in Port Moresby, about 250 km away.
“Replacement of such an important part of the crane as its slew ring was fundamental to the rebuild strategy, for which Bishops required top quality, fast, efficient and safe professional bolting technology,” said Enerpac PNG manager Pat Molloy, who works in partnership with Enerpac distributor Bishops and who spoke exclusively to Inside Construction.
According to Molloy getting a crane from Port Moresby to Hidden Valley can take anything up to five weeks.
“It travels by barge from Port Moresby to Lae, then by road to the site, which is an eight hour drive on damaged roads. It’s a major undertaking.”
Molloy says it’s important to have equipment that is reliable because there is no “just down the road” when it comes to getting parts or personnel.
“It’s critical to have the right equipment and expertise on-site.”
The tools selected for the task included the Enerpac S1500 torque wrench, supplied by Bishops Port Moresby, which is from the same Enerpac professional bolting ranges used globally on some of the world’s biggest building and infrastructure projects.
“The Enerpac gear was ideal for this job, because it provided speed and accuracy as well as traceable bolt loads,” said Molloy.
“The large nut rotation per wrench cycle and rapid return stroke of the S-Series mad the job particularly efficient,” he said.
Conditions can make it difficult to have major inspections carried out on cranes and Molloy says that the amount of time it takes to get service/maintenance people and equipment to remote PNG is challenging.
“It is therefore incredibly important that we have reliable equipment in the first place, because a breakdown can cause significant downtime and delay operations for large periods of time.”
“The key element in using Enerpac equipment is the in-country support of Enerpac. To have someone available on-site and give advice and training means we don’t have to rely on emails and phone calls and possible misinterpretation, which is crucial to the smooth running of operations in PNG.”