A WESTRAC CUSTOMER STORY Sometimes it pays to go first.

Kalgoorlie-based contractor Hampton Mining and Civil

NEW CAT 6015B EXCAVATOR
BOOSTS HAMPTON’S
EFFICIENCY
snapped up the very first Cat 6015B excavator in the Australian market and has been
rewarded with increased productivity and outstanding fuel efficiency.
When you’re a mining and transport contractor “It’s a good machine and it’s done exactly what
working in the goldfields of Western Australia, we expected of it – only with a few pleasant
productivity is everything. The more economically surprises. For one thing, we didn’t expect that the
you can extract ore, load it, and transport it to the fuel economy would be as good as it is. So, we’re
mill, the greater your payday. very happy with it.”

So, when General Manager Bart Jones from
Kalgoorlie-based contractor Hampton Mining and
Civil heard that an efficient new Cat hydraulic
shovel was about to hit the market, he was keen to
put it to the test. Weighing in at 140 tonnes, the Cat
6015B was bigger than the excavators Hampton
had been using to load ore at the Fortnum gold
mine and came with an impressive 8.1 cubic metre
rock bucket and a frugal 27-litre engine.
“At Fortnum, we’re doing a cutback on an
Bart Jones, General Manager
existing pit,” Bart explains. “We’ve been using
mostly 120-tonne diggers, but we wanted to add
a couple of bigger diggers to work with the Cat
777 trucks. At the same time, we didn’t want a
machine that was so big that it could only work on
large ore bodies.”
Bart says the biggest advantage of the 6015B is the
gain in productivity. “In areas where you have to shift
a bit of dirt reasonably quickly, it’s letting us dig faster.
We’re able to add another truck into the circuit and
dig more material,” he says.
Another win is fuel savings, with the 6015B
proving far more fuel efficient than the 120-tonne
diggers it works alongside. “It’s got a 27-litre
engine compared to the 23-litre engines on the
120-tonne diggers, but the fuel consumption per
hour is about the same. Plus, it’s digging more
BCMs per hour. So, your cost per BCM fuel wise is
actually very impressive.”

After completing an inspection at WesTrac in Perth,

Bart purchased the first 6015B on the Australian
market and put it to work at Fortnum in July 2017.
Eight months and 3500 hours of operation on, he
says the machine is paying major dividends.

1/2 CUSTOMER STORY | HAMPTON MINING AND CIVIL | MARCH 2018

 Strong undercarriage Strong demand for 6015B
Bart says other strengths include a big, strong Greg says the 6015B brings operators major
under carriage that easily handles blue rock and advantages in the areas of productivity, reliability
simplicity of transportation. “Its quite an easy and efficiency. It’s big bucket and powerful engine
machine to shift,” he says. “With a 200-tonner, you help it move more dirt than competitors, and
have to just about pull them apart, but with the because it is built from proven Cat components it
low-profile cab we don’t have to take the cab off. will deliver superior uptime and serviceability.
All we do is pull the stick and bucket off, and bang
“There’s also a number of sophisticated
- away we go.”
technologies in there that keep the fuel
David Giltrap operates the 6015B at Fortnum and consumption very low, including engine control
says the shovel is well balanced and sits evenly and technology, regenerative energy technologies, and
firmly on the working surface. “I’ve found the Cat a boom float to regenerate the boom oil to reduce
digger very reliable and easy to operate,” he says. engine load.”
WesTrac’s Hampton Account Manager Fintan Kearns Greg says Hampton is far from alone in seeing
says it’s not surprising that Hampton has become the value of the 6015B. “People have been
the first company in Australia to purchase a 6015B waiting to see how this machine performs and
given their reputation for innovation. “They are very interest is high,” he says. “We’re expecting to
interested in continuous improvement and certainly sell a lot of these.”
not scared of taking an opportunity,” he says.
“Production and cost per tonne is vital to both their
profit margins and their clients’ profit margins. The
existing 6015B has exceeded all expectations and this
has led to the purchase of a second machine due for
delivery next month”
WesTrac’s Product Manager for Drilling and Mining
Shovels, Greg Wear, says the 6015B fills an important
niche at the top end of the construction excavator
market and at the smaller end of the mining shovel
market. “It’s a sweet pass for trucks with up to
100-tonne payload,” he says. “It will load Cat 773, 775
and 777 off-highway trucks in four, five and seven
loads, respectively.”

2/2 CUSTOMER STORY | HAMPTON MINING AND CIVIL | MARCH 2018