Company: Mafube Coal
Industry: Mining
Problem
Diesel is one of the largest costs for Mafube Coal, with mobile equipment being the largest consumer, the key goal was to reduce fuel consumption and support their pledge to reduce their carbon footprint.
Mafube Colliery is a joint venture mine between Thungela & Exxaro. The relationship between FuelActive and the Exxaro HQ Innovation Department was originally facilitated by Axora, a leading mining marketplace. Exxaro HQ Innovation Department subsequently introduced FuelActive to the Mafube Digital & Innovation Team who has led the project since the start of the pilot.
Solution
Based on the key KPI's of lowering the carbon footprint and reducing fuel usage Mafube Coal embarked on a 3-month trial.
3x Komatsu 730E dump trucks were fitted with FuelActive and compared with 3 without. The weekly data was reviewed with the haul trucks fitted with FuelActive outperformed the control group and historical data every month.
Along with real-life application data, hypothesis Testing was carried out on the data to validate the fuel saving at Mafube further backing up real-life data and to further validate the field trial Mafube carried out additional fuel sampling identifying FuelActive to be supplying cleaner, less contaminated fuel to the engine.
Due to the positive results Mafube moved the project from pilot to rollout. Mafube, along with installation subcontractor Gridlock, completed a full fleet rollout which includes dozers, haul trucks, drills & excavators. Mafube will continue to monitor results and plan to publish a technical paper on the final results.



Results

Data point average showed a value of over 6.9% fuel saving equating to a massive reduction in CO₂ emissions.

The significant saving will have a huge impact on fuel costs as FuelActive is rolled out across the Mafube fleet.