The Maple Program provides customers with data of the CO2 and oil saving made by choosing to retreat or repair tyres. (Image source: Kal Tire)

Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group, a dedicated tyre management and supply partner, details its Maple Program, a tool to quantify and reward saved oil and carbon emissions to help inspire a greener future

The Group has made clear its dedication to driving positive change across the globe, providing mining tyre expertise and innovations that help to drive fleet availability, sustainability and safety within operations. Earlier this year, the company spoke to African Review and shared more about how its growing footprint on the continent and the new solutions which are helping to support its future expansion trajectory. Following this, we reached out to Kal Tire again to learn more about its Maple Program, an initiative pioneered to support mining sector commitments to sustainability and best practice by accrediting efforts to extend tyre life with the company’s sustainable tyre solutions.

African Review: What is Kal Tire’s Maple Program?

Kal Tire: The Maple Program provides Kal Tire's customers with validated data of the CO2 and oil savings made by choosing to retread or repair existing tyres rather than buy new.

New tyres require large amounts of raw materials in their construction and production energy is required in the manufacturing of these new tyres, particularly during the curing process. Additionally, CO2 is emitted transporting from manufacturer facilities to mine sites, which can often total many thousands of kilometres across sea, road and rail routes to get to site.

Kal Tire's Maple Program takes into account this reduction in raw materials, production energy and transportation distances to award customers with a certificate, rated with 1 to 5 maple leaves, depending on the percentage of the fleet, or total tonnage of tyres that have used these sustainable tyre solutions.

Up to 5 tonnes of rubber, steel, carbon black, oil and various textiles are used in a single 63" tyre used on 350 ton+ haul trucks. Each truck requires 6 of these tyres, and some larger sites can have many dozens of large haulers on-site. By choosing to retread or repair these tyres, customers can see potentially significant CO2 savings, sometimes totalling many hundreds of tonnes.

African Review: How powerful is a Maple certification today in an environment of ever-growing scrutiny around emissions?

Kal Tire: As environmental scrutiny grows throughout the mining industry from governments, stakeholders and local communities, companies are increasingly investigating more ways to demonstrate their total emissions reduction. We have seen particular growth in companies reporting their retread and repair CO2 savings through the Maple Program over the last 12 months, who are displaying an increased appetite to report on their Scope 3 emissions, which applies to any activities from assets brought into operations from external sources, such as tyres.

We have seen some key African customers use the emissions data from the Maple Program in their ESG reporting to help reduce their Scope 3 emissions and mention the Maple Program specifically to help the drive towards more sustainable business practices.

We ensure the Maple Program is continually validated every year, which includes ensuring CO2 savings figures are as accurate as possible - for each region that Kal Tire operates in, local emission factors are used, which fluctuates annually depending on how energy is generated in the country - for example, coal-powered, nuclear, hydro energy, etc. Raw material figures such as the cost of producing rubber, steel and carbon black are also updated as part of this process, provided by the International Energy Agency (IEA). This ensures the program is always up to date and helps further motivate customers to protect their existing tyre investments.

African Review: Since the introduction of the Maple Program in 2019 how rapidly have appetites towards tracking environmental impact developed within the mining community, especially within the African continent?

Kal Tire: Several key customers across our operations in West Africa and southern Africa have embraced the value that environmental awards such as the Maple Program can bring. This has led to increased interest in our sustainable tyre solutions.

In West Africa, we launched a retreading technique called Ultra Tread. In this process, the tyre is removed after completing its planned hours on the front position of haul trucks. Instead of being rotated to the rear to run out the remainder of life, the Ultra Tread process is performed, restoring the tyre to its original tread depth and returning to the front position. As well as giving excellent return on investment and faster turnaround times than traditional retreading, it also carries great environmental value – up to 75% less emissions are used in the raw materials and production of these tyres vs. their new equivalent. Ultra Tread gives a whole new life to tyres on the front position and can be potentially performed multiple times.

Optimised burden relief is crucial for optimal fragmentation during the blasting process. (Image source: BME)

BME has helped a South African coal mine that was facing highwall challenges cuts costs while retaining optimal fragmentation through the implementation of a modified pre-split design

The hydrogen-powered T 264 haul truck prototype at Fortescue’s facility in Perth. (Image source: Liebherr)

The Liebherr and Fortescue hydrogen-powered T 264 haul truck prototype has been operated for the first time in a significant achievement for both companies

The truck, known as Europa, contains a 1.6MWh battery and 500KW of fuel cells. It can store more than 380 kg of liquid hydrogen.

“With Europa soon moving to site, Liebherr and Fortescue have taken an important step closer to their common target of developing and building zero emission solutions for the mining industry that are both field proven and energy agnostic,” commented Joerg Lukowski, vice president of sales and marketing for Liebherr Mining. “This success demonstrates the incredible capabilities of two Tier 1 companies working together to develop viable technologies today that can help the mining industry move towards a decarbonised future.”

Fortescue Metals CEO, Dino Otranto, remarked, “Following the success of our battery electric haul truck prototype at site, we’re thrilled to now have Europa up and running on hydrogen. This is a huge achievement for the team and brings Fortescue another step closer to having a fleet of zero emission trucks at our sites by the end of this decade.

“We’re aiming to transport Europa to our mining operations within the coming weeks where it will then undergo further site-based testing and commissioning. The subsequent test results will inform our future fleet of zero emissions trucks that we’re delivering with Liebherr.”

There has been a number of initiatives from top manufacturing companies to incorpoate hydrogen in their offerings including from Bobcat and Caterpillar. 

WEG Africa has become the first OEM to produce medium voltage softstarters in South Africa. (Image source: WEG Africa)

WEG Africa has become the first OEM to produce medium voltage (MV) softstarters in South Africa, reducing lead times for customers and supporting the drive for local manufacture

The WEG SSW7000 units are produced at WEG Africa’s Robertsham facility south of Johannesburg to the high quality standards for which the company is well known. According to Pervin Gurie, director of the digital & systems division at WEG Africa, the popular SSW7000 range is well-regarded by the market. These softstarters, which are extensively used in pump and fan applications in Africa’s mining sector, have now also become more cost effective.

“As the demand for our MV softstarters has grown in recent years, we recognised that customers could benefit considerably from having these products manufactured locally,” said Gurie. “The immediate benefit is that we can almost halve the lead time from 20 to 24 weeks to 10 weeks, by removing the need for long distance shipping from WEG’s Brazil facilities.”

He noted that the strategic value of softstarters has come to the fore as users look for ways to address the rising cost of electricity, as well as to protect their electric motors and extend their operational lifecycle. Softstarters allow a gentle ramp up of power as electric motors are started, reducing the peak energy demand during startup. Motors starting with a conventional direct-on-line (DOL) starting will draw up to 700% more than its rated current, while a softstarter can reduce this to just 300%.

“Our Robertsham design and production facility already manufactures a range of Variable Speed Drive Panels and Motor Control Centres, among other solutions,” he explained. “Our customers are always impressed by our infrastructure and expertise here, and we look forward to welcoming more of them when they visit to inspect the new MV softstarter manufacturing area.”

The local manufacturing capability will include the continued customisation of MV softstarters, where units are designed to meet specific requirements in customers’ applications. Gurie highlighted that solutions can also be packaged in a containerised substation, as was the case with a recent order for a mining customer in Angola.

“The order of 11 units that we built last year was delivered in three containerised substations, and could be easily transported and installed on site for quick commissioning,” he continued. “We have also found that customers in Africa have particular needs, such as extra space in their panels to accommodate thicker cables with less flexibility.”

Gurie sees ongoing potential for the WEG SSW7000 range, which includes a monitoring feature that tracks whether the electric motor is overheating or drawing excessive current. This enables the shutdown of the motor down before damage is caused.

“To produce these MV softstarters locally, we have been able to apply our stringent manufacturing quality systems facilities in place at Robertsham,” he concluded. “We also use the proven WEG designs from our head office in Brazil, as well as technical input from our engineers there, as and when required. This assures customers that all these units continue to be produced to WEG’s world class standards.”

This article is sponsored by WEG Africa. Click here to navigate to the company's website to discover more.