Starting the next journey showing interesting facts from the automotive world, we decided to go to another continent. This time we will focus on unusual vehicles in Africa, specifically in South Africa.
South Africa? For most of us, the first associations are Nelson Mandela, the 2010 FIFA World Cup or the equivalent 3 capitals (Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Cape Town). This country is also famous for the extraction of many valuable raw materials. There are both gold and platinum mines here. And the last distinguishing feature of this country is related to the topic of our article Unusual Vehicles of the World . In this publication, we will not focus on vehicles made in South Africa, but on unusual machines that are used in this country.
We know how important ecology is nowadays. More and more new possibilities of using alternative fuels are sought, so that as few harmful substances as possible get into the atmosphere. One such solution is undoubtedly hydrogen. Recently, a "hauler" powered by this element has been tested in a South African mine. The Anglo American mining company is testing the possibilities of this type of vehicle as part of its Zero Emission Haulage Solution (ZEHS) program. The largest hydrogen-powered dump truck was manufactured by Komatsu and works in a platinum mine in Mogalakwena, South Africa. Such a dump truck is able to carry up to 320 tons of cargo. For a machine using such an unusual power source, this is an excellent result.
Komatsu vehicle being tested in South African mines.
Source: Anglo American
Interestingly, the owners of the mine plan to create a system as part of the ZEHS, thanks to which electricity from solar farms will indirectly power vehicles. The energy generated by photovoltaics will power devices that are responsible for obtaining hydrogen. And how is hydrogen produced? It is obtained from the most common chemical compound H2O, i.e. water. Everything is done thanks to the electrolysis reaction. And a special electrolyser will be one of the elements of the entire system in the South African mine.
A mine in South Africa.
Commonly called dumpers, they are actually huge dump trucks. They are designed to transport large amounts of loose materials. They move primarily in difficult and hard-to-reach terrain. At the same time, they are not approved for normal road traffic. Most often they can be found where standard construction machines will not reach. Such places are largely opencast mines and there are a lot of them in South Africa, and thus there is a great need to use vehicles of this type. The main manufacturers of these giants are Caterpillar , Liebherr , the aforementioned Komatsu , but also, for example, Volvo . Haulers are divided into rigid and articulated. The ones described above are representative of the first group. They are distinguished by the fact that both the chassis and the body are mounted on a common frame, and they turn by turning the wheels. The largest hauler in the world so far is the Belarusian production BELAZ 75710, which is able to transport 460 tons of output.
Interestingly, there was an attempt to break the Guinness World Record in the amount of transported material. The attempt turned out to be successful and this record is over 503 tons.
South Africa is one of the richest countries in Africa. It has one of the highest GDP ratios (Gross Domestic Product) next to such African countries as Egypt and Nigeria. Thanks to this, the road infrastructure is not at the worst level. Of course, there are routes leading through the vastness, but there are also European-style surfaces.
Not everyone remembers that South Africa is a former British colony. As a country with its roots in the United Kingdom, traffic is in English, i.e. on the left.
Downtown Johannesburg
