Large and Diverse

KMC owns a wide range of loading equipment ranging from small construction excavators to large hydraulic shovels. Our large shovels move large amounts of earth and fast. KMC is involved in civil construction type projects, road and structure building, reclamation, and reject related activities that require all different sizes of loading tools to complete. These applications in the mining industry put hard demands on hydraulic excavators, and it takes sturdy equipment to stand up to the challenge.

KMC has played an essential role in the development of the ultra-size shovels, through joint design development between KMC and Demag/ Komatsu in Germany. These efforts resulted in what is now known as the PC8000 shovel. These early prototypes (H685 and H740) were developed and brought to the oil sands in the 1980s. At the time, they were the largest hydraulic shovels in the world.

KMC owns and operates one of the largest fleets of ultra-class haul trucks in Canada. These pieces of equipment range in size from a small 30-ton articulated truck to our large 930E (320 ton) fleet.

KMC primarily utilizes our haul fleet in the oil sands in large overburden mining operations. However, this fleet is also used for hauling reject material away from the oil sands plants, moving material to create haul roads, and for hauling dried mature fine tailings material. In some cases, a loaded haul truck compacts the material that it is traveling over as roads and dams are built and therefore holds a dual purpose during operation.

KMC owned the first three CAT 789 (200 ton) trucks operated in North America and, through its maintenance practices, have had some 789 trucks still running productively with over 100,000 hours.

Our equipment runs 24 hours per day, seven days per week, 365 days per year. The loaded weight of a haul truck can be over 1 million pounds, similar to the weight of a Boeing 747.

Dozers are a multi-functional piece of equipment, and the dozer fleet is a major component of all facets of KMC operations. Dozers have a large variety of functions, including assisting our loading tools, cleaning the pit, creating lifts or leveling piles on dumps, and several other earth shaping functions.

Each dozer has a blade that is capable of pushing large quantities of material. Many have attached rippers to loosen compacted material, or even have tires attached behind them to drag and promote frost.

As part of KMC’s desire to maintain a fleet that best complements the needs of our clients, KMC was the first company in the world to take delivery of a CAT D9N model dozer.

A grader, for the most part, has one function. That is to create a flat surface to travel over an area. In KMC’s operation, this serves more than one area of the business, but primarily one would see graders maintaining the haul roads for our truck fleet to travel over. Road maintenance, utilizing a grader, is essential to day-to-day operations.

An adequately maintained road allows us to run more efficiently just as a smooth, level roadway enables equipment to get to their destination faster as well as reduces the wear and tear on our machinery. This operation also removes rocks that may damage tires as a single truck tire may cost more than $70,000.