Rand Air, part of the global Atlas Copco Group and a leader in the portable air and power rental industry, came to the rescue of a prominent platinum mine near Rustenburg, South Africa, that urgently required compressed air to keep its underground mining operations going
The call came out after the mine experienced a breakdown of its air compressor (critical to powering pneumatic equipment underground) which caused production to temporarily halt. Fortunately, the mine shares a long-standing business relationship with Rand Air and so quickly put out an emergency request for 12,000 cfm of compressed air.
Rand Air reportedly responded quickly, with a coordinated effort headed up by Yolande Schmidt, internal sales at the company. To help the mine, 16 high-pressure oil-injected diesel compressors of varying sizes allocated to the project were inspected by the service team before being transported to the site and connected to the mine’s main air supply line by a service technician. Thanks to the quick response, the units were fully operational within just 24 hours.
Rand Air was called into action soon after as the mine experienced another breakdown just four days later and thus required a further 14,000 cfm in order to maintain production.
“Undeterred by the fact that it was a Sunday, the well-oiled Rand Air team did not miss a beat,” commented Schmidt. “It so happened that we had just recently received a consignment of brand new PTS916 air compressors. We got nine of these fresh-off-the-container 1,600 cfm units to site and operational for our mine customer within a 24-hour turnaround time. Furthermore, our team educated customers on correct machine operation to boost uptime.”
The right hire solutions
For 17 days the 25 hire compressors operated on the mine site, requiring little attention on the standby technician while the mine’s air compressors were repaired. And the company has referenced this case study as an example of its capacity to provide the right solution fast to its customers.
“The successful execution of this high volume emergency hire for our mine customer once again shows our agility in handling any size project with ease, cementing our reputation of being the home of specialised rental solutions and the go-to equipment rental partner,” concluded Schmidt.
