MacLean Engineering’s latest addition to its utility vehicle lineup, the ML5 Multi-Lift, marks a significant step in expanding the company’s footprint in Africa. With a dedicated business development team spearheading support and growth efforts across the Rest of Africa (ROA), MacLean’s service delivery and commitment to innovation are poised to drive safety and productivity in the region’s mining sector to new heights.
The newest addition to the MacLean Elevated Work Platform product suite is a purpose-built, battery or diesel-powered alternative to the use of integrated tool carriers (‘ITs’) in underground operations. The ML5 Multi-Lift model is designed for mine services installation and repair work from a certified elevated work platform with a 6.5 metre working height and a 4.5 tonne payload. With best-in-class application versatility, miners and contractors will benefit from the mining vehicle’s safety and productivity enhancements that have been engineered into the design from the ground up.
The ML5 Multi-Lift has application relevance across the mining world, complementing the existing MacLean Elevated Work Platform product suite – the SL2 and SL3 Scissor Lifts, and the LR3 Boom Lift – as another certified and safe working at heights solution. This unit is the latest addition to the MacLean utility vehicle product line that spans the production support mining vehicle categories – elevated work platforms, materials transport, personnel transport, and underground grader.
MacLean is the world’s largest Canadian-based manufacturer of underground mining vehicles. The company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023 and numbers over 1300 employees across the Americas, Africa, and Australia. With 300,000+ square feet of manufacturing capacity across an integrated five-factory, North American facility footprint, MacLean is well positioned to offer its battery electric, automated, and digitalized mobile equipment solutions to customers around the mining world. The company’s EV SeriesTM product line of battery electric mining vehicles (BEVs) has logged over 450,000 operating hours since 2016, with over 50 BEVs shipped around the globe and 20 mining vehicle models battery electrified to date.
On the African continent, MacLean has enjoyed a branch presence in the South Africa since the early 2000s. MacLean facilities in Parys and Phalaborwa provide MacLean Africa customers with full rebuild and assembly capabilities, along with a full slate of field service technicians who are regularly deployed to minesites in the sub-Saharan region of Africa. To that point, MacLean recently announced a strategic alliance with the Africa-based heavy equipment dealer Kanu Equipment, who now provide site support expertise to MacLean underground mining customers in Tanzania, the DRC, Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Ghana.
“We have been successful to date in growing our fleet presence outside of our home base in South Africa and have already expanded into underground mining hubs in Southern, Eastern, Central, and West Africa,” remarks John-Paul Theunissen, General Manager, Africa. “But to continue this growth curve outside of South Africa where we have an established branch network, we need to partner with in-country support specialists, so this is why our collaboration with Kanu Equipment makes so much sense as we pursue a common objective to support safety and productivity across the African mining sector.”
“Africa is a significant growth region for us, in keeping with the scale of mining development underway throughout the continent and the stated interest of mining companies to leverage the benefits of equipment innovation that drives safer, more productive operations,” remarks said Tony Caron, Vice President, Global Sales. “We’re committed to the future of mining equipment innovation in Africa and the partnership with Kanu Equipment will help make the MacLean customer experience in Africa, even better.”
“I’m excited by what MacLean Africa has already done in terms of building out the MacLean fleet footprint across Africa and I’m even more excited by what the future holds for us in this crucial mining region,” adds MacLean CEO, Kevin MacLean. “We can walk with customers as they explore options for the rollout of a battery electric, automated, and data-rich mobile fleet that will drive the ‘no boots on the ground’ mining of the 21st century. We have it all – the present and the future of underground mining mobile equipment, technology, and services. We are above ground where your fleet is underground in Africa.”
For more information, please visit: www.macleanengineering.com
