Michelin provides the complete tyre solution

A large mining operation in County Kilkenny is using vehicles fitted with Michelin tyres to transport up to 3,000 tonnes of lead and zinc mineral concentrates each week from underground in Galmoy Mine to the port of New Ross, for onward distribution by sea.

Galmoy Mines Ltd operates a fleet of four scoop trams and four 40-tonne dump trucks in Galmoy Mine, which covers an area of over 1.5 square miles and is approximately 90 metres deep. Each of the vehicles is fitted with Michelin X-Mine D2 tyres, which offer excellent protection against punctures and cuts in the harsheet conditions.

Once the ore has been raised to the surface, and treated in the mill, it is loaded onto a fleeet of vehicles operated by Coolwagon, a haulier based 50km miles away in Thomastown, which has started fitting Michelin tyres to the trucks in its seven-strong fleet.
Coolwagon specifies Michelin tyres on its Mercedes-Benz 6x4 tractor units and tipping trailers, with each new tyre following the Michelin Four Lives tyre policy of being regrooved, remixed and then regrooved again to ensure maximum mileage performance.
Dennis Quinlan, Transport Manager at Coolwagon, explains: We began fitting Michelin tyres after monitoring their preformance in a series of trials. Our fleet makes the same trip, day in, day out, running fully loaded to the port and then returning empty, so it makes it relatively easy to monitor the performance of tyres across different vehicles in the fleet.

The transport operation from Galmoy Mine is unique as the mineral concentrate is loaded directly into the trailers inside large sheds, before being sealed for the 98km journey to the port. On arrival, the mineral concentration is unloaded inside large buildings which the trucks drive into, keeping it protected from the elements throughout the distribution process.