Klaus's Giant Excavator Ride

Datum: 2011/07/26

7 June 2011, Teplicky denik, pp. 1 and 3, Teplice region
After almost 25 long years, a new giant wheel excavator came into being in the Czech Republic for exploiting coal in Northern Bohemia strip mines. The new unique KK 1300 excavator is the pride of the Northern Bohemia Mines. Vaclav Klaus, the president of the Czech Republic, commenced the operation of the giant machine at the Jana assembly site in Duchcov on Monday.
"A year ago, I got a scale model of the machine from its manufacturer, but now when I stand in front of it I am fascinated. I don't think I have ever seen a machine of this size before," said president Vaclav Klaus.
The KK 1300's uniqueness consists in its giant size and in the fact that it was designed by Czech brains and manufactured by Czech hands. The machine's overall height reaches 53 metres, just seven metres less than the height of Prague's Petrin viewing tower. The excavator's length equals to almost two football pitch lengths, totalling 180 metres. The machine's wheel diameter is 13 metres, making it is as high as a four-storey house.
The KK 1300 wheel excavator is designed for opencast coal-mining in the Bilina quarry mines. It was here where the last machine of this kind was put into operation in 1987.
"We will be exploiting the coal in the Bilina quarry, which is now the deepest opencast coal mine not only in the Czech Republic, but also in Europe, for 40 years to come. High quality, highly calorific, low-sulphur coal used primarily for power and heat generation is mined in increasingly deeper locations. We just need this new powerful excavator for the newly opened strip cut in the northern part of the quarry. The KK 1300 is not a replacement for any existing machinery, we need it all; however, the new excavator will help us strip the soil above the coal that we need to remove in increasing quantities. In the Bilina quarry, the stripping ratio is c. 1:6, which means we have to strip six units of strip soil to get one unit of coal," says Jan Demjanovic, the Northern Bohemia Mines Board Chairman and Director General.
President Klaus even drove the excavator. He travelled several decimetres with it. Klaus arrived in Duchcov alone without his wife. Along with the police, his arrival was witnessed by c. twenty Duchcov citizens.
Other people took part in putting the excavator into operation, such as Jana Vanhova, Usti Region Governor; Jaroslav Kubera, Mayor of Teplice; Josef Horacek, Mayor of Bilina; Jitka Bartova, Mayor of Duchcov; and Lenka Rihova, Mayor of Osek.
The KK 1300 excavator has been assembled by from 50 to 100 mechanics from its undercarriage up. Along with the excavator's assembly, the support carriage and the connecting bridge have been assembled.
The assembly started with the load-bearing structure; when this part was seated in the machine, electrical equipment and wiring, along with hydraulic and lubrication systems, were installed. PRODECO was in charge of producing the KK 1300 excavator.

"The KK 1300 excavator delivery itself was part of the contract concluded in December 2006 for delivering the stacker and the excavator for almost CZK 2 billion. The first part of the contract, the ZPDH 6300.1-CZ stacker delivery, was accomplished on time and the stacker was accepted by the client in December 2009. The second part of the contract, the KK 1300 delivery, will be also accomplished on time in June 2011 when the excavator will be handed over to Northern Bohemia Mines as the client. Thus, our company as the general supplier confirmed its ability to complete the delivery of such an extent," says Hynek Mühlbach, the PRODECO Executive Manager. In his ceremonious commencement of the machine's operation, president Vaclav Klaus expressed his support for conventional sources of energy. According to him, it is necessary to consider the energy consumption savings instead of attacking the energy producers.
"It has been making me nervous for a whole decade to see how everybody attacks energy generation, but nobody considers its consumption. It is a very shoddy gesture, I must say," said president Klaus and added: "Along with anybody wise, I am concerned with functioning of our country, and our economy. To function, it needs energy. I do not have a lot of trust in fashionable trends for banning everything, banning coal, banning nuclear energy, and developing wind turbines everywhere. That is why I think it is necessary to signal that such things are needed, and not to pretend that they are not needed." The Northern Bohemia Mines exploits brown coal in the Libous and Bilina quarries; the latter being the deepest opencast coal mine in Europe.