Commercial explosives and blasting solutions company AEL Mining Services introduced its new-
generation E-20 T mobile manu-
facturing unit (MMU) at an 
official launch at its head office, in Modderfontein, Johannesburg, at the beginning of October.

The MMU, which carries, blends and pumps or augers bulk explosive emulsions, has been 
designed, developed and manufactured to international standards at the Modderfontein site.

AEL reports that there are over 200 units working in the field in South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Egypt and Kenya. 
AEL has a comprehensive 
replacement programme to 
replace older MMUs with the new E-20 T units when the 
predetermined mileage and years have been reached.

“We would not have been able to build this truck had it not been for the input of our customers which brought to our attention the requirements of such a service,” AEL equipment 
service manager Steven Burke says.

The new MMU had to meet several design aims and AEL 
reports that many have been met and exceeded, including maintaining current safety, quality 
and durability standards; 
retaining the current electrical control system because it was functioning well and did not 
require readjusting; complying with certain international 
standards; and increasing the unit’s legal road-carrying 
capacity, which was doubled from 6 t to 12 t.

After many hours spent 
focused on bringing the parts count down, this has been significantly reduced from 886 parts to 397 parts. 
This reduced the fabrication time by half – from eight weeks to manufacture one unit, to four weeks – saving on costs as well. 
The design aims also included 
reducing the welding on the unit from 834 m to 564 m, and reducing the bin mass. 
AEL has managed to keep the costs of manufacturing a 20-t unit the same as the costs of producing a 12-t unit and, finally, it has 
reduced heat build-up in the 
hydraulic system.

Burke adds that the unit is operator friendly and all the 
operations are configured in a touch-screen operator control system located inside the cab for convenience and safety.

The MMU has four bins and the design meets the requirements of the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), 
ensuring bin integrity to prevent the spillage of explosives in the event of a rollover. 
The MMU is designed for productivity, safety, reliability, ease of maintenance and low operating costs. 
Product delivery is accurate, repeatable and robust over a wide range of pumping rates and quantities. 
The bins are made from stainless steel and designed to last through two seven-year prime mover cycles.

“AEL subcontracted all the fabrication of the stainless steel components, hydraulics and electrical installations under local 
design specifications. 
“The units underwent finite 
element analysis before assem-
bly and testing at AEL’s Modder-
fontein plant, ensuring compliance with SABS standards, road tanker legislation, as well as internationally 
recognised standards, which allow AEL to tender and deliver 
on a global basis,” says Burke.

Owing to its 8 × 8 wheel drive chassis with differential lock, good ground clearance and 
excellent rupture range capabilities, the E-20 T can work in the toughest surface mining environments. 
The product capacity delivers 
repumped and doped emulsions at a rate of up to 250 kg/m 
through a small-diameter hose, 500 kg/m through a large-
diameter hose and rates of up to 
750 kg/m when augering blend emulsion bulk explosives.

All the E-20 T MMUs are made for the delivery of the AEL range of repumped, doped and blend emulsion bulk explosives. New to this range is the Eco version of each product. The Eco range replaces fuel oil content with waste oil generated by 
machines working on mines, which can be as much as 
80 000 ℓ/m from each mine, and assists in reducing environmental waste.

The environmental benefits from this method include recycling waste oil, saving on disposal costs and the elimination of environmental hazards; also, the demand for virgin oil is 
reduced. 
A particular unexpected benefit has been noticed by AEL clients using this range of explosive: waste-fuel oils have a higher 
integral viscosity combined with a super buffering formula synergised to produce uniform, evenly 
distributed gassing droplets which provide ideal reaction hot spots, resulting in a more 
efficient chemical reaction and superior delivery of shock and heat energy for the explosion.

Other benefits of this range of explosives are on-site manufacturing with the installation of AEL modular plants for heavy duty, continuous operations, as well as tried and tested logistics to ensure explosives delivery down the hole, while a key safety benefit is that the surface bulk emulsion is developed in a safe, nonexplosive form and is only sensitised on loading into the blast holes.