Two years after entering the Chilean mining market, Keech is expanding its operations in the South American country. “Keech products have brought significant cost savings and reduced plant down time with the introduction of economical and safer ground engaging tools and bucket systems,” said Mark Adams, Keech’s International Sales and Marketing Manager.

In 2012 Keech Australia subsidiary, Keech Chile entered the Chilean underground copper mining market with its patented WearpactTM bucket edge system for underground mining. “WearpactTM has had wide acceptance in Chile, seeing significant reduction in machine down time and reduced maintenance costs across the board,” Mr Adams said. “Some operators achieved a cost savings of up to 40% per year per underground bucket system. Following trials, we would expect our clients to experience the same cost savings with open pit wheel loader bucket systems.”

The next step for Keech is to introduce ore flow protection castings such as Keeliner. Keeliner is the latest product to come out of Keech’s Innovation Centre Bendigo, Victoria. It offers a Mechanical Wear Plate System with longer wear life, increased wear material, despite an overall reduction in product mass, compared with similar liners in the market. Keeliner has multiple uses and is flexible enough to use on both mobile and fixed plant and can be used for many applications, including excavator buckets and chute liners. Judging from the product’s success in Australia, Mark is confident it will be well received in South America.

“The environments of Chile and Australia are quite similar – they both include extremely hard rock and hard mining. We face the same operational objectives to cut costs and find a safer mechanical liner system, and Keeliner can be used in a range of applications to address these issues. To support the expansion, Keech Chile has recently opened its first Chilean office and hired a regional sales manager, Jorge Brieba, who joins Sergio Becerra, Business Development Manager.

“Jorge’s appointment means we can introduce additional wear parts to the market while still providing exemplary support and service to our existing clients with more feet on the ground,” said Mark.