Wirtgen reported more than two dozen of its surface miners are deployed to bauxite mines in Guinea, West Africa. The machines cut and crush the ore and pile it in a row alongside the machine path, creating high stockpiles for a superb bucket fill, Wirtgen reported. The machines leave behind a level surface that can serve as a stable roadway for hauling, it reported. The most commonly used models in Guinea are the 2200 SM and the 2500 SM. The former is described as compact and powerful, able to cut rock with unconfined compressive strengths of up to 50 mega pascals (MPa). It has a 2.2-m-long cutting drum and a 708-kilowatt (kW) engine. The average 2200 SM in Guinea moves 1.25 million tons of bauxite per year, Wirtgen reported. The 2500 SM, able to mine rock with an unconfined compressive strength of 80 MPa, offers a cutting width of 2.5m, and is powered by a 783-kW engine. The average 2500 SM in Guinea moves 3 million tons per year. Wirtgen surface miners are offered in a variety of performance classes for the selective mining of materials such as coal, limestone, bauxite, gypsum, salt and phosphate.
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