en.Wedoany.com Reported - Kinross Gold Corporation's Tasiast gold mine in Mauritania officially announced on June 9, 2026, the commissioning of a Hitachi EX8000 ultra-large hydraulic excavator at the site. This equipment is the largest mining hydraulic shovel in Mauritania, the first EX8000 excavator in the country, and the fourth delivered in Africa.

The Hitachi EX8000 is the largest hydraulic excavator in Hitachi Construction Machinery's EX-7 series. The commissioned unit features a face shovel configuration, with a total weight exceeding 800 tons and a height of nearly 10 meters. Its bucket capacity is 40 cubic meters, with dual-side loading capability designed to increase mining rates while reducing loading time and truck queuing. To support the operation of this advanced equipment, 21 mechanics and 10 operators have received specialized training at the Tasiast mine site.

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Kinross Gold Corporation is a global gold mining company listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company operates mines in the Americas and West Africa, with gold production of approximately 2 million ounces in 2025. The Tasiast mine, one of its core assets, is located about 300 kilometers northeast of Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania. This open-pit gold mine has produced a cumulative total of approximately 5.1 million ounces of gold since its acquisition by Kinross in 2010 through the end of 2025. The mine's gold production forecast for 2026 is 505,000 ounces.

The current fleet at the Tasiast mine includes 47 Caterpillar 793D (220-ton payload), 6 Hitachi EH4000 (220-ton payload), and 2 Komatsu HD785 (92-ton payload) haul trucks. Previously, loading operations at the mine relied primarily on 6 Caterpillar 6060 scrapers and 2 Bucyrus RH340B excavators. The newly commissioned EX8000 will work in coordination with the existing truck fleet.

The commissioning of this equipment marks a new milestone in the development of mining capacity at the Tasiast mine. Kinross Tasiast mine stated that the equipment will improve operational efficiency due to enhanced loading capacity and optimized haulage cycles. The excavator was assembled and commissioned in just one month.

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