Mining services company Andru Mining received a new grey-coloured D8 dozer, made by construction and mining equipment company Caterpillar, from industrial equipment company Barloworld Equipment on December 1.

The machine is painted grey in honour of the first equipment Caterpillar made when it was founded in 1925. Caterpillar changed the colour of its machines to the now-ubiquitous road yellow colour in 1938, Barloworld Equipment Southern Africa CEO Andronicca Masemola pointed out.

Andru Mining also received a second D8 dozer, which was the second of four it bought from Barloworld in November to add to its existing fleet of 26 D8 dozers, which had been painted blue in Andru Mining's colours.

There were about 75 centenary-grey-coloured D8 dozers worldwide, with this one being the first one in Africa. Andru Mining, which had bought Caterpillar machines from Barloworld Equipment for more than 40 years, asked to be allowed to receive one of the centenary-grey machines, Masemola said.

Andru Mining has a fleet of more than 140 Caterpillar machines, including dozers, trucks, excavators and other earthmoving machines, said Andru Mining FD Shonel Reddy.

“We have faced, and resolved, many challenges together over the past 40 years, and break-downs often lead to break-throughs. We wanted to celebrate our partnership with Barloworld, who stand by us and make sure our ‘Cats’ keep purring, by receiving one of its special centenary-edition dozers,” she said.

Barloworld Equipment Caterpillar national sales lead Craig Shepherd noted that Caterpillar's equipment was built to ensure the major components and systems were readily accessible, which eased repairs and reduced downtime.

Further, Barloworld Equipment, through its Rebuild Centre, can also provide replacement components to ensure the machines can be brought back into operation as rapidly as possible.

Another benefit Andru Mining derived from using Caterpillar machines was that these machines had a high resale value, and Andru Mining typically preferred replacing the machines in its fleet, although the company did make use of Barloworld Equipment's support services, said Barloworld Equipment sales and marketing executive head Douglas Morris.

This sentiment was echoed by Andru Mining plant and equipment director Joe Naicker, who said it was the reliability of the machines and the backup and support that the company received from Barloworld Equipment that ensured the relationship between the companies would continue into a fifth decade.