The online auction house Clear Asset will be auctioning several mining assets from Anglo American Thermal Coal on November 28. The list includes a 3,298-ton dragline machine, a Bucyrus 1570W nicknamed “Bigger Digger”, valued at more than one billion Rands when new.

According to market intelligence, there’s currently a two-year waiting list for such machinery, so this can be a great chance for a big mining company. The last time a new similar machine was sold was in the 1990s.

This highly productive dragline was installed at the Kleinkopje mine and operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. According to the site Mining Weekly, it can reach depths of 51.81 m, has a boom length of 94.49 m, a dumping height of 43.53 m and a bucket size of 59.63 m. Clear Asset cofounder, Ariella Kuper, is confident in the sale of the dragline:

It goes without saying that a machine of this size and power is rarely sold. Not surprisingly, the machine has already attracted strong interest from major mining houses locally and abroad,

[which would] prefer to relocate the dragline to their operations [rather] than purchase new [equipment].

Given the waiting list, cost and time to deployment, this auction presents an excellent opportunity to own a well-maintained and operating dragline.

Draglines are still an essential excavating tool used in several surface mining operations worldwide, especially for coal and iron ore. Their reliability and extremely low waste removal cost have been worth a lot of praises, so far: in a single cycle, these machines can move up to 450 tons of material, while the engine room alone is equal to the size of a small hall.

During the auction, on November 28, bidders can find “an entire clean up” of six more Anglo American Thermal Coal mines, but also commercial vehicles from AngloGold Ashanti, as well as underground and generic mining assets from Anglo American Platinum’s Union South, Rustenburg Shared Services and Mogalakwena operations. The list also includes prime yellow metal articulated dump trucks from Diesel Power.

Mining Weekly points out that the additional assets to be auctioned included CAT 930 and CAT 994 front-end loaders, PH shovels, three Voest Alpine continuous miners, a CAT D10R, CAT 824-C and Komatsu D375-3 dozer, a Komatsu GD825 grader, a CAT 226 skid steer loader and various spares, as well as Toyota commercial vehicles by Sahyouni.