Develon Heavy Excavators Power Oil Shale Operations in Estonia
Last week of November, we visited loyal Develon customer Estonian KKT Oil OÜ and its distributor INTRAC Estonia at an oil shale mine in northeastern Estonia, roughly 100 km from the Russian border. On site, some of Develon’s heaviest excavators are hard at work: two DX1000LC-7s and one DX800LC-7, alongside their smaller sibling, the DX490LC-7 (50-ton class).
Heavy Duty Performance
A DL480-7 loader handles the crushed material, while the excavators carry out the main extraction. Together, the three heavy excavators have logged over 50,000 working hours in four years, averaging 5,000 hours per machine per year:
- DL480-7: 17,000 hrs
- DX800LC-7: 20,200 hrs
- DX1000LC-7: 23,000 hrs
- DX1000LC-7: 15,500 hrs
- DX490LC-7: 16,200 hrs
The DX490LC-7 is equipped with a hydraulic rock breaker to reach the hardest shale deposits. The two DX1000LC-7s use 5.5 m³ rock buckets to extract material directly, without blasting. The DX800LC-7 alternates between a standard bucket and a hydraulic ripper when the ground is too tough.
Efficiency and Reliability
The standout feature on site is the reliability of the Develon machines, operating 15–20 hours daily without major issues. Equally impressive is their fuel efficiency: the DX800LC-7 averages 35 L/h, while the DX1000LC-7 consumes 42 L/h—remarkably low for machines of this size.
Customer satisfaction comes down to three key factors: machine reliability, unbeatable production costs thanks to low fuel consumption, and the excellent service provided by INTRAC, the official Develon dealer for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
