The world’s largest exporter of thermal coal Xstrata Coal South Africa, has chosen Immersive Technologies operator training simulators as a key tool in meeting the large increase in staff requirements for the ramping up of operations, including a large proportion of ‘green’ employees.

The decision by Xstrata South Africa to purchase the Advanced Equipment (AE) Simulators and the five year support packages comes after a thorough investigation of industry training techniques.

Xstrata South Africa operations required a sophisticated training solution able to meet the rapid up-scaling of projects. With an acute skills shortage in the country, Xstrata are relying on a large number of new, unskilled employees to meet their labour needs. The AE Simulator provided the perfect tool to meet this training challenge, enabling heavy equipment operators to be thoroughly trained in a in a safe environment, without hindering production or risking damage to the actual equipment

Immersive Technologies’ African regional manager, Paul Davis said “Simulation training is now recognised by many as the most cost effective way to thoroughly train large unskilled workforces without hindering the production cycle or chancing site equipment with operator damage. Operations globally are seeing significant reductions in unscheduled maintenance costs impacting directly on the bottom line.”

Xstrata recognised Immersive Technologies’ ability to deliver significant value through their advanced product range and extensive support programs which are being used by Immersive’ existing customers in over 20 countries globally. The sale further demonstrates the growing recognition of Immersive Technologies as the leading mining simulation provider in South Africa and around the world.

For more information please contact Don Forbes, Immersive Technologies Marketing Coordinator on +61 8 9347 9000.

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About Immersive Technologies

Immersive Technologies is the world's largest, proven and tested supplier of surface and underground Advanced Equipment Simulators to the global mining industry. The company has achieved this unique position by focusing on its mission to make every mining and earthmoving equipment operator in the world safer and their employer more profitable through its simulation technologies. Immersive Technologies' Advanced Equipment Simulators are helping hundreds of mining companies around the world to increase their equipment operators' safety and site profitability through effective simulation training.

Immersive Technologies provides its customers with the most effective Advanced Equipment Simulators available. This is made possible through the formal exclusive licensing and technical information alliances Immersive has established with the leading Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), including: Caterpillar, Hitachi, Komatsu and Liebherr. These unique alliances provide Immersive Technologies with exclusive access to the OEM's proprietary and confidential machine technical information that is required to correctly simulate the OEM's machines and is not available through other public or dealer channels.

With advanced simulator modules deployed in 39 countries, Immersive Technologies is dedicated to provide outstanding service. To deliver on this commitment the company has customer sales and support offices located close to its customers in Perth and Brisbane Australia, Salt Lake City USA, Calgary, Ottawa & Vancouver Canada, Monterrey Mexico, Lima Peru, Santiago Chile, Bochum Germany, Johannesburg South Africa, Jakarta Indonesia, Kolkata India and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Immersive has the global mining experience, innovative technology, product range, OEM relationships, proven support commitment and industry vision to partner with you to ensure your simulator training solution delivers the significant results you expect.