Solwezi, North-Western Province
Solwezi is the provincial capital and the service town for Kansanshi, one of Africa’s largest copper mines, as well as the base for a dense population of mining contractors. That contractor concentration matters: a contractor’s torque tooling is audited by the mine it works for, but maintained on the contractor’s own budget and schedule.
Served from the Copperbelt, roughly 180 km west of Chingola.
Mines, and the contractors around them
Solwezi carries two quite different tooling problems. The mines run large, well-documented fleets with formal calibration programmes. The contractors working for them run smaller fleets, often bought piecemeal, and are held to the same evidential standard when their torque records are checked.
Trackcor serves both. For a contractor, the usable answer is often a small annual calibration cycle plus repair turnaround they can plan around, rather than a full service contract. For a mine, it is a scheduled programme, onsite delivery and reporting.
Why the South Africa route costs more than it looks
From Solwezi, sending a torque wrench to a South African laboratory means road freight to the border, a customs process in both directions and a queue at the far end. The invoice shows the calibration fee. The real cost is the tool’s absence, and the spare tool bought so that absence does not stop work. Calibrating in Zambia removes the freight, the border and most of the absence.
Services delivered in Solwezi
- Onsite and workshop torque tool calibration with traceable certificates
- Hydraulic, pneumatic, electric and manual tool repair
- Preventative servicing on a schedule or a rotation
- Supply of Enerpac, Norbar, Ingersoll Rand, Gedore and Hi-Force tooling
- Service contracts scaled to contractor-sized fleets as well as mine-sized ones
- Operator training delivered on site
Common questions
Can a contractor use Trackcor without a full service contract?
Yes. Plenty of contractors in Solwezi use calibration and repair on demand, or a small annual cycle, and nothing more. Contracts exist for operations that want guaranteed turnaround and cover, not as a condition of being served.
How quickly can a tool be turned around from Solwezi?
Far faster than the South African route, because there is no border and no international freight. Turnaround depends on the work and the parts; the honest answer is days rather than the weeks the export route takes.