Kal Tire talks retreading

When off-the-road tires (aka OTR) get damaged by rocks, nails, pipes or by something else at a mining site in Canada, they then have to travel hundreds of miles to be repaired either from a non-structural to a structural point of view, depending on the injury.

MINING.com toured Kal Tire's Retread facility in Kamloops, British Columbia. Founded 40 years in the B.C. interior, Kal Tire is a major supplier to the mining industry. The company operates in 15 countries across five continents.

According to Bert Jameus, Manager at Kal Tire's Retread facility, cutting costs is the main reason why miners decide either to retread or repair their machines' tires.

"The cost of a retread versus a new tire would generally be around 60 per cent of the cost and, depending on the size of the tire, fixing it could take anywhere from four hours to 20 hours," says Jameus.

Jameus highlighted another benefit of repairing tires.

"All of the rubber that we peal out of the tires is sent out to a recycler on the mainland and we recycle approximately 500,000 pounds a year," he said.

Retreading tires at Kal Tire. Image courtesy of Kal Tire.