Capital Equipment News March 2015

EARTHWORKS & CIVILS

LR 1300 WORKING IN LARGEST COPPER and gold mine in Mongolia

F or more than three years now a Lieb- herr crawler crane, type LR 1300, has been working in the largest copper and gold mine in Mongolia and has satisfied with its outstanding performance. The customer particularly appreciates the crane’s flexible application possibilities and excellent lifting capacities. The Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine, which was discovered in 2001, is the largest of its kind in Mongolia. It is situated in the south, in the Gobi desert, near the Chinese border. Construction work is being carried out in the mine since 2010. The LR 1300 owned by Ivanhoe Mines Mon- golia Inc. has been working in Oyu Tolgoi for more than three years. In the beginning the crawler crane mainly assembled mining ex- cavators and mining trucks. Currently the cus- tomer is using the 300-tonne crane primarily for lifting work requiring a crane with high

lifting capacities. Among the numerous advan- tages of the LR 1300 is its flexibility due to the large number of possible boom configurations. Thus, the crawler crane which was initially de- livered with a 71 m boom has, in the mean- time, worked with various boom lengths. Furthermore, the customer is impressed with the crane’s excellent lifting capacities. Espe- cially when handling heavy loads the crane outperforms similar competitors’ machines. One of the crane’s major advantages is the possibility to travel with the load on the hook even in rough terrain which, for example, would not be possible with a mobile crane. Oyu Tolgoi is the largest investment proj- ect in the history of Mongolia. From today’s perspective an investment of over 7 billion dollars can be expected. After its completion the mine will provide approx. 30% of the gross domestic product of the Central Asian country. b

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CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS MARCH 2015