According to local Aurora, Illinois-based newspaper, The Beacon News, Caterpillar has this week informed employees that it is suspending development and capital investment for large mining-class hydraulic excavators that were to be manufactured at the company’s Aurora plant. The company apparently said the suspension was effective immediately and was a direct result of the pending purchase of Bucyrus, which of course includes its successful mining excavator business, based out of the former O&K facility in Dortmund, Germany. Many of Caterpillar’s key global dealers already offer this range in conjunction with Caterpillar mining trucks.

It was in June 2010 that Caterpillar announced that it had selected the Aurora plant for production of a new line of mining excavators. But the Beacon News reports that Caterpillar officials want to evaluate the Bucyrus shovel programme to see exactly what resources the company needs to dedicate to any new or different products. Of course the basic reason is that it would be little efficiency gained in developing a whole new line of mining excavators when like models already exist within the Bucyrus portfolio, from the RH90 up to the RH400.

The mining excavator programme was seen as somewhat of an offset to the jobs the Aurora plant is due to lose when Caterpillar moves its small to mid-sized excavator line to Texas in 2013. Aurora has been the exclusive place for production of US-made excavators by Caterpillar since 1972.