Liebherr T282 ultra-class haul trucks are in the process of being commissioend by Thiess at the Lake Vermont coal project in Central Queensland, Australia. Components of the trucks have begun arriving at site for reassembly and commissioning. A total of 12 are scheduled to be moving overburden by April 25 as part of a production ramp-up. The first truck arrived at Lake Vermont on February 27 for commissioning a week later. The T282 has a much larger payload than the 793D Cat haul trucks currently deployed onsite and Thiess stated would be “an important asset in reaching production targets for the mine.” The Liebherr T282s have a payload of 360 t, 66% greater payload capacity than the Caterpillar 793Ds, while additionally being electric drive. The mine is also using new Liebherr 9800 hydraulic excavators.

Lake Vermont is owned by Jellinbah Group and the Thiess initial Mine Infrastructure Development contract began in 2007 when the mine was established, then in 2008 mining operations commenced. In July 2012 Thiess was awarded a six year contract extension which will extend operational presence at the mine through to 2018. Under the mining operations and maintenance contract, Thiess undertakes all mining operations: clearing and grubbing, topsoil removal, drill and blast, overburden removal, coal mining and rehabilitation of final landforms. Thiess also provides all mobile plant and equipment, and will operate and maintain the client owned CHPP including the loading of trains. The twin state of the art CHPPs are each capable of receiving and handling coal at a rate of up to 11.2 Mt/y.