Liebherr-Canada has recently handed over four PR 776 dozers to Taseko Mines at its Gibraltar mine in British Columbia, marking a major milestone for the OEM’s Canada business.
Of the four PR 776 dozers, one is the latest generation of Liebherr’s flagship 70-t dozer, the PR 776 G8. This will be the first of Liebherr’s Generation 8 machines to hit Canadian soil.
Gibraltar mine is the second-largest copper mine in Canada and moves more than 308,000 t/d of rock.
Jan Schroeder, General Sales Manager for Liebherr-Canada, said: “The PR 776 is the biggest hydrostatically driven dozer in the world. Its powerful Liebherr engine, coupled with its hydrostatic drive, gives our customers by far the best fuel efficiency in the 70-t class. This leads to lower operational costs as well as a significant reduction in the amount of greenhouse gases emitted on site.”
The latest generation of the PR 776, the PR 776 G8, couples this efficiency with brand-new electronic architecture that makes the dozer compatible with Liebherr Mining’s Operator Assistance Systems. These systems, the OEM says, offer operators unparalleled precision when working with the dozer’s blade and ripper.
While the PR 776’s exceptional efficiency played a major role in Taseko’s decision to integrate these dozers into its fleet at Gibraltar mine, it was not the only determining factor, Liebherr said. It was also important to partner with an OEM that could work alongside Taseko and find a solution that would suit its business needs and the needs of Gibraltar mine.
In the end, Liebherr-Canada came up with not only a customised solution but also demonstrated responsiveness to the customer’s concerns and gave them confidence in Liebherr-Canada’s customer support capabilities, the OEM said.
Schroeder explained: “The decision Taseko made to trust Liebherr-Canada and the PR 776 was about a full solution – not just the machine, not just fuel efficiency and not just customer service. The decision encompassed all of these but was most importantly about who Liebherr is as a company, and the type of business relationship and values that the whole organisation demonstrated to Taseko during the process.
Tom Juric, Divisional Director of Mining at Liebherr-Canada, said: “This new partnership with Taseko is an exciting one for us as we now have the chance to showcase the power of Liebherr mining dozers and the incredible work of our customer support personnel at one of the biggest mines in the country.”