All-terrain, rough-terrain and hybrid: XCMG puts a crane fleet into Chuquicamata
XCMG has placed a fleet of all-terrain, rough-terrain and hybrid cranes at Chuquicamata in northern Chile, one of the world’s largest and oldest open-pit copper mines and a notoriously demanding customer for lifting equipment.
A century-old benchmark site
Chuquicamata has been in production for more than a hundred years and applies strict equipment standards, which makes it a reference site for suppliers across the global mining industry. Getting cranes accepted there is less about headline capacity than about documentation, availability and the ability to keep machines working in a high-altitude desert environment.
XCMG says the deployment follows several years of contact with its Chilean partners, with the groundwork laid well before any machines arrived on site.
What the fleet has to do
The package sent to Chuquicamata combines the manufacturer’s latest all-terrain cranes, rough-terrain wheeled cranes and hybrid models. Mine lifting work is rarely static: cranes are moved repeatedly across a very large site to support maintenance shutdowns, conveyor and crusher work, and the handling of process components, so mobility and set-up time matter as much as chart capacity.
XCMG points to lifting capacity and stability as the fleet’s main selling points, alongside the terrain adaptability needed to reach working positions on haul roads and benches. The company says the machines are expected to provide all-weather lifting cover for mine operations.
Altitude and dust are the other constants at a mine of this type, and lifting work has to fit around production rather than the other way round — which puts a premium on cranes that can be rigged, used and moved on within a shutdown window.
Two decades in South America
The Chilean deployment sits on a longer build-up. XCMG has been active in South America since 2004, moving from municipal construction and rail transit projects into a full equipment range that now covers cranes, excavators and mining trucks. XCMG Chile was set up as a local entity in 2014 and has since built a national service network and a dedicated technical team, which the manufacturer credits for its response times in the mining sector.
Local customers have rated the performance and service as world-class, according to XCMG, which says its market share in Chile has grown steadily in recent years. The company frames the Chuquicamata entry as evidence that Chinese-built lifting equipment is now being accepted at mine sites that have traditionally specified European and Japanese machines.
Source: XCMG — Photos: XCMG