Dump Trucks Chile 1        Global Transport was contracted to ship 5 x CAT 789 dump trucks from the northern port city of Mejillones, which is in the Antofagasta region of Chile, to New Zealand. The Antofagasta region is a well known for copper mining and includes the Chuquicamata mine, the world’s largest open pit copper mine.
Dump Trucks Chile 2   Global’s contract was to handle the dump trucks once they had reached the port. This involved loading, shipment to New Zealand, unloading at the port of Timaru and final delivery to the customer OceanaGold, at their Macraes Mine in the in the Otago region. In addition to organising the physical shipment of the trucks, Global was responsible for Customs and other associated paperwork – an important part of the job.
Dump Trucks Chile 3   The dump trucks had been broken down into the chassis (complete with wheels) and the dump bodies, for a total of 10 truck loads. The 2013 model dump trucks were virtually new as they had done very little work.
Dump Trucks Chile 4  

After departing Mejillones the dump trucks were shipped across the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand and the port of Timaru for discharge. They were unloaded using the ships cranes and then driven under their own power to a transit area. For this part of the journey it was necessary to remove the wheels to meet local road requirements. In total 20 truck loads were required to move the 5 dump trucks, as follows.

  1. Chassis 68 tonne, transported on widening trailer with 4 rows of 8 wheels, and 2 axle dollies or 6 axle widening trailer.
  2. Dump bodies 38 tonne, transported on widening trailer with 4 rows of 8 wheels.
  3. Wheels x 4 were transport on a variety of 3 axle flatbed trailers.
  4. Wheels x 2 and ancillary items were transport on flatbed trailers

A combination of heavy haulage trucks were used to pull the loads including Mercedes Actros SLT, Mack Superliner, Mack Granite and Kenworth T 900. One of the sub contractors used 4 of the T 900s on this project.

Dump Trucks Chile 5   Once loaded and secured the various transport combinations travelled south from Timaru, along the east coast of the South Island, to the small town of Palmerston. From there the transport route turned west towards the final destination, the Macraes Gold mine. The total transport distance from the port of discharge to the mine was 175 kms. Along the route a number of bridges had to be crossed and on the route between Palmerston and Macraes there were numerous hills climbs. All 20 loads required pilot vehicles.
Dump Trucks Chile 6  

For video footage of the transport see the following links.

Transporting Dump Trucks Chile to New Zealand

CAT789D Project

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