AUSSIE RULES at THIESS

Liebherr Mining has been supplying the Australian mining sector with equipment for over 40 years. Manufactured at their Colmar, France plant, Liebherr Mining’s excavator range starts at the R 9100 G6 at just 113 tonnes rising to the huge 810 tonne.

Over many years, manufacturers have built bigger and bigger machines to keep up with a demand from contractors to increase production and to keep up with the increasing size of haul trucks to provide that perfect pass match.

I’ve operated them all and I have to say that this R 9600 G8 beats them all, hands down...

Liebherr’s first steps into the mining sector came as far back as 1974 with the introduction of the R 981, which at that time was a big excavator with an operating weight of up to 75 tonnes. The popularity of this large excavator led Liebherr to design the R 991 in 1977 setting the path for future development of large hydraulic excavators and face shovels. With an operating weight of up to 178 tonnes, the R 991 became a popular choice for mining and large quarrying applications the world over. Evolving the R 991 into the R 992 and adding the even larger R 994 before the end of the 1980s saw Liebherr cement their place in high volume production applications. Just a few years later in 1994 they raised the bar again with the launch of the R 996, a 672-tonne machine capable of handling buckets of up to 33m3 .

It was then 14 years later in 2008, the world was shown the huge 812 tonne R 9800, a machine rarely surpassed for longevity, reliability and production. Whilst the R 9800 and now R 9800E still remain at the pinnacle of mining performance, Liebherr believes there is no further requirement for manufacturing larger hydraulic excavators and have instead set about designing more productive and efficient equipment designed to lower operational costs for their owners.

One of Liebherr Mining’s largest and most well-respected customers is Thiess. Originating from Toowoomba, Australia in the 1930s, the company has grown massively over their 90 years in business both nationally and internationally to become leaders in mining services.

It was at Thiess’ Mount Pleasant Operation site in the Hunter Valley that we went to see just how the development of Liebherr’s mining excavators have changed the way the contractor is approaching their operations.

Mount Pleasant Operation is located 2.5km from Muswellbrook in the Upper Hunter Valley in New South Wales and will eventually yield approximately 474 million tonnes of high-quality coal. Opened in 2017, for client MACH Energy, Thiess developed site systems and processes, mobilised plant and equipment from across four states and recruited and trained key personnel before the mining operations commenced. Most of the staff at Mount Pleasant Operation have been recruited locally, ensuring the communities surrounding the site benefit massively from the project.

Whilst removing over 10 million tonnes of products on an annual basis, the company is also undertaking progressive reinstatement and rehabilitation works to return the land back into a workable state.

The reason for the AWESOME EARTHMOVERS visit was to see one of the mine’s latest arrivals in operation. And whilst we have extolled the virtues of Liebherr’s largest mining excavator the R 9800, it is its smaller sibling, the R 9600 G8, which has been making waves at this site since it arrived.

With an operating weight of 633 tonnes, the R 9600 G8 is the latest model in Liebherr’s G8 range of machines and is designed to be a class leading performer in terms of operator comfort, fuel economy and production. Manufactured in modular sections at Liebherr Mining’s state of-the-art facility on the outskirts of Colmar in North Eastern France. Unlike any other factory, the pre-assembled parts come together for final assembly and testing before they are transported to a nearby port for distribution around the globe. Once delivered to the mine site it can take a couple of weeks to assemble, test and prepare the machine ready for work. Liebherr’s mining facility in Brisbane takes full control of each delivery and build of a machine to ensure it is delivered to the customer in pristine condition and ready to produce.

Power to the R 9600 G8 comes from a pair of Liebherr D9812 EU Stage V engines delivering a combined output of over 3600hp. Designed for low maintenance and high uptime, each powerpack is independently removable allowing swift engine changes to be performed in as shorter time as possible ensuring the machine returns to work quickly. This is mirrored across the R 9600 G8 as minimising downtime through planned or reactive maintenance is key to increasing productivity and reducing costs. Liebherr’s intelligent power management system has given the R 9600 G8 an improved fuel consumption of over 20% compared to the previous model, something many mines are very happy with.

“Liebherr have got it right on this machine as it's very fast..."

The Liebherr R 9600 mining excavator is equipped with a closed loop swing circuit. Kinetic energy is recovered when the swing motion is used during deceleration to drive the main and auxiliary pumps. This reduces fuel consumption and supports faster boom lift speed. Cylinder dampening through IMUs provides smoother attachment movements without affecting attachment speed.

Standing at over 10m in height, 8m in width and almost 22m in length, the R 9600 G8 is huge! Still considerably smaller than the R 9800, the R 9600 G8 has been impressing the production teams at Mount Pleasant Operation.

Luke Crowther, more commonly known as Crowy is one of the operators entrusted with the new arrival. Following in his uncle’s footsteps, Crowy underwent training on leaving the Australian Navy before heading to Kalgoorlie working initially on CAT D9 dozers before working his way up to the mining excavators. ‘I’ve worked on a range of excavators in various mines across Australia in my time.’ He explains. ‘I’ve been in some of the biggest pits around and have operated some of the largest equipment in them too. From Hitachi and Komatsu to the Liebherr R 9800, I’ve operated them all and I have to say that this R 9600 G8 beats them all, hands down. It’s simply an amazing machine. It’s unbelievably stable for its size and can easily out dig any comparable machine on the market. We all know the bigger the machine gets, the slower it is, but Liebherr have got it right on this machine as it’s very fast, so much so we have measured production figures between this and the R 9800 on site, and we are very close to matching them.’

Crowy is joined by one of the R 9600 G8’s other regular operators, Chloe Collison. Chloe has been mining for over a decade, first starting at BHP’s Mount Arthur site along with various other sites in the Hunter Valley before moving over to Mount Pleasant Operation five years ago. Chloe not only operates the R 9600 G8 but is also one of the operators entrusted with the mine’s D375 and D475 dozers. With her training starting on trucks and dozers, Chloe quickly progressed to excavators and draglines. ‘I like working with Thiess here at Mount Pleasant Operation, the people and culture are great. Having to live and work with the same people for almost half your time, can be hard, but we’re like a family at Mount Pleasant Operation. I’ve been operating the 9600 since it arrived, and it’s been great. The power, the breakout force and the speed of the machine is second to none, they’re in a class of their own. We’ve been exceeding our targets month on month if we’re set up in the dig correctly and can easily move 1.3 million m3 a month. The comfort of the Liebherr is excellent and I’m more than happy being one of its regular operators.’

Crowy, Chloe and their fellow mine operators at Mount Pleasant Operation have already achieved world record production figures for this class of excavator moving 40,000m3 in a single shift loading 136m3 capacity Komatsu 930E haul trucks. ‘The breakout force is like nothing I’ve used before.’ Crowy explains. ‘It is so powerful right through the entire cycle and quick too. I also love the new cab. It’s so comfortable and spacious and having a full-sized passenger seat makes it a far better place for training younger operators up. Having the cab mounted on the left like the R 9800 makes a big difference too and helps with the vision from the seat.’

Like many G8 machines in the Liebherr line up, the R 9600 G8 benefits from assistance features designed to improve production and lower operator fatigue. The R 9600 G8 is the first mining excavator to have Bucket Fill Assistance where the excavator can either automatically or semi-automatically control the filling of the bucket to ensure full fill figures each and every time. The Liebherr Assistance Systems are advanced onboard applications designed to support operators to become more efficient through analytics and actionable insights. The systems will assist the operator to obtain optimal productivity and efficiency by providing real-time operational information such as measuring and analysing each bucket payload for optimum truck loading, providing transparency of the machine’s performance, operating time, fuel efficiency and identifying operational conformance as well as improving operator effectiveness to get the best out of the operator and machine. Selecting the right size of machine is one thing, having the bucket sized correctly to match existing haul truck fleets is another and the new R 9600 G8 has been fitted with a 40m3 unit designed to five-pass load the 320-tonne fleet of trucks at the site.

As well as being a more productive machine than its predecessor and its peers, the R 9600 G8 is also designed to offer lower maintenance costs thanks to its design features. A 600-litre tank on the auto greasing system and a simplified component layout requires filling less often. Walkways have been installed around the engines to assist servicing with service intervals either set at 500 hours or optionally 1000 hours. There is also a simplified troubleshooting panel allowing service personnel to easily identify issues and their locations. As with all excavators of this size, a drop down service flap allows fluids to be filled or emptied from the safety of ground level. Not only does the machine boast a full suite of LED work lights on the upper structure, cab and boom but they are also strategically positioned throughout the service areas to provide adequate lighting under the cover of darkness.

Ryan Fox is Thiess’ mining performance manager. ‘Whilst the machines are high performers, they will not achieve the production figures without the key maintenance and operating team we have here. There is also the planning and foresight that goes into the development of any mine site and having this dialed in just right makes it easier to achieve the high production rates we do on a constant basis. When we first published the figure of 40,000m3 in a single shift we had the validity of the figure questioned from competitors and manufacturers alike as to how it could be achieved. Having the Liebherr performing as it does, the operators and maintenance crews and our planners setting the site out correctly all plays a role in achieving these figures. As a company we are constantly looking at the performance of our equipment from 100t to 800t to ensure we are achieving the highest rates of production and ensuring we do this safely and economically too.’

The R 9600 G8 has been delivered in a backhoe configuration, a popular choice for mining machines in Australia. ‘We are finding more and more operators are choosing backhoe configurations for their larger machines these days as they provide a more versatile solution than face shovels in many mining applications.’ Michel Runser, Head of Product Management Mining Excavators commented. ‘Having the ability to double bench with a backhoe configuration allows for a large increase in production but has to be tempered with the need for each bench to be developed correctly and safely with the appropriate access and dimensions.’ Whilst diesel is still the preferred power for many machines, Liebherr has developed electrical versions of its large machines designed to offer significant operational savings should suitable infrastructure be available at the mine site.

The development of the G8 range of mining excavators has added huge operational benefits for Liebherr customers in terms of production and economies. With the figures from Thiess proving the smaller machines can almost match the 800 tonne class version for production with the associated reduction in fuel burn, does this spell the end of the 800 tonne class machines? According to Michel, it doesn’t, but what will be interesting to see is what sort of productivity figures can a G8 version of the R 9800 produce when that reaches the market!