Barrick Gold is sending several new Manitowoc crawler cranes and Grove rough-terrain cranes to work at the Pascua Lama mining operation. At the site, crane operators will work at extremely high altitudes in an open pit mining project in the Andes Mountains between Chile and Argentina, with temperatures reaching sub-zero levels and work continuing around the clock.
On the jobsite, the crawler cranes will be helping in maintaining and expanding the processing plant and other infrastructure. The rough-terrain cranes will offer support to this work and will also be used to maintain the mobile processing equipment at the site, such as the fleet of articulated dump trucks.
The mining project in Pascua Lama began in 2011. The $5 billion jobsite has estimated reserves of 17.9 million ounces of gold, along with 676 million ounces of silver. The mine’s first production is anticipated to be in mid-2013.