When Thiess took delivery of the 6000th Cat D11 dozer at its Lake Vermont mining operations in Queensland, it marked a significant moment in Thiess’ 90-year association with Caterpillar (Cat).
The D11 dozer rolled off the production line at the Caterpillar factory in Peoria, Illinois last year and was then shipped 15,000km to Queensland where Cat dealer Hastings Deering delivered the machine to Thiess.
“Taking delivery of the 6000th D11 dozer symbolises our enduring association with Cat, which goes back nine decades to 1934 when the fledging Thiess Bros business started with Caterpillar Model 15 and 22 tractors in their fleet,” Thiess executive chair and chief executive officer Michael Wright said.
“Today, we have 310 Cat dozers across our operations in seven countries, including six that are equipped with Cat MineStar Command for dozing semi-autonomous tractor system.”
Caterpillar Resource Industries’ group president Denise Johnson said Caterpillar values its decades-long relationship with Thiess.
“We’re happy to honor the company on taking delivery of this iconic dozer as well as the factory workers and team members who contributed to its build,” Johnson said.
“Our closer-than-ever collaborations with companies like Thiess help them to grow their business, leverage the use of technology, and increase production efficiency and safety.
“With innovation at their core, the Thiess team have embraced automation technologies beyond SATS for their D11 dozers to include Command for drilling, where they recently celebrated one million meters autonomously drilled using three Cat drills, and Command for hauling to boost truck productivity through autonomous haulage. We look forward to growing our relationship.”