Global General

Chinese-made crane ready for rescue of Chilean miners

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-11 19:40

Chinese engineer Hao Heng (third right) participates in the rescue work of 33 Chilean miners who were trapped underground by a collapse inside the San Jose Mine, middle of the northern Chilean desert October 9, 2010.  [Photo/Xinhua]

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile -- A colossal Chinese-made crawler crane is standing ready at a copper mine in Chile Monday to bring out 33 miners trapped underground since early August.

The SCC4000-type crawler, made by China's Shanghai Sany group, will be used in the final rescue of the miners beginning as early as Wednesday, authorities confirmed.

A 624-meter deep rescue shaft was completed Saturday inside the San Jose Mine, in the middle of the northern Chilean desert, where 33 miners have been trapped 700 meters underground by a collapse since August 5.

Hao Heng, service manager of the Chilean branch of the Sany group, said the crane will be used to insert giant metal tubes to reinforce the rescue shaft before lifting out the miners in a special "capsule."

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The Chinese engineer said once the complications inside the tunnel were overcome, the crane would work in perfection to save the miners.

The crane, which has a lifting capacity of 400 tons, arrived at the mine on six huge trucks Wednesday.

The crawler crane is equipped with state-of-the-art electric control and hydraulic systems, according to Yu Tianyu, who is from Sany group's market department.

Yu said there is now less than 10 400-ton crawler cranes in Chile and Chilean authorities finally chose Sany's crawler from among some world famous brands which also included Liebherr and Manitowoc for the final rescue.

The machine has the biggest lifting capacity among all the crawler cranes China has exported to South America, Yu added.

It is not the first time for the Sany crawler crane to be used in international rescue operations.

In 2008, the Britain-based Anderson Crane Hire used a SCC500D 50-ton Sany crawler crane to right a beached ferry listing on its side on shore.

The 6,000-ton ferry was stranded off the coast of Blackpool after it was struck by a freak wave on its journey from Northern Ireland to Britain's Heysham port.