When the 6000th D11 dozer left the production line at the Caterpillar factory in Peoria, Illinois, in 2023, it started the 15,000km journey to Queensland’s Bowen Basin mining region.
Cat dealer, Hastings Deering, delivered the machine to Thiess’ Lake Vermont mining operations, marking a significant milestone in the 90-year association between Thiess and Cat.
Thiess’ Executive Chair and CEO, Michael Wright, said, “Taking delivery of the 6,000th 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.”
Mr Wright said that as the company grew and tackled bigger projects, the brothers progressively upsized, acquiring a Caterpillar D4, D6 and then a D8 – the most powerful dozer at the time.
“Today, we have 310 Cat dozers across our operations in seven countries, including six equipped with Cat MineStar Command for dozing semi-autonomous tractor system.
“Last year, we signed a Global Agreement with Caterpillar that supports our ongoing collaboration on reliable and cost-effective mining solutions to enable enhanced fleet reliability, availability and productivity and collaborate on innovation and technology.”
Hastings Deering’s CEO and Managing Director, Mark Scott, said, “Thiess is a long-standing customer, and we are honoured to celebrate this milestone with them.
“The delivery of this new Caterpillar D11 dozer reflects our enduring shared commitment to quality and efficiency.”
Mr Scott said Hastings Deering is proud to support Thiess in increasing productivity, reducing costs, and introducing new technology across Queensland and the Northern Territory.
“We look forward to continuing our strong collaboration with Thiess.”
Caterpillar Resource Industries’ group president, Denise Johnson, said the company values its decades-long relationship with Thiess.
“We’re happy to honour the company on taking delivery of this iconic dozer as well as the factory workers and team members who contributed to its build. 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.”
Featured image: Postmodern Studio/shutterstock.com
