#Product Trends
SANY SCC4000 crawler crane took part in Chilean copper mine rescue
A unit of SANY SCC4000 crawler crane took part in Chilean copper mine rescue in 2010
A unit of SANY SCC4000 crawler crane took part in Chilean copper mine rescue in August 2010 when the copper mine collapsed, trapping 33 miners more than 700 meters underground. After 69 days, all 33 men were brought safely to the surface on 13 October 2010.
Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping also highly praised SANY’s philanthropic deed in his signed article in the leading Chilean newspaper El Mercurio under the title“Work Together for a More Promising Future of China-Chile Relations”. In his article, he mentioned a Chinese equipment-making company was actively involved in the rescue operation of the mining accident in 2010 and contributed to the rescue of 33 miners, which actually the Chinese company was SANY.
The 400 ton SCC4000 crawler crane is equipped with state-of-the-art electric control and hydraulic systems. Besides participating in the copper mine rescue, the crawler crane were also used in the wind power project and two thermal power stations construction in Chile. It had been stably operated for nearly 1800 hours until the time when the copper mine collapsed.
The rescue plan was to open passage some 700 meters deep to fetch the miners and they would be lifted out by a special capsule. Any accident might bring about severe disasters, so the hoisting machine was required to meet high standard stability.
The Chilean government was very cautious when they chose the hoisting machines and among the three competitors, SANY SCC4000 crawler crane was finally chosen due to its benign operation records.
SANY Heavy Industry held an urgent meeting in order to successfully complete the rescue task. Several technical experts brought some parts to Chile to provide on-site support. Hao Heng, service manager of the Chilean branch of the SANY group was responsible for the lifting task. Finally, he finished the task and won the recognition of the international community.
On Oct 25, 2010, the Chilean government sent a Letter of Thanks to SANY. It wrote “Chinese-made construction machines provided guarantee for this rescue task. We appreciate SANY’s contribution to this rescue and SANY engineer Hao Heng’s support on site.”
