Cloudbreak and Christmas Creek mine sites are owned and operated by Fortescue Metals Group (FMG). They are as they say “The new force in iron ore”. FMG while one of the newest yet sizable companies in the iron ore business they find themselves competing with the likes of BHP and Rio Tinto. Having now gone from exploration through to a fully functional and operating mine over the last couple of years it has certainly been a great project for Gulf to be involved in.

With Christmas Creek being 50km from Cloudbreak and the trucks coming back through the one workshop situated at Cloudbreak the two sites operate almost as one for Gulf. The combined allocated manning for this site is now at 162 people for Gulf ranging from site clerks, drivers, loader operators, workshop personnel and management. It is now Gulf’s largest site and it also has great potential for future growth.

The equipment is new and the truck fleet is entirely made up of the unique T1250 Pithauler and Powertrains built by Powertrans Pty Ltd and owned and operated by Gulf. These large purpose built off road trucks utilise the proven technology of the powered trailer to accomplish the task set for them with huge payloads over various terrains. These T1250’s have twin 650hp engines in the 200t units and twin 760hp engines in the 350t quads. Both units run synchronised Alison Auto transmissions and the doubles will pull up and out of a pit utilising a 10% ramp the same as a dump truck while the larger payload quads are designed for greater distance.

Currently on site we have,

• 11 x T1250 Pithauler Double units with 200t payload capacity.
• 6 x T1250 Powertrain Quads with a payload of 350t.
• 2 x Komatsu WA900 loaders
• 6 x CAT-992 Loaders.
• 2 x Kenworth double roadtrain water carts.
• 1 x CAT-16M Grader.

With this much gear going around the clock we have 40 guys in our workshop to keep up with the servicing and keeping it all going around in circles as our combined daily haulage target is over 60,000t per 24 hours.