Last year Bucyrus delivered five CL10C compact loaders to longwall mines owned by Shenhua and managed by Shenhua Shenfu-Dongsheng Coal Company.

The order was the first diesel contract for the producer despite Shenhua being a long-standing customer for Bucyrus battery-powered vehicles and continuous haulage systems.

The CL10C is designed for the special task of raising awkward loads of up to 10 tonnes to a height of 1 metre directly onto the cookie plate via the hydraulic winch.

The compact loader and its variants can be used in a wide range of applications – from general mine transportation and maintenance work to longwall installations and relocations, cabling and piping installation and stone dusting.

It can also be used for soft-rock mining and to support equipment contractors and civil engineering projects.

The CL10C continues the modular concept behind the compact loader platform, allowing flexibility of configuration that is impossible with a unibody frame design, Bucyrus said.

This permits Bucyrus to offer multiple variants, with direct pin-on cookie plate attachments and buckets and forks for dedicated application and Rapid Attach System attachments for utility vehicle tasks.

Engine package options, automatic and manual transmission systems, along with pilot hydraulic control or full electronic control systems give customers a wide range of configuration options.

Tyres are kept in constant contact with the roadway by means of 45-degree articulation and 8-degree oscillation via an articulation joint between the tractor and cookie plate sections. This allows the vehicle to follow surface contours safely and remain stable.

The loader has permanent four-wheel drive through an automatic transmission, resulting in smoother gear shift and optimum gear selection and control over various gradients and with different loads.

Power is supplied by a 173kW EPA Tier 3 Caterpillar C7 six-cylinder diesel engine, delivering controlled power and torque.