31.10.2025

650T Tadano crawler in the Andes

Peruvian crane rental company Grúas & Transportes San Lorenzo has taken delivery of a new 650 tonne Tadano CC 38.650-1 lattice boom crawler crane.

The new crane, which can handle its maximum capacity at a 12 metre radius and can be rigged with a 171 metres of main boom and offers maximum tip heights of up to 193 metres. went straight to work on its first job, working at an altitude of 2,700 metres at the Cerro Verde copper mine in Peru.

The job involved installing the 247 tonne section of a conveyor to move gravel and rocks from the bottom of a mine. The crane went from the docks to San Lorenzo’s yard and then on to the mine on 28 trucks. Once on site, a four man team from Tadano - technical training instructor Sönke Eichhorn, who travelled from Zweibrücken, Germany, along with local colleagues Domagoj Bozic, Jair Solís, and Leandro Henrique Ribeiro Oliveira – helped rig and set up the crane, commissioning and training the San Lorenzo staff on the job at the same time.

The crane was rigged over a six week period, in the SSL-1 configuration, with 84 metres of main boom, the Vario-SL variable superlift counterweight system, 225 tonnes of counterweight, and 245 tonnes of Superlift counterweight. Once fully assembled, the CC 38.650-1 placed the first 80 metre long, 247 tonne section of the conveyor belt on two previously erected supports. The procedure will be repeated numerous times until the conveyor belt has been fully assembled to its complete 900 metre length.

The CC 38.650-1 will remain at the mine for another five years. “We have more than enough work for it,” said San Lorenzo service manager Victor Condori, adding: “We are tremendously grateful that Sönke and his colleagues who went all in to help us set up the CC 38.650-1 for the first time ever despite the tough conditions at our mine. We worked together incredibly smoothly, and to tell you the truth, the training they provided was simply perfect.”

“The reason we decided on the CC 38.650-1 for this job was the fact that it’s an incredibly powerful and rugged machine that can handle the kind of conditions you find at this type of mine day in, day out. Those conditions entail a lot of wear, so it was good to have the Peruvian TÜV office confirm it by approving the Tadano CC 38.650-1 for unlimited use at all mines in South America.”

Grúas & Transportes San Lorenzo was founded in 2003 and is based in Arequipa in south west Peru, near the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The company specialises in Crane and heavy equipment rental as well as heavy haulage. It tends to focus on customers in the mining, energy, industrial, construction, and infrastructure sectors. It runs as fleet of cranes up to a 700 tonne Demag AC 700-9 All Terrain.