Delivering the first Liebherr mining excavator to Eastern Canada  

In early January this year, Liebherr-Canada handed over an R 9150 mining excavator to new customer L. Fournier & Fils – a leading general contractor in Canada that works in the industrial, civil, and mining sectors.  

This R 9150 is the first Liebherr excavator commissioned in eastern Canada and will go to work in the Abitibi-Temiskaming region at the North American Lithium mine and mill, belonging to Sayona Mining (ASX: SYA), near Val d’Or, Que. This is part of the largest spodumene-lithium ore reserve in North America. 

Within seven months of meeting for the first time at the 2023 CIM Expo in Montreal, Fournier had become a Liebherr-Canada customer. Tom Juric, divisional director of mining for Liebherr-Canada, credits this to the entire mining team at Liebherr-Canada and their ability to demonstrate the company’s ability to not only supply world-class mining equipment but also to offer exceptional support services to their customers. 

“It’s important to us that the Canadian mining industry understands we not only supply fantastic digging, hauling, and dozing solutions, but also products and services that can optimize the performance and longevity of our machines,” says Juric. 

To experience Liebherr-Canada’s product and service offerings for themselves, representatives from Fournier were invited to Alberta to visit the Fort McKay service centre and the Acheson sales and Reman centre in October 2023. After a tour of the Fort McKay facility Gabriel Routhier, operations superintendent for Fournier who has been operating heavy equipment since he was a teenager, was given the opportunity to operate an R 9150 that Liebherr-Canada had on hand. After Routhier had experienced the R 9150 for himself, the whole group visited a nearby limestone quarry to see one of the site’s R 9150s in action. 

“As soon as I started digging, I felt the power of the machine. It had the speed of a 50-tonne construction excavator,” enthused Routhier. “When we were at the quarry, it only took three cycles to confirm the speed I experienced. At the time, I was wondering how it was possible for the machine to perform so effortlessly because I could barely hear the engine. Following discussions with the operator and the VP of operations, I was fully convinced the Liebherr R 9150 was the right tool for us.” 

Besides highlighting the performance of the R 9150, Liebherr-Canada also wanted to showcase its ability to support customers across the entire lifecycle of their Liebherr equipment. So, during the same visit, members of Liebherr-Canada’s customer service team met with the Fournier delegation to discuss how they would support the customer with comprehensive machine inspections, troubleshooting, and problem resolution strategies to maximize uptime with the new R 9150. And to further understand how Liebherr-Canada helps its customers with parts planning, major component remanufacturing, and service support, the Fournier team also visited the Acheson Reman centre. 

Once the R 9150 goes to work, it will be running round the clock. To ensure maximum uptime, one of Liebherr-Canada’s mining service technicians will provide full-time support to the customer and an inventory of consignment parts and components will be maintained at the North American Lithium site. 

For more information visit the Liebherr website.