Biggest bulldozer in the southern hemisphere arrives in Greymouth

Photo / Supplied

The largest and most sophisticated bulldozer in New Zealand has made its way to Greymouth.

The bulldozer is so big, a five-truck convoy had to carry the 115 tonne machine broken down into transportable capsules.

The convoy then travelled 500km from Lyttelton outside Christchurch to its new base at Rimu, where re-assembly will take two weeks.

West coast miner Whyte Gold took delivery of the Komatsu D475A-8 this month, to service its new claim in the glacier region behind Greymouth.

"Some say I would be better served with a smaller machine, but this bulldozer can extract substantial material with a single-pass, so it is actually in use far less than any alternative method," White Gold company principal Iain Whyte said.

The Komatsu D475A-8 in action. Photo / Supplied

Komatsu had technicians at Whyte Gold's purpose-built hard stand to assist with the final construction of the massive machine.

The rebuild commenced within hours of the 75 tonne main frame arriving at Whyte Gold on one low loader, accompanied by another four trucks of essential components.

The machine was fully built up and tested in Japan before it was shipped to New Zealand, Komatsu territory sales manager, Len Higgins said.

"We had to semi-knock it down at Lyttelton in order to be able to transport it across Arthur's Pass."