A 45,000-gallon water tank will reach its final destination at Gibraltar Mine north of Williams Lake early Friday.
The tank is being transported by a 240 ton payload MT 4400 haul truck and has come all the way from Wyoming. The tank is approximately 24 feet wide by 16 feet high. and much larger than the original tanks used on site they are replacing.
Once the new water trucks are put to work, they will reduce the amount of time it takes to water active haul truck routes.
"This will not only improve productivity, but more importantly, reduce the dust onsite and improve safety!," Taseko-Gibraltar noted in an email.
The tank was custom built by Mine Rite Technologies and will be installed in an old haul truck that has had the dump box removed.
On Thursday evening the tank was waiting at the truck turnout just north of Williams Lake, with its departure scheduled for 12:30 a.m. Friday morning. It was anticipated that it would arrive at the mine by 2 a.m.
Traffic was controlled at intervals to accommodate the wide load's transport.
It's the second water tank to be hauled to the mine by Taseko in a month. On May 7 another 45,000 gallon tank was mounted to a Terex MT 4400 haul truck.