A dragline was never meant to be moved the way it was in August 2025. The machine was a 3,100-tonne Marion 8050 dragline operating at BHP Mitsubishi Alliance's (BMA) Peak Downs coal mine in central Queensland, according to Mammoet's own case study and trade coverage from Project Cargo Journal and World Coal. Normally, a dragline relocates by "walking": shoes or pontoons alternately lift and shuffle it forward. Mammoet's own case study says a dragline moving this way covers only about 1 km every 12 hours and typically takes more than a month to cover a distance like this 27 km route. In August 2025, Mammoet relocated the dragline the full 27 km across the lease in just 10 days, which the company and trade press, including Mining Magazine, described as a new benchmark for dragline transport. Mammoet's own case study puts the average at about 8 km a day, though 27 km divided over 10 days works out closer to 2.7 km a day. The higher figure likely reflects only the days the convoy was actively moving, since the 10-day window also covered jacking the dragline up, building the rail crossing, and jacking it back down, none of which involved forward travel.
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