Well, Maybe not?? Although a bucketwheel miner is used at the oil sands they also use a couple of the rigs for removing over-burden from coal seams in Germany. Irregardless, the bucketwheels are a German made device. Some of the visitors to the page have pointed out that the topography is wrong for the Ft. Mac area and also the license plates on the front of the vehicles in the pics are surely more like German plates than Alberta plates that aren't required on the front of vehicles in that province. Sorry if I mis-led anyone and I'm still in awe of the scale of the thing. As to how the Cat was taken down from it's new perch: it looks like the crane in the pic lifted it off and set it down. Last pic shows a clevis and cable that may have been used to lift it free.
Mining Apparatus at Ft. McMurray AB, Canada
Whoops! A small tool caught up in the works.
Talk about a wild ride! It's just a little snag though. Didn't seem to do much damage.
Nice little choring around dozer ruined. Probably say the same about the skinner's shorts.
Minor inconvenience has been removed.