UNDERGROUND LOAD & HAUL
The Epiroc Scooptram ST14 Battery
was one of the second generation
battery electric rollouts in 2018
Epiroc’s second generation
Epiroc as an OEM example now has 17 of its first
generation battery machines operating with over
75,000 accumulated hours including the ST7 and
ST2G battery LHDs, MT2010 battery truck and
M2C battery jumbo. The second generation
includes 14 different models launched in
November 2018 including the battery ST14, ST18,
MT42, E2C and all small size drill rigs as well as
Boomer, Simba, Boltec and Cabletec machines.
The first products have already been shipped to
customers. Epiroc recently said it had received a
large order for its battery-electric underground
equipment from Canada in the March quarter but
did not mention the name of the miner, the site
the equipment will be deployed at, or which
machines will be used at the operation. And at a
Bauma 2019 media roundtable event, President
and CEO, Per Lindberg, said of the recent second
generation launch: “We can say that the reception
has not been worse than expected. It has been better
than expected, and we have high expectations.”
The company is also working on a trolley
version of its MT42 truck with hybrid design,
combining trolley and battery. Going forward the
portfolio will also expand with larger battery
trucks, plus a generation two M2C jumbo
amongst other plans. On the trolley truck, Epiroc
has had trolley trucks in its range since the GIA
Industri acquisition in 2012 (which included the
already mentioned Kiruna trucks). Epiroc states:
“now with battery powered equipment it is just a
natural move towards trolley battery trucks with
our larger battery electric mine trucks. There is
more than one project in this area on the go at
the moment.”
Epiroc also told IM that it has seen a revival of
requests for large underground products like its
larger Minetruck and Scooptram models where
demand was flat during the downturn due to the
limited number of mines
being able to use these
UNDERGROUND MINING
large machines. Epiroc
EQUIPMENT WORLDWIDE
stated that there are
some new mine
properties with large
headings coming on
stream and it is working
with customers in Latin
America and Australia.
On the overall market
focus on battery and
autonomy the company
states: “Epiroc is
making progress with
customers already in the
battery electric product
usage but also with very
new customers who
recognises the benefits
With 50 years of experience, DUX offers a range of
and need to go there.
underground articulated four-wheel drive equipment
Both in Canada and
designed to meet the needs of mining and tunnelling
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projects worldwide.
autonomous load and
haul fleets are not in
Contact DUX today for field-proven underground
place but the progress
haulage, utility and scaling solutions.
towards that is
encouraging and Epiroc
DUX MACHINERY, 615 Lavoisier, Repentigny, QC, Canada J6A 7N2
is part of that in
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Australia, Sweden and
14 International Mining | JUNE 2019
Canada. And we at Epiroc see this as a very
natural way to go as we see health and safety as
most important.”
In mine projects, Epiroc says its Mobilaris
Mining Intelligence (MMI) is set to help improve
decision making at Assmang’s Black Rock
underground manganese mine in South Africa.
The mining original equipment manufacturer said
this will be the first installation of the decision
support solution in a room and pillar mine.
Pierre Becker, General Manager Black Rock
mine, said MMI will help to increase production
and utilisation at the mine. “The solution
enables an unprecedented opportunity for
mining personnel to make right decisions faster
than ever before,” he said.
Through MMI, the Black Rock Mine control
room will evolve to a source of real-time
production data fully integrated with planning,
task dispatch, machine telemetry data, mobile
operator clients and a layer of analytics to collect
and monitor insights and key performance
indicators for the mine production, Epiroc said.
“The project is expected to yield significant
improvements in employee safety, process
efficiency and overall production,” the company
added.
MMI enables superior situational awareness
and is designed to visualise and support mining
operation in all its complexity, in real-time,
according to Epiroc. It provides a 3D real-time
information model where the position of
machines, vehicles and personnel are
recognised, and other vital information sources
like shift planning, machine and production data
are presented.
Andrew Main, Regional Business Line
Manager, Underground Rock Excavation division
for Southern Africa, Epiroc South Africa, said:
“Epiroc will support Black Rock’s business
improvement processes with the MMI solution.
The globally acclaimed Situational Awareness
together with Short Interval Control package will
take their operations to the next level of
performance gains.” System installation is
expected in June 2019, Epiroc said.
Sandvik Artisan buy has major
potential
These have also been busy times for Sandvik
Mining & Rock Technology in February
completing its acquisition of Artisan Vehicle
Systems, the US-based supplier of battery
electric vehicle solutions for underground
mining. Artisan is now a business unit in the
Load and Haul division within Sandvik Mining. It
followed Sandvik opening its own state-of-the-art
battery electric vehicle and electrification
research centre in Turku, Finland in June 2018.
Wayne Scrivens, VP Product Line Load and Haul
at Sandvik told IM: “Artisan Vehicles is a