MINING TRUCKS
on-grade increases as much as 100% versus
diesel-only mode. Using trolley, a loaded 795F can
run at 28 km/h on a 10% physical grade with solid
haul road conditions.
The Cat trolley system is fully machine
integrated, bringing the benefits of optimised
performance and system serviceability to the 795F
AC. Caterpillar’s higher voltage truck and trolley
system is designed to bring advantages through
lower infrastructure capital costs and lower power
2020 show in Phoenix, Peter Wan, the Technology
& Innovation Lead for Teck Resources in his talk
covering the company’s pathway to zero emissions
reminded listeners that Teck recently came out
with a new climate change goal of becoming
carbon neutral across its operations and activities
by 2050 plus pointed out that his team’s
development of zero emission vehicles is a key
distribution maintenance costs. Other advantages
come from the rugged Cat pantograph, designed
to deliver superior uptime and reduced repair
costs. A quick-drop feature helps protect the part of that.
Depending on the category, Teck has identified
different maturity dates for lower or zero
emissions technology becoming available. This
ranges from 2021-2024 for light vehicles, to 2025-
2030 for 100-360 t class haul trucks. Wan and his
overhead trolley lines.
Caterpillar told IM: “As with any new product
development project, a variety of validation
activities are required to bring a product to team are also aware they cannot apply the same
operating philosophies they have in place for
diesel-powered machinery with these new
machines. On the smaller class mining trucks, Wan
market—from initial virtual simulation and
validation to final validation in a production
setting at a customer site. With Caterpillar’s
unique position as the only 100% vertically-
integrated OEM of diesel-electric trucks and mentioned potentially larger models of eMining’s
eDumper and Volvo’s HX2 amongst other options.
But there will also have to be an operational
mindset change. “The way we are going to
trolley systems, the team conducted a suite of
validation activities on the 795F AC internally,
including testing on a trolley line built at operate electric equipment is going to be
different,” he said. “We are not going to run these
for 24 hours. We need to understand the charging
philosophies for different equipment to get the
Caterpillar’s Proving Grounds. The two-year
program at Boliden’s Aitik mine was significant to
the trolley development process and we want to same productivity.”
Looking at larger trucks Wan mentioned “Cat
Project Verde” on one of his slides but no more
extend our thanks to Boliden and Zeppelin for
their collaboration.”
On trolley assist versions of the 794 AC, 796 AC,
and 798 AC with the 795F AC, the system is readily details were given in the presentation. Caterpillar
has since confirmed to IM the existence of Project
Verde and had this brief statement to add, from
Brian Weller, Chief Engineer, Surface Mining &
deployable to all three of these models. Caterpillar
and its dealers are currently discussing with
customers the next implementation of trolley
assist. “We will collaborate with customers to
develop trolley assist for their selected model and Technology, Caterpillar Inc, who states:
“Caterpillar has responded to customers by
launching a project that is focused on energy and
to customise it to their specific region and
application.”
On the general trolley assist market Caterpillar
says it has received many requests from
customers for trolley assist assessments over the
last several years and new requests continue to
come in. “It’s important to note that trolley assist
may not be optimal for every customer and every
application. With the broadest product line-up of
mining trucks in the industry, we’re confident that
we have solutions that will meet customers’ site-
specific and region-specific needs. Previously,
trolley economics and operational constraints
made it difficult to justify machine and
infrastructure investment. Potential greenhouse
gas cost offsets may influence the trolley value
equation. Trolley is one of the multiple building
blocks that Caterpillar is deploying as part of our
electrification strategy for greenhouse gas
reduction solutions for large mining trucks.”
Caterpillar added that it is actively discussing
with customers solutions for emissions reduction,
decarbonisation, and electrification. At the SME
34 International Mining | APRIL 2020
emissions reduction, and helping customers
decrease their carbon footprints through
machinery and power solutions that contribute to
lower greenhouse gas.” Additional information
about Caterpillar actions in this regard are to be
released at MINExpo 2020.
Komatsu of course famously showed off a
cabless truck at MINExpo 2016 which is still in
advanced testing at its Arizona Proving Grounds
with some news on that expected later in 2020 as
well. Caterpillar for its part of course initially
developed Command for hauling around its
existing proven truck platforms, adding: “This
approach allows Cat to work with customers that
have large populations of manned Cat trucks who
are interested in converting to autonomy. Using a
traditional truck layout has allowed us to bring
autonomy to additional size models, as well as
other manufacturer’s trucks, such as the Komatsu
930E. Caterpillar continues to expand and improve
our Command offerings with additional models,
increasing performance, and adding new features.
We also continue to work with our customers to
understand the value of a cabless, purpose-built
autonomous truck, along with the processes to
manage a cabless truck within a mine (such as
workshops).”
To date, Cat has over 275 autonomous trucks
operating, including 789s, 793s, and 797s,
including numerous retrofits. Notable firsts
include the first auto 797F fleet that has now been
running for some time at Imperial Oil Kearl in the
oil sands, and the first fleet to operate in a deep
open pit, namely a fleet of nine 793F CMD units at
Teck’s Highland Valley Copper, which was
expanded from the original six trucks. Feedback
from operators and other workers during the
initial trial, which finished late 2019, was very
positive, comments including: “I feel safer
whenever I’m in the AOZ, because the trucks do
exactly what they are supposed to do. As a haul
truck driver, I know how easy it is for someone to
get distracted or doze off…its reassuring to know
that doesn’t happen here.” Cat has a whole
system in place for introducing autonomy to sites
including a strong definition of short, mid and long
term goals, and open conversations from the start
all backed up by the right training with simulators,
especially for the autonomous truck operators,
which are known as “pit techs” and who manage
activities in the autonomous working zone or AOZ.
As might be expected it is the truck operators that
also make for great pit techs. They join the
“builders” who maintain the digital truck network
and model, and are normally mining engineers,
and the “controllers” who supervise the
autonomous area and trucks and usually have
dispatch system experience. All these roles are
supported by supervisors.
As stated earlier, following years of trucks
getting larger and larger, in fact many mining
customers have started evaluating different size
mining trucks combined with autonomy as part of
an effort to determine the most cost-effective size
for a given operation. Cat states: “So far, large
established mines continue with ultra-class trucks
as they leverage existing infrastructures through
brownfield expansions. However, more greenfield
mines are considering a step back in truck size,
especially when assessing autonomy. The
reduction in truck size also allows for more focus
on optimising the entire load/haul system and
provides more loading tool options such as Cat
large wheel loaders, hydraulic mining shovels as
well as electric rope shovels.”
Komatsu’s multi track approach
Looking at another ultraclass new entry,
Komatsu’s 980E started out with Suncor in the oil
sands, but Komatsu now has 980Es operating in
both North and South America which makes sense
as the largest concentration of 400 ton class
trucks reside in these two regions. Since the
980E’s release, Komatsu says it has sold nearly
200 units in the Americas. Sites were not specified
but it includes Suncor (both the Base mine and