WORLD PROSPECTS
Anglo, BHP, FMG and Hatch form hydrogen consortium
A
nglo American, BHP, Fortescue Metals and
Hatch say they have formed a Green
Hydrogen Consortium to look at ways of
using environmentally friendly sources of hydrogen
to accelerate decarbonisation within their
operations globally.
Primarily, the consortium aims to collectively
help to eliminate the obstacles to the adoption of
green hydrogen technologies and encourage
innovative application, they said.
“The goal is to identify opportunities to develop
green hydrogen technologies for the
resources sector and other heavy
industries, and provide a mechanism
for suppliers and operators to
contribute to and engage with these
development activities,” the four firms
said.
The member companies of the Green
Hydrogen Consortium stated in a fact
sheet that they are technology agnostic
and considering a range of options to
progress decarbonisation of their
operational greenhouse gas emissions.
“Given the range of applications for
green hydrogen and the cost challenges associated
with it, the consortium was formed to work
together to seek to de-risk its application and
enable acceleration of cost reductions,” the
partners said. The consortium is expected to be in
place for three years.
While Anglo American is currently developing the
world’s largest hydrogen-powered mine haul truck
for testing at the Mogalakwena platinum group
metals site, in South Africa, Fortescue already has a
partnership in place with CSIRO, Australia’s
VR Steel’s truck tray evolution continues
W
hile OEMs focused on heavy trucks
continue to innovate and drive the
technology forward, third-party
attachment suppliers are not resting on their
laurels either, according to Van Reenen Steel.
Competition to provide the ultimate truck tray (‘bin’,
‘loadbody’, ‘tipper’, ‘box’, or even ‘bucket’
depending on your region) remains fierce and
evolutionary.
The VR Loadbody – one of the leading mining
products supplied by Van Reenen Steel – continues
to find improvements where others hit their ceilings
(or floors, depending on the perspective). Primary
focus points for the custom-built VR Loadbody are
productive steel mass, effective life cycle cost of the
asset and finally site-specific operational gains.
Productive steel mass refers to the material in
the tray structure required to safely hold the
payload while protecting the operator and electric
components on the truck deck.
Managing Engineer for Truck Trays,
Campbell Bam, explains: “The steel
mass of the body, while obviously
necessary for the structure to be
cyclically loaded for many thousands of
hours, still remains a penalty to payload.
The less steel we can commit to carrying
a unit of payload (volume or mass), the
more efficient the tray, the higher the
payload and the greater the truck fleet
production.”
With more truck OEMs shedding the
traditional 10/10/20 payload policy in
favour of a ‘no greater than 120%’
payload maximum, the call for next-
4 International Mining | APRIL 2020
generation truck trays to meet higher payloads is
significant, according to the company.
Bam added: “In the past 24 months, we went
from believing we were at our lower limit on tray
mass to shedding a further 18%.” That saving,
along with higher volume due to the 120% rule,
translates to immediate payload mass gain and the
positive knock-on effect to bottom-line production,
the company said.
Next, the effective life cycle cost of the asset is
the monetary outlay by mine site over the useful
life of the truck tray. This includes the purchase
price, major rebuilds at intervention off the truck,
and any necessary running repairs. Dr Justin
Martens, General Manager, warns: “Too often,
detached group supply chains are making
decisions on behalf of mine sites based solely on
the capital price of the mining attachment. Short-
term gains to budgets and mining company
national science agency, on the development of
hydrogen technologies.
Some of the proposed activities of the
consortium include undertaking research,
technology and supply chain development, and
piloting green hydrogen technologies to seek to de-
risk and accelerate the technologies, the partners
said.
“The companies involved in the consortium are
committed to reducing their respective operational
greenhouse gas emissions and to working
collaboratively with others – including
customers and suppliers – to find
technological or other innovative
solutions for the emissions associated
with the use of their products and in
their supply chains,” they said.
Hatch, the lone engineering
company in the consortium, has been
appointed as the Project Management
and Governance Facilitator of the
consortium.
www.angloamerican.com;
www.bhp.com; www.fmgl.com.au;
www.hatch.com
liquidity is eroded not long after when early relining
operations are required or major rebuilds are forced
to occur before schedule. In some instances low-
mass offerings are also plied with liners after
delivery at the sites’ expense, further clouding the
real commercial input, productive steel mass and
final truck efficiency.”
The VR Loadbody features integrated liners that
are impervious to loss (removing cost/risk
associated with crusher and production plant
downtime), require no relining in-field (reducing
risk to personnel) and subsequently meet or
exceed its required campaign life – all factors
having positive net effects on the factual lifecycle
cost of the tray.
While site-specific operational gains may not
immediately be apparent to mining companies, the
introduction of a VR Loadbody can provide
quantifiable savings for sites and their production.
A common example is the carry-back or hang-up
a tray can experience where stubborn payload
portions remain in the loadbody for the return trip
(exceeding 20% in some
instances). This phenomenon
is counter-productive in every
sense, from payload loss to
unnecessary fuel burn and tyre
wear. The full VR Loadbody
portfolio can be fitted with a
concentrated central heating
system to mitigate carry-back
initiation. Through intelligent
heat transfer exploitation of
the engine exhaust gases to
where the problem starts,
hang-up is prevented from
establishing and subsequently
growing. www.vrsteel.co.za