IM 2020 April 20 | Page 6

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