UNDERGROUND LOAD & HAUL
Chinese contract miner JCHX successfully develops and trials two battery
underground LHDs
A newly developed and produced 3 m³ lithium-battery-driven LHD from mining contractor JCHX
through its JCHX Hubei division has been successfully trialled since end-Noember 2019 at the Miyun
iron ore project near Beijing, “with satisfactory performance and impressive capability.” JCHX says
the LHD features longer working duration, with continuous loading of 65 buckets, a short charging
cycle with double-port design full charging in 30 minutes, a high breakout force, easy manoeuvering,
robust bucket boom for easy mucking, less noise & zero emissions. The working environment for the
operator is also improved significantly as a localised high temperature caused by the engine no
longer exists.
The development team chose to make the colour of the LHD similar to the JCHX flag, while the
product was named as ‘King Ant’ with the corresponding Chinese name registered at the
Administration for Industry & Commerce. JCHX stated: "In recent years, as part of government policy
and national reform, more attention has been driven to environmental protection, sustainable mining
development as well as green mining technology become the irresistible trend. Re-design and
upgrading of mining equipment based on new-energy to be clean, zero-pollution, highly-efficient and
automated is inevitably a necessity. Under such circumstances we believe a lithium-battery-driven
LHD has distinct advantages in terms of safety, environmental friendliness, operational convenience,
maintenance accessibility, as well as automation."
The news comes after the earlier commissioning of a battery-driven LHD (referred to as JCY-2) in
July 2019, also manufactured by JCHX Hubei and successfully operated in the transverse drifts at the
Lujiang iron ore project in Anhui Province, which are quite long with a comparatively small section
profile, which leads to greater ventilation demand. To combat diesel LHD emissions, dust and heat
generation, the JCY-2 LHD was developed by JCHX Hubei and commissioned at Lujiang. During 2.5 h
of operation at the 8-0 ore pass on the 296 m level, the battery was reduced from 100% down to
47%; totally 14 draws (approximately 34 m³) weighing 120 t were loaded during the process with the
loading point located 160 m from the ore pass. The fan was not activated during the operation of JCY-
2, while the ambient temperature remained unchanged, no gas was discharged and dust emission
was largely decreased.
"The satisfying result of operating JCY-2 strengthened the demand and willingness of Lujiang
Project to adopt green mining methods. According to the charging data, it only takes 35 minutes to
charge from 20% up to 100%, with power requirement of 60 kW/h. The power consumption during
the loading process shows JCY-2 can meet output demands. In the meantime, by using such
equipment the energy consumption greatly drops and zero emission is almost achieved."
system can do a quick charge through an onboard
charger by plugging directly into a DC socket. This
will charge the batteries from flat to full in two
hours. This method can lead to unbalanced cells in
battery system so the company has found that this
can be avoided by doing a longer 8 hour charge
every second week coinciding with the machine's
scheduled maintenance.
What is clear from its journey in battery LHD
development is the speed at which battery
evolution is happening. Today’s batteries packs
are half the weight that then where a few years
Rham's new 20 HEB lithium
battery LHD
ago but with double the
power at 160 kW/h.
The
new
lithium battery chemistry means 20% more
inherent battery power. To an extent this could be
seen as a problem as new machine development
takes at least a couple of years by which time
battery tech moves on – another reason for letting
the new LHD test run its course.
In the absence of activity by other major OEMs,
Rham is also looking to bring the advantages of
battery operation to the South African room and
pillar coal mining market in the form of a
flameproof rated battery LHD. Currently the coal
mines are having to pump cool air to get rid of CO 2
and battery units will minimise these costs. The
Rham design, again with the hydrostatic drives
and wheel motors, is almost the same size with a
similar structure to the equivalent diesel machine,
whereas competitors have had to look at a
complete design change to allow space for the
battery packs.
For those customers still
wanting to use the diesel 20
HD, this machine has
improvements such as use of a
DPF to help users meet emissions
targets as well as making it to some extent
“automation ready” with the ability to operate for
example with teleremote for when customers want
to go down that path. Rham has already trialled
teleremote, an LHD operating during the “gas
cleaning” cycle between blasts, several years ago,
but the issue of any kind of automation remains
sensitive in the
South African market. One option is to be able
to show customers how teleremote works by
setting up a working system in a test mine and
just such an operation is in the planning between
MEMSA and the Mandela Mining Precinct project.
The hydrostatic drive system has also shown
when compared against other machines in the
same mine of equivalent size/capacity and even a
similar engine, that it gives much lower fuel
consumption as it is only delivering the power that
the LHD needs during high intensity parts of the
loading cycle – 16-17 litres per hour versus well
over 20 for alternative machines.
A final note on the future, it is well known that
Anglo American is working with a number of
parties on its FutureSmart Mining™ project. On
the surface this of course includes its “hydrogen
truck”, a converted Komatsu 290 ton FCEV haul
truck that will be powered by a hydrogen fuel cell
module from Ballard paired with a Williams
Advanced Engineering scalable high-power
modular lithium-ion battery system. Underground,
Anglo is looking now mainly at liquid organic
hydrogen carrier (LOHC) technology, a fuel liquid
technology that is much safer to use at
atmospheric pressure. It is an oil product that is
loaded with hydrogen, which is then released
through a reactor from the oil before it enters the
fuel cell. In short, it is a battery extender – the fuel
cell charges the battery to power the machine.
There are three main projects for an underground
loco, an underground ultra low profile dozer and
an underground LHD, with Hydrogetics the
common partner on the fuel cell side. Rham is the
OEM partner for the 8 t LHD project, and DOK-ING
on the ULP dozer.
Lastly in market terms, Rham remains firmly
South Africa focussed, mainly due to the huge
market size – there are literally thousands of
working LHDs especially in the platinum mines,
mainly spread currently between GHH, Rham,
Sandvik, Aard and Epiroc in hard rock. In coal
Sandvik have tended to dominate the LHD space.
The potential of its innovations goes beyond
SA, but will require a lot of investment in service
infrastructure etc. One potential market is Russia –
Rham already partners with Chetra, marketing its
mining dozers in SA, and working with Chetra to
offer its LHD solutions is one option. Product wise,
the company also offers battery utility vehicles
and underground trucks in mining, which are
much easier to deal with having more of a
constant power demand as opposed to LHDs that
have several spikes in power demand. And it has
16 International Mining | JUNE 2020