BATTERY AND ELECTRIC VEHICLES
While battery power is widely anticipated to be
a facilitator of DPM reductions underground, there
is less certainty about it being replicated in the
open-pit mining space.
“There is a lot of work to do to develop
batteries at scale for surface fleet that suit the
different operating conditions,” Bell said.
eMining’s 63 t payload battery-powered
eDumper might be suitable for a limestone quarry
in Switzerland where it travels unladen uphill and
full on the downward return journey, but there are
few large-scale mines that fit this profile.
“That’s a key point because that lends itself to
the fact that we don’t want one solution; we will
need multiple solutions,” Bell said. “We don’t
want to stifle innovation; we want to encourage it.”
It is no wonder then that GMG’s The Electric
Mine Working Group is working in parallel with the
ICMM’s ICSV initiative to ensure both support each
other and are complementary.
Critically – and perhaps more so than other
technology developments of the past – there
appears to be strong collaboration on this
electrification project between not only OEMs
and mining companies, but OEMs and other
OEMs.
GMG’s Ednie explained: “One of the things that
you take away from speaking to some of the
companies that have been greatly involved with
the BEV guidelines on the OEM side is that being
able to sit down with your peers at other OEMs is
ghh
solid as a rock
not something they normally get to do when in the
design phase of some new technology.”
Considering the cost of developing these new
machines and the flexibility that will be required
from a charging, infrastructure and design
perspective, such collaboration will be integral
to all miners achieving their green-powered
goals.
No ‘one-size-fits-all’
One of the OEMs to have featured prominently
throughout the industry’s most recent
electrification pursuit is Sudbury-based MacLean
Engineering.
Back at MINExpo 2016, the company laid out
plans to electrify units across its three product
lines – ground support, ore flow/secondary
reduction and utility vehicles.
Having completed this goal, with more than 30
production support BEVs now working
underground in Canada – at 10 mine sites across
four provinces with four major mining companies –
MacLean is ready to keep evolving in terms of its
product line and electrification message.
Stuart Lister, Vice President of Marketing &
Communications for MacLean, told IM: “When you
deal with the next generation of wider
electrification, which will require different
infrastructure and applications, it’s not a one-size-
fits-all approach.”
MacLean’s electrification blueprint, to date, has
involved adding battery-electric drivetrains and
on-board chargers to its BEVs.
Patrick Marshall, Vice President, Product
Management at MacLean, explained: “They (the
BEVs) critically drive to the face, or mine headings
(on battery power), and go into a stationary state
to perform a function like running shotcrete,
loading ANFO or emulsion, installing ground
support, etc.
“The duty cycle of that works extremely well
with on-board charging,” he said, with miners able
to connect the machines to the existing mine
power infrastructure to charge the battery when
performing these stationary tasks.
“We made the right strategic decision with the
operating and charging for these duty cycles – it is
cost effective as you don’t have to carry spare
batteries, you don’t have to install extra
infrastructure and, where there is power, you have
the ability to recharge it,” Marshall said.
The company’s next line of BEVs will likely
require a different tactic.
“Where we are approaching it with new
strategies and thinking are applications that
require a very long range and payload –
transporting of shotcrete material in an agitator
truck can, in some mining applications, for
example, require very long-range haulage,”
Marshall said. “Because the machine is only
parked up during its unloading cycle it doesn’t
necessarily warrant an on-board charging strategy.
TOUGH.
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The latest generation 42 ton dump truck to join the GHH Product family.
A trend setter in innovation and class.
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