BATTERY AND ELECTRIC VEHICLES
While Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology
chargers from 40 kW all the way to 300 kW.
“From a productivity perspective, with concrete
spraying and explosives charging, while you are
carrying out the process, you can connect to the underground for decades have recently been
getting a revamp and could find a home in
situations where a diesel-alternative is sought but
there may still be question marks over a battery- President, Henrik Ager, told IM that the company
was weighing up development of a diesel-battery
hybrid (see High Profile, pages 48-49), further
power source for ‘opportunity charging’, rather
than use the battery, having no negative effect on
the production cycle,” he said.
It is the company’s medium-size range that has powered vehicle’s range.
Boudreault sees trolley-electric solutions being
factored into future mine designs.
“For trucks constantly hauling on ramps, a
trolley solution is often more economical due to along the development pathway is a battery-
assisted version of its tethered machine, the
LH514E.
Known as the LH514BE, this machine is
understood to be a combination of tethered cable
the large energy consumption,” he said.
This is why the company is currently looking
into the potential benefits of designing a trolley
version of its MT42 Minetruck and why its existing
Kiruna brand of trolley trucks are still being used and battery – battery for tramming and cable
operation for mucking.
The development of a horizontal cable reeling
for this machine means there is the possibility to
operate with the connecting point on either side of
being lined up for trials with another mining
customer in a third country, he confirmed.
On the latter, he said: “For me, this is the most at some of Vale’s Sudbury operations.
Tethered vehicles may be another alternative.
Sandvik has recently delivered its 600th cable-
electric LHD to the LKAB-owned Kiruna iron ore
mine, in Sweden, with the LH625iE unit based on the unit, according to Sandvik, offering increased
flexibility over traditional cable-electric designs.
Sandvik is not the only company working on
interesting case study as you typically bring
concrete downhill, so you can really optimise the
battery drive there,” he said. “According to our
simulations, the payback on that application could the well-proven design of the tethered LH625E
that has already been used at the mine for many
years.
Eriksson, who was present at the handover of be very tempting.” Feasible options the machine, sees room for both battery and
tethered equipment in the industry – in some
cases a combination of both technologies in the As the GMG Electric Mine Working Group and the
ICSV initiative hinted at, battery-electric solutions
are not the only diesel-power alternatives being same environment.
“It’s very much dependent on the mine design
and what makes most sense,” he said. factored into economic studies.
Electric solutions that have been present hybrid?
been released to the market as part of Normet’s
strategy to electrify its existing line of diesel-
powered equipment, and Ristimäki said Normet
BEVs will start in “real operation” in the June
quarter with a multi-purpose cassette type vehicle
going to a mine site in Canada and an emulsion
explosives carrier application going to Australia.
An electric concrete transmixer unit is also
Perhaps there is room for a battery-tethered
such a machine.
GHH, no stranger to the design, development
and operations of tethered electric LHDs having
introduced its first such machine in 1978, says it
has been developing a new battery-electric
tethered loader with a key customer.
The new loader, the LF-19EB, is predominantly
for soft-rock applications, and specifically
designed for loading into a feeder breaker with a
robust T-Kinematic and low total height above the
motor compartment, the company says.
GHH explained the design rationale: “Currently
some of the soft rock, room and pillar operations
are using tethered electric loaders which have the
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MARCH 2020 | International Mining 15