BATTERY AND ELECTRIC VEHICLES
The Borden benchmark
maintenance/worker interaction, etc?
MvK: We expected buy-in from the operators,
though the feedback was much more positive
than anticipated. At the end of the day, people
feel better leaving work because it’s a healthier
work environment. This is the most important
benefit of all. It probably helps attract and retain
people at Borden as well.
IM: Conversely, has the tethered/battery-electric
equipment caused any issues in terms of
flexibility/charging requirements at Borden? How
have you overcome these? Do you expect to
add/change the electric fleet at the mine as
production continues?
MvK: Of course, there have been setbacks, it
would be naïve to think that the introduction of a
lot of new technology would go without a couple
of snags along the way. The way to overcome this
is to partner with the OEMs and contractors,
foster a ‘can-do’ attitude on site and persevere.
The team at Borden has done some amazing IM: Outside of Borden, where else in the
portfolio does Newmont have tethered or
battery-electric equipment? What, if any, changes
to mine design are required for this
implementation?
MvK: We operate battery-electric equipment at
Musselwhite and Eleonore. Virtually all new
underground mines stand to benefit from going
electric.
For existing mines, the business case of
switching is much more of a challenge to
compile. One of the prerequisites to extract full
value out of going electric is a sophisticated VoD
system and the ability to modulate air flows,
which requires connectivity underground and a
way to track equipment and personnel in real
time. Quite often those upgrades are not
straightforward for mines that have been around
for years. In addition, the ventilation
infrastructure is already in place so capital
savings cannot be realised unless upgrades are
required to grow or continue the operation.
IM: Have there been any unexpected benefits of
implementing the battery and tethered electric
equipment on mine operations/productivity/ work over the last couple of years. Some of the
adversity was in the chargers, which had to be
replaced and tweaked before we got them to
work. Harmonics on the mine grid from variable
frequency drives for fans and pumps caused
some of these on-board chargers to malfunction.
Similarly, a custom-converted road grader has
been causing a lot of issues in the controls and
has caused a lot of headaches.
The charging requirements are actually quite
simple for the most part at Borden. The vast
majority of equipment has on-board chargers
that can be hooked up using the common jumbo
plug. This greatly reduces complexity. There are
some exceptions, for the personnel carriers for
example, and those are manageable.
There are still some machines that we are
looking to replace with an electric counterpart;
we expect the production drill later this year and
we still operate diesel haul trucks. IM: Knowing what you now know after
embarking on such an ambitious project, would
you have done anything differently?
MvK: What we know now, a couple of years down
the line, is this whole field moves rather quickly.
There are very few regrets with Borden, and
certainly none of them are big ticket items.
Electrification it is now a lot easier than when
we started because the product offerings by the
OEMs are a lot more extensive and there is a
growing level of experience in the industry when
it comes to electric equipment. The real question
is what is the next frontier in the next mine of the
future, and I think the answer is fully
autonomous and carbon-neutral operations with
perpetual performance improvements through
gamification and AI, while meeting societal
expectations regarding sustainability and wealth
creation in the communities where we operate.
Coordinator for Alamos Gold’s Young-Davidson
mine, said he had been testing the Relay for
around eight weeks – in rough environments and
going up and down ramps and inclines on
numerous levels of the mine.
“Compared with diesel, I’m lost for words.
Health-wise, in terms of the effect on employees
underground, it’s amazing!” he told IM. “I have
driven this unit all shift so far without charging it
until shift end as it charges itself on a decline. I
started it at 97% charge and, at the end of the
shift, it was 33% – that’s amazing for travelling
throughout the 5,000 ft (1,524 m) deep mine.”
He said the machine takes 15 minutes on the
fast-charge 650 V setting to get to near-full
capacity, while there is a 240 V charging option
that takes six to eight hours to hit the 100% mark. Aramine has decided to hedge its bets and
devise both an on-board charging system as well
as a battery change-out option for its miniLoader ®
L140B.
The 1.3 t capacity narrow vein loader has been
in operation since 2017 in several mines around
the world, with the on-board charger providing
around four hours of continuous operation. This
allows for the mucking of three to four faces in
one shift, according to the company.
The quick replacement system (QRS), however,
features a quick disconnect battery module that
boosts productivity further. “It allows running the
machine full time without immobilisation during
charging time,” the company said, adding that the
QRS process takes about 10 to 15 minutes to carry
out. In order to safely manipulate the battery
module, Aramine’s R&D department is currently
developing a Mobile Charging Station (MCS), the
company said.
“Compact and practical, it is equipped with a
hydraulic crane for quick and easy changing and
moving of the battery modules. The station is
connected to the mine’s electrical network and is
piloted easily be a radio remote control,” Aramine
said.
The launch of the MCS is scheduled for the
middle of the year.
Caterpillar, too, has come up with a mobile
charging solution. It’s MEC500 offers ultra-fast
battery charging with the 300-1,000 V output
capable of providing up to 500 kW of power. Such
a solution will come of use when the company
The ‘all-electric’ Borden mine in Ontario, Canada,
has been spoken about for years in mining
technology circles.
Having now achieved commercial production
safely, on schedule and within budget, IM felt it was
the right time to reflect on the project’s achievements.
Maarten van Koppen, Manager, Energy &
Sustainability at Newmont, was more than happy to
provide some answers to our questions.
IM: Goldcorp (prior to the Newmont acquisition)
guided for significant ventilation cost reductions
with the use of battery and tethered electric
equipment at Borden. Have these projections
been accurate in terms of the amount of air the
ventilation on demand (VoD) system has had to
push to the mine?
MvK: In the study phase of the project an
electricity budget was prepared for the life of
mine and it was based on first principles.
Unfortunately, there were not a lot of
benchmarks available for an all-electric ramp
haulage mine, which is one of the downsides of
being one of the first movers.
As it turns out, the predictions were too
conservative as the actual electricity consumption
was significantly lower than our expectations by
about 40%. The savings are attributable to
continuous improvement in the ventilation
engineering, a more efficient VoD system than
anticipated and lower energy requirements for
equipment than originally anticipated.
What’s interesting is that the instantaneous
peak demand is close to what we anticipated,
and we are working with the utility companies to
expand the grid capacity at Borden to ensure we
can continue to grow Borden as planned.
18 International Mining | MARCH 2020