BATTERY AND ELECTRIC MACHINES
under the hood of equipment being trialled in the underground mining sector .
Empowering electrification
XING Mobility has built a battery system platform of its own based on its IMMERSIO™ technology .
The Taiwan-based company has sought to quell industry concerns over the use of electric vehicle batteries with immersion cooling technology that , it says , ensures battery cells are directly immersed in a non-conductive , nonflammable and non-toxic coolant . In a cell failure scenario , this coolant absorbs the heat more effectively , cutting off the thermal stresses onto surrounding cells and preventing thermal runaway and propagation .
Targeting the mining , construction and agriculture sectors , XING says it is currently engaged with two major mining players in the East Asia region .
With one of these clients , XING was directly involved in the conversion of a 50-t dump truck from diesel to battery-electric operation . The other is being dealt with through a strategic partnership with an OEM ’ s customisation department and trading company , which could see a mining transportation pick-up become a battery-electric unit .
“ Both are undergoing a year of rigorous road testing in different gradients and conditions before a public announcement for mass production ,” XING told IM .
It added : “ These companies are seeing our IMMERSIO technology as a more reliable system that provides better performance and safety protection with no compromise when working in extreme conditions .
XING says around 90 % of the projects it is working on are retrofits of existing diesel equipment into battery-electric form , with the rest of its work tied to consulting services to develop safer and more robust IMMERSIO systems for some of the “ world ’ s most prestigious OEMs and energy providers ”.
It explained : “ We have seen requirements for these retrofit solutions due to rising demand from fleet owners who often have difficulties in engaging OEMs on similar projects due to significant volume requirements .”
First adopters
One of the first machines in the mining equipment ecosystem to get the battery-electric treatment has been utility vehicles and personnel carriers .
These industry workhorses are often deployed
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FLEXIBLE : One inverter serves interchangeable functions for traction , pumps or conveyors Communications : CAN bus For use with battery or trailing cable sources Safety : high and low power are separated PLUS : 24V power supply for accessories
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A Rokion battery-powered R400 12-person carrier
at short notice , covering varied topographies that make them ideal for both regenerative braking on declines and opportunity charging of the battery when a task is being carried out .
In Canada , one of the leading players in this side of the market is Rokion , which has a batteryelectric vehicle platform that covers requirements from two-person vehicles to 12-person carriers .
Purpose built from the ground up , its machines have had major take-up in the Saskatchewan potash market Rokion and its parent company Prairie Machine was built on .
It has well and truly branched out of this province though , with , in Canada alone , batteryelectric vehicle sales to mines in Quebec , Ontario , Manitoba and British Columbia .
Its biggest contract to date has been at Vale ’ s Creighton mine in Sudbury , Ontario , where the company has deployed 15 Rokion trucks . This includes three of its R400 trucks , one R200 truck and 11 of its smallest R100 trucks .
Vale ’ s operations in Manitoba , meanwhile , have four R400 trucks waiting to be put into service .
Rokion says its vehicles average around 60 km / shift and typically end the shift with anywhere between 30-50 % battery power remaining in the projects it has been involved in . Outside of Canada , the company has also made a name for itself .
Through its distributor in Australia , LDO Group , Rokion ’ s R200 and R400 utility vehicles have been tested at the BHP-operated Broadmeadow coal mine in Queensland . The R400 , which allows for a diverse range of vehicle configurations from three or six passenger utility up to nine or 12 passenger crew variants with 100 kWh of battery capacity , went underground at the mine in the middle of 2020 .
This vehicle is not explosion-protected – a prerequisite for operating throughout hazardous zones in Australian coal mines – but Rokion said it hopes to have a prototype of an explosionproof version available in 2022 .
Outside of coal , the company also has a R400 scheduled for delivery to Newmont ’ s Tanami gold mine , in the Northern Territory of Australia .
IM
22 International Mining | MARCH 2021