MINING TRUCKS
830E-5 trucks which are all now on site . It added in October 2019 that 13 of these mining trucks are being converted for electric trolley operation at the same time as the 1.8 km-long electric trolley line is being built . The investment means that greenhouse gas emissions over the life of mine will be reduced by 9 %. The electric trolley installations are being deployed in stages until 2022 .
The hybrid option
Anglo American is one company that has put its eggs in the hydrogen basket which for now means FCEV . It is developing a 291 t FCEV haul truck , a conversion to hydrogen fuel cell and lithium battery operation of a Komatsu 930E , which will see first motion in Q3 2021 at the Mogalakwena platinum mine in South Africa followed by intensive testing . For the first time , it recently gave more detail on the expected upside and longer term plans . The total-cost-tooperate will be comparable to diesel today but would achieve direct parity by 2030 . The FCEV trucks will allow for 50- 70 % reduction in emissions ( Scope 1 and 2 for open-pit mines ) and Anglo says it has “ seven sites in planning for rollout completion by 2030 .” At Mogalakwena , a full 40 truck rollout is planned to start in 2024 . The trucks themselves will utilise 4 oz of platinum in their fuel cells ( each will use eight Ballard FCveloCity ® -HD 100 kW modules ). The Williams Advanced Engineering
( WAE ) high-power modular lithium-ion battery system for the truck was built in Grove , Oxfordshire , and shipped to First Mode in Seattle who integrated it with Ballard Power Systems fuel cells .
There is a lot of activity in Chile . Back in July 2020 , partners CORFO ( Chile ’ s Economic Development Agency ), CSIRO Chile , ENGIE and Mining3 announced that under the so-called HYDRA project they would collectively be developing hybrid powertrain modules in the country for Chilean mining , replacing conventional diesel powertrains with an FCEV approach comprised of state-of-the-art batteries and hydrogen fuel cells ( green H2 ). CORFO contributed about US $ 353,000 with the remaining US $ 975,000 from the other project partners , for a total cost of over US $ 1.3 million .
IM recently caught up with Vice President of CORFO , Pablo Terrazas to find out about progress so far and goals that have been set . He commented : “ The main stakeholders are focusing on the design and production of a 100 % Green PowerDrive prototype , in order to replace the diesel engines of today ’ s mining vehicles and reduce by 80 % the direct CO 2 eq emissions of the sector , and also generating TOC savings of 5 % by 2025 based a fleet of an example fleet of 18 trucks .”
Terrazas adds that thanks to expected cost savings with larger fleets , that this new Green
PowerDrive HYDRA solution will not only result in a direct reduction in CO 2 emissions from the mining sector , but also boost mining profits , establish a new national technology HUB , and help develop a green H2 production industry , infrastructure and export economy . The project started up in December 2020 and will run for 18 months to July 2022 . Mitsui & Co ( USA ) Inc and Thiess , both active in the mining sector , are now providing additional support as part of their commitment to develop sustainable solutions for decarbonising the resources industry while several technology companies are also contributing : Ballard Power Systems will provide its fuel cell systems , Hexagon Purus will supply hydrogen storage systems and Reborn Electric Motors will complete the systems integration .
The battery option
There are a number of projects in progress aimed at the holy grail of an all battery electric surface mining haul truck , which seems to be the ultimate preference for the major mining houses . Rio Tinto in its Climate Change Report 2020 stated that its “ preferred technology pathway is the most energy efficient and targets full battery electric fleet with dynamic or fast charging technology to maintain fleet productivity .” It adds : “ Technical challenges with this pathway involve creating flexibility in the infrastructure so it can adapt to changing haul roads and the
ASI Mining is the leading non OEM automation retrofitter in the mining industry . Since our first automation retrofit in 2006 with CAT 777s , we ’ ve continued to mature and scale . Today , we ’ re deploying AHS on 3 continents and have expanded our scope to provide autonomous solutions in multiple areas of the mine .
ASI ’ s core mission has remained the same- to help mine operators improve safety and get more out of their mobile equipment assets through automation .
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OEM Agnostic
Retro-fit your existing equipment , no matter what make or model .
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Compatible with Legacy FMS and participating OEMs .
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Designed as a platform to manage automation for the entire mine .
ASI has :
Automated over 90 different vehicle models ( and counting ).
Collaborated on mining automation projects on 3 continents with partners and customers since 2006 .
Worked with dozens of leading OEM partners .