BATTERY AND ELECTRIC MACHINES
Juntunen said the machine has performed extremely well at Chuquicamata , with no major issues encountered .
“ Feedback from the field is also very positive , with the performance and features having met expectations ,” he said .
Another Utimec MF 500 Transmixer SD has since been delivered to a mine in Russia and an Utimec MF 205 PER SD personnel carrier has also gone to that same operation .
On the latter , Juntunen said : “ The personnel carrier , like all SmartDrive machines , was tested in Pyhäsalmi mine . During testing , we noticed lots of benefits when compared with a similar diesel unit – for example , the noise level in the personnel compartment is very low and the incline speed is enormous .”
A Multimec MF 100 SD cassette-type vehicle bound for a mine in Canada is also in the commissioning phase .
The company ’ s concrete spraying equipment range with battery-electric driving system has not yet been deployed in a mining environment . Christof Ziegler , Sprayed Concrete Product Line Director , said the Spraymec 8100 SD operating at the WestConnex 3b tunnelling project in Sydney , Australia , has already shown the technology ’ s potential .
“ The unit has been in daily use since February 2021 , and the operators confirm the reliability of the battery-electric drive without compromising the driving distance and performance ,” he said . “ The Spraymec 8100 SmartDrive has become the preferred machine by many operators and is affectionately known as the ‘ Tesla ’ by everyone on site .”
Hindustan Zinc looks to be one of the first mining companies to test a battery-powered Spraymec in its underground mining environment , with Normet set to supply a Spraymec MF 050 VC SD to one of the mining company ' s underground operations in India soon .
When asked about the development timeline around other machines , Mark Ryan , Vice President for Equipment Offering and New Technologies , said : “ Normet ’ s vision and goal is to develop and offer a complete fleet of SmartDrive equipment in upcoming years , for all processes and all size classes . [ The Variomec ] XS SD ( a multi-purpose carrier ) will be one of these important developments .
“ Generally , the demand for SmartDrives has been increasing remarkably , and we plan to deliver significant number of units globally in 2022 .”
Battery group-think
Having brought flexibility and environmental benefits to the soft-rock sector with the development of its 19-t tethered battery-electric LF-19EB loader , GHH , part of GHH Group , is taking this electrification blueprint a step further with the development of its new SLP14E , a 14-t tethered electric LHD .
The SLP-14E is the largest , low profile tethered electric loader in the market , with key applications across the potash and salt mining sectors , according to GHH . At 11.77 m long and 2 m high – along with a width at the cabin of 3.83 m – the SLP-14E is suited to deposits with low seam heights in need of flexible and emissionfree feeder breaker dumping .
Currently being manufactured , the 170 kW , 7,000 Nm loader will go to a site in Europe later this year .
GHH ’ s range of tethered electric loaders have electric motors situated between the axles to allow for direct electric drive with no reduction gears . This 1,000 V direct drive concept results in the use of less components and , therefore , significantly reduced maintenance costs and operational downtime , all while improving mean time to recovery and mean time between failures
GEVs at Vale
Vale , as a leading global miner , is trialling a wide array of vehicle types , technologies , OEMs and operating philosophies as part of its Green Energy Vehicle Program .
Currently the company has 46 green energy vehicles ( GEVs ) operating in underground mines , 38 of which are battery electric . GEVs , in this instance , encompass equipment / vehicles that use “ green tech ”, which includes tethered , battery , trolley , hybrid , etc technologies , Vale clarified . It also includes the eight Kiruna trolley-electric haulage trucks that have been operating at its Coleman and Creighton mines , in Sudbury , Ontario , since the 1990s .
“ Notable additions to our GEV fleet include over a dozen batterypowered personnel carriers , a variety of utility vehicles and a 40 t haul truck within our North Atlantic operations ,” the company told IM .
Vale ’ s most recent acquisitions in battery-electric vehicle technology , include multiple battery-electric 8 cu . yd ( 6 cu . m ) LHDs and 42 t haulage trucks , the latter believed to be the two Epiroc Minetruck MT42 Battery vehicles that were part of a 2020 agreement between the two companies .
Creighton mine is home to Vale ’ s largest fleet of GEVs , operating these vehicles in the ultra-deep section of the mine as a pilot program to better understand the benefit of GEV technology where extreme heat and ventilation limitations will continue to be a challenge . The Thompson , Coleman , Garson and Copper Cliff mines are also testing some GEVs , the company said .
While the miner would not confirm the specific machines it was currently testing – aside from the Kiruna vehicles – it did say its current list of vendors / OEMs include Sandvik , Caterpillar , Epiroc , MacLean , Kovatera , Scharf and Rokion .
The variety of technologies and vehicle types being tested at these deep underground mines have provided the company with positive learnings and encouragement as it looks to better understand what a fleet might look like in a “ mine of the future ”, Vale said . This includes a diverse array of electric-vehicle drivetrain technologies , battery chemistries , charging
A Sandvik battery-electric jumbo drill operating at Vale ’ s Garson mine in Sudbury , Ontario
methodologies and operating philosophies .
“ This diverse fleet has been strategically assembled to expedite the development and gathering of internal feedback , data and expertise related to GEV use in our specific underground conditions ,” the company said . “ As the last of our trial vehicles are being delivered to our operations , we are doubling down on our focus and efforts to collect qualitative feedback from our workforce as well as quantitative data from equipment telemetry systems and test procedures .
“ Combining these learnings to understand what benefits GEV technology has to offer our current and future operations will provide us with the information required to make fleet investment decisions over the longer-term horizon .”
These trials align with Vale ’ s sustainability commitments , including a targeted 33 % reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and a 2050 commitment of achieving net-zero emissions .
36 International Mining | FEBRUARY 2022