BATTERY AND ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions ’ latest batteryelectric concept surface drill rig is equipped with a battery able to carry out seven hours of tramming or one hour of drilling based on Sandvik research , plus plug into electrical infrastructure with a 37-mm diameter , 180-m-long tethered cable
The decarb change makers
As the mining world prepares to gather for The Electric Mine 2024 in Perth , Western Australia , Dan Gleeson takes the pulse of the sector to find out just how quickly operations are electrifying
One of the world ’ s biggest mining companies issued a reality check earlier this year with the release of its annual Climate Change Report .
Rio Tinto , which in 2023 , confirmed it would miss its own goal of rationalising direct and indirect emissions ( including emissions from the power it consumes ) by 2025 by 15 %, acknowledged the major electrification challenges that remained in terms of charging strategy , the use of existing fleets , plus the readiness of the large battery-electric equipment in energy density terms for full operational deployment in this report .
CEO Jakob Stausholm said : “ We continue to believe electrification is the most efficient and cost-effective way to eliminate our diesel emissions , but we are not expecting large-scale deployment of electric fleets to our operations before 2030 .”
This will represent an industry wake-up call to some , yet ‘ large-scale deployment ’ is a relative term . Rio Tinto operates more than 400 haul trucks in the Pilbara alone .
Even with this perspective in tow , the company continues to record electrification wins across its operations .
For instance , it has previously completed a sixmonth test program of a Scania 20 t batteryelectric truck at its Channar operations in the Pilbara , progressed from trials of battery-electric loaders and trucks at its Kennecott Copper underground operations in the US ( more in the
Kennecott BEV fleet expanding boxout ) and is set to commence battery-electric haul truck trials in the Pilbara with the help of Caterpillar .
Surface truck travel
But looking to surface specifically , the electrification momentum continues apace .
Electric Power Conversions Australia ( EPCA ) is readying the debut of its battery retrofit Caterpillar 777 surface truck , which has seen the Australia-based Indigenous electric battery conversion company switch out the existing 750 kW diesel motor with a 1,000 kW electric motor and 2 MWh of batteries , according to Clayton Franklin , founder and CEO of EPCA .
Franklin expects this configuration to allow for an eight-hour average truck run time , providing 30 % more power than the diesel equivalent and the ability to move material quicker . He also predicted a 50 % reduction in total cost of ownership on the battery-converted truck when compared with the diesel equivalent .
In Canada , meanwhile , Pivot EM is working on the conversion of a diesel-powered , mechanical drive Cat 793 to battery electric . This follows its success converting a 42-t payload Sandvik TH454i diesel truck to battery-electric means through a five-module battery system .
The Cat 793 is set to leverage a 1,600 kW solid-state single battery power system able to offer a 30 % charge in five minutes , Pivot EM says . The charging process is also designed to be “ frictionless to operational availability ”.
Still in Australia , Liebherr and Fortescue have celebrated the launch of the first 240-t class Liebherr Mining T 264 trucks at the Eliwana iron ore mining site , with this incoming fleet set to be converted to Fortescue ’ s in-house battery solution . The two companies have also this year celebrated a significant milestone of moving 1 Mt of material with a recently deployed electric excavator at the Chichester operations in Western Australia . This excavator currently operates partially off solar and is powered by a 6.6 kV substation and more than 2 km of high voltage trailing cable .
Of course , Caterpillar and Komatsu continue to advance their own zero emission surface haul trucks , with some of the key milestones expected in 2024 and 2025 with first vehicles arriving at the sites of some of its biggest mining customers .
Hitachi Construction Machinery announced earlier this year that its EH4000-based battery trolley mining truck had concluded testing and was about to ship to Zambia to be trialled at the Kansanshi copper and gold mine , operated by First Quantum Minerals Ltd . The company also confirmed that this test machine was based on the EH4000 AC-3 platform and had a nominal payload of 200 tons .
Outside of these developments , there are several China-based OEMs making inroads into the surface haulage market with battery-based solutions .
This includes XCMG , which has a batteryelectric wide body truck , the 72 t XDR80TE , being trialled at Vale ’ s Agua Limpa iron ore mines in Minas Gerais , Brazil , and Sorowako nickel operations in Indonesia ; XEMC , which has previously converted diesel 108-t-class SF31904 AC drive rigid trucks to battery-electric operation ;
10 International Mining | MAY 2024