BATTERY AND ELECTRIC MACHINES
This is especially important in the higher payload load and haul categories, ensuring the batteries on these machines have an adequate state of charge for up-ramp haulage.
It currently doesn’ t get any bigger than the 640 kW battery on board the Sandvik TH665B, a 65-t-payload truck that Sandvik first introduced at The Electric Mine 2022 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Since announcing the presence of the vehicle over three years ago, the truck, which uses lithium-iron phosphate battery chemistry and an electric driveline, has been undergoing a trial at the Sunrise Dam mine in Western Australia.
Part of a three-party agreement between AngloGold Ashanti, Barminco and Sandvik, this trial saw the TH665B match the 85 % availability of the Toro™ TH663i truck the battery-electric truck was being compared with, plus achieve an 11 % faster climb than the diesel-equivalent, as part of Phase 1 trials during September 2023 to May 2024. These trials saw the truck run hundreds and hundreds of actual working cycles underground.
Esa-Pekka Kantola, Product Line Manager Large Trucks, Sandvik Load and Haul, told IM in April that the tests at Sunrise Dam have been completed, with the TH665B shipped back to the Load & Haul homebase in Turku, Finland.
“ The gathered test results and data will be analysed by Sandvik, and, after that, this truck will be sent to another customer for underground operation,” he said.
Kantola said the field test results and customer feedback would now be used as R & D input for developing“ a new large BEV truck”. This new truck will be automationready and equipped with the newest version of Sandvik Intelligent Control System, including data and connectivity properties, he added.
One would expect the automated functions to mirror what is available on the LH518iB, the 18-t battery-electric, automation-ready loader Sandvik has. Although the battery swap process on the LH518iB can’ t yet be fully automated, one operator can run the entire cycle from a surface chair, including tele-remote battery swapping. Human involvement underground is only required for connecting and disconnecting batteries from chargers.
Kantola said the commercial truck – expected to be branded the TH665iB – will use the latest Sandvik battery technology when released.“ When the product development phase is over and this new i-series truck has been properly tested, it will be added to our modular electric product family and global offering,” he added.
Such battery technology, which uses LFP chemistry, has markedly improved since the
Following a trial at AngloGold Ashanti’ s Sunrise Dam mine, the TH665B is set to be sent to another customer for underground operation, Sandvik says
company introduced its first battery-electric equipment, the Sandvik DD422iE, in 2016.
Just last year, the company introduced a new battery platform that, during field testing at Agnico Eagle’ s Kittilä mine in northern Finland, trammed 50 % further and achieved 20 % more speed in uphill tramming during operations.
The two onboard battery packs offered 36 % more usable energy than the existing battery technology, and charging time was
YOUR PARTNER OF CHOICE IN MINERALS & MINING reduced by 55 % during the testing period, Sandvik noted.
“ We saw remarkable improvements in performance during field testing, including significant increases in battery tramming distance and speed, which has been one of the biggest hurdles to implementing BEVs in operations with long declines,” Marko Roivas, Product Line Manager, Underground Drilling at Sandvik Mining and Rock Solution, said.
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International Mining | MAY 2025 25