BATTERY AND ELECTRIC MACHINES
When paired with Sandvik underground drills, miners will continue to enjoy the established benefits of battery-electric drilling, including zero-emission operations, Sandvik’ s Charging While Drilling technology, off-grid drilling and bolting and reduced heat and noise generation.
Sandvik confirmed to IM that the first battery-electric underground drill leveraging this new battery platform was on its way to a customer and is expected to be in operation in June.
In a similar size class to the TH665B truck, the 60-t-payload TH66X diesel-electric demonstrator – showcased at MINExpo 2024, in Las Vegas – has concluded testing at the Callio underground mine, in Finland. This testing showcased performance and productivity benefits against the diesel baseline, including a significant plus-10 km / h increase in average climbing speed with the same engine powering the truck, along with better fuel burn than the diesel equivalent.
Those results as well as customer feedback and expectations are now being used for developing a new diesel-electric truck, according to Kantola.“ We are targeting to start site acceptance tests in the end of 2025,” he said, adding that the next prototypes were also in the pipeline.
“ Also, this truck will be part of our modular electric product family, the same way as the upcoming large BEV truck,” he added.
“ The truck includes entirely new technology, and we need to be especially well prepared to support our customers throughout the tests, so that it will be successful for both parties,” Kantola said.“ If everything goes as expected, the new diesel-electric truck could be added to the global offering in the end of 2026.”
The company’ s current crop of BEVs benefit from Sandvik’ s patented selfswapping battery system, including the AutoSwap and AutoConnect functions, which minimise infrastructure needs and enable equipment to return to operation significantly sooner than‘ fast-charge’ mining BEVs, Sandvik claims.
This battery swapping system already requires minimal personnel involvement – just for connecting and disconnecting batteries from chargers – but Teemu Raitis, Vice President, Product Offering, Sandvik Load and Haul, says the company has several existing and potential technologies for further automating the battery swapping process.
“ Our technology teams are working on the concepts, and we will be releasing more information once closer to the release for field use,” he said.
26
BEV confidence growing, Epiroc says
Jérôme Cloué, Vice President of Electrification for Epiroc, says the OEM is focused on three main areas for 2025 when it comes to battery and electric vehicles: displaying the credentials of the 18-t payload Scooptram ST18 SG underground loader and the 42-t payload Minetruck MT42 SG truck, and progressing testing of its Down-The- Hole( DTH) SmartROC D65 battery-electric drill rig.
When it comes to the Scooptram ST18 SG, which has already gone to work in Europe with Boliden, Epiroc is looking at starting up trials in, among other places, Australia.
The SmartROC D65 BE demonstrator is based on the SmartROC D65 surface drill rig. In combination with invaluable experience gained from the development of Epiroc underground battery rigs, this new rig is designed to enhance the environmental standards of mining and larger quarry sites, Epiroc says.
Besides the low emissions, this rig provides the same range of on-board smart features, and delivers high safety, reliability and performance – in a quieter working environment.
The SmartROC D65 BE demonstrator is equipped with a battery to provide power during tramming and an electric cable tether that provides power during drilling.
The SmartROC D65 BE demonstrator is based on the well-proven SmartROC D65 surface drill rig
“ We currently have three or four mines in Australia looking to take a machine,” Cloué told IM at bauma in Munich, Germany, in April.“ We’ re now just deciding which of these will get the two machines we currently have in the country.”
When it comes to the Minetruck MT42 SG, Cloué also brought up Boliden, referencing the vehicles the Sweden-based mining company is using at the Rävliden mine in northern Sweden. Eti Bakir also plans to test a Minetruck MT42 SG at the Kastamonu Küre underground copper mine, in Turkey, while both ERG in Kazakhstan and Hudbay Minerals in Canada have recently ordered vehicles as part of fleet agreements.
Both the Minetruck MT42 SG and Scooptram ST18 SG have automation capabilities, as well as battery-electric drivelines.
When it comes to the SmartROC D65 BE, Cloué said he was hopeful of this machine will start field testing at the Sukari gold mine in Egypt later this year as part of an agreement with contractor Capital Drilling.
“ There is a lot of interest in this machine, so I’ m sure many companies will be following progress on this trial,” he said.
Outside of these specifics, Cloué said he was expecting many more agreements to be signed in 2025, as the wider industry becomes more comfortable with batteryelectric technology. This was evidenced recently with a record contract for the company to deliver over 50 machines – including SmartROC D65 BEs – to Fortescue’ s iron ore operations.
“ We now have 39 sites globally that have ordered BEVs from us,” he said.“ Roughly a third of the sites with BEVs in operation have also ordered more machines, which shows the confidence they have in the technology. On top of that, we are starting to see the use, or utilisation, of these machines grow, with companies using these more and more as part of their production fleets.”
Epiroc stated in its 2024 sustainability report that, to its knowledge, it has the largest fleet of underground BEVs active in operations. The total fleet of electric drill rigs, electric loaders and electric trucks amounted to over 600 units at the end of the year.
Cloué said that the company – to the best of its knowledge – also has the largest battery-electric load and haul fleet in operation at a single mine across the world currently.
International Mining | MAY 2025