MINING ENGINES
Autonomous Region’ s Emergency Management Department, the mine’ s production capacity has increased from 18 Mt / y to 35 Mt / y, hence the drive for larger class trucks.
The delivery of these vehicle marked an important step in the commercial evolution of Iridium Molybdenum Technology, it says. In tests, the EM165H has been shown to still be capable of driving on a 28 % gradient even when overloaded to 150 t.
The company also introduced its larger EM186H 130-ton wide body hybrid mining truck at the Bauma China 2024 event. This truck uses a Guangxi Yuchai 16 litre YCK16775-T30 1,900 kW engine with 118 kWh lithium manganate battery, 8DS260 transmission, auxiliary AMT E-drive and 400 kW drive motor.
The trucks are part of a multi-bridge, new energy mining truck platform, which it calls HiMADS, consisting of new largescale wide body trucks with multiple energy combination modes. The platform also adopts multi-axis drive front and rear multiaxis steering technology, where the front and rear multiple axes can steer intelligently and collaboratively, making the vehicle’ s turning radius smaller and more flexible. It also means the vehicles with upgraded load capacity can easily adapt to the existing transportation routes in the mining area.
The company states:“ Iridium Molybdenum Technology’ s multi-axis drive technology solution uses a distributed drive method to disperse the vehicle load, which not only makes the load-bearing more balanced, but also reduces the requirement for large-scale single components.” The 8 × 6 configuration offers full hydraulic, two axle steering with the first and fourth axles being the steering axles. HiMADS, it says, can be customised and equipped with a variety of drivetrain forms, not only the standard diesel engine plus battery hybrid, but also pure electric drive, methanol extended range and hydrogen.
Around a year ago, the ZTE520, billed as the“ world’ s largest” hybrid mining truck, rolled off the Zoomlion assembly line in Changsha, Hunan.
The Chinese OEM described it as“ another historic breakthrough in domestic mining equipment”, marking the further advance of China’ s mining equipment into the high-end field. The other contender to this largest hybrid mining truck title include SANY’ s SET320S, also with a 300 t payload, unveiled in July 2024.
The ZTE520 has a total weight of 520 t and rated load of 300 t. Zoomlion says it features a new generation super hybrid drive system and high torque electric wheel drive system, both developed together with CRRC Qishuyan Research Institute Co Ltd, along with efficient liquid cooling heat dissipation technology, and is equipped with a large domestic hybrid diesel engine( 16-cylinder, 52-litre diesel engine with 2,100 hp) from Guangxi Yuchai, along with, it says, the industry’ s largest ternary lithium power battery. The truck is over 9 m in width and 7 m in height.
It has a total power of 3,200 hp to achieve greater power performance, energy management and economic performance. Compared with the traditional diesel-only mining truck of the same class, the product’ s overall performance, it says, increases by 16 %, with transportation efficiency boosted by 10 %, together with an energy saving of 15 %. Its rated lifespan is 60,000 hours.
H2 combustion engine testing
Most of the hydrogen talk today has surrounded passing references to FCEV developments that originated out of China or as part of Anglo American’ s FutureSmart Mining™ platform.
A collaboration between Japanese and German companies with a hydrogen combustion engine in a mining truck has the industry once again looking at H2’ s potential role in the mobile mining propulsion space. Earlier this year, Komatsu announced that it had equipped one of its flagship large dump trucks, the 92-t payload HD785, with a hydrogen combustion engine as part of its ongoing concept machine development plans.
The company commenced proof-ofconcept tests at its Ibaraki Plant( Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Prefecture), marking, it says, the world’ s first attempt to equip a large dump truck with a hydrogen combustion engine.
Through these tests, Komatsu aims to accumulate knowledge on hydrogen engine utilisation, laying the foundation for future development of“ hydrogen-powered construction and mining equipment”.
Komatsu has been advancing the development and use of new power sources to achieve carbon neutrality. While developing hydrogen engines as one of the options, Komatsu has focused on the technological expertise of KEYOU GmbH, a Germany-based start-up, which specialises in the development and implementation of hydrogen engines for large trucks.
The concept machine is equipped with a hydrogen combustion engine and hydrogen tank system, which are co-developed by Komatsu and KEYOU. The hydrogen tank is mounted on a platform beside the operator’ s cab to maximise hydrogen storage capacity. Additionally, to ensure clear visibility for the operator, cameras and monitors have been installed both inside and outside the cab. The proof-of-concept tests will focus on evaluating driving performance, continuous operating hours, fuel efficiency and verifying safety measures related to high-pressure hydrogen gas usage.
Komatsu said:“ Compared with batteries and hydrogen fuel cells, the use of hydrogen combustion engines in construction and mining equipment has the advantage of a relatively lower cost, because the powertrain components of existing diesel-powered machines can be used without replacement. Furthermore, with virtually zero CO 2 emissions, some mining customers have expressed interest in adopting hydrogen engines as one of the options to achieve carbon neutrality at their sites.
“ While there are challenges such as safety management and infrastructure for hydrogen supply, Komatsu will work to address these issues in collaboration with industry associations and other related stakeholders.”
KEYOU, for its part, told IM that its primary focus is on heavy-duty transport( 40-ton semi-trailer tractors) and, under certain circumstances, smaller construction machinery in the coming years.
Earlier this year, Komatsu announced it had equipped one of its flagship large dump trucks, the 92-t payload HD785, with a hydrogen combustion engine from KEYOU as part of its ongoing concept machine development plans
International Mining | OCTOBER 2025 51