WORLD PROSPECTS
BHP assessing productivity impact of battery truck use with static charging
Back in June 2026, BHP announced that battery-electric truck trials with two Caterpillar 793 XE Early Learners had commenced at the Jimblebar iron ore mine in the Pilbara – which is a joint project together with Caterpillar, the truck OEM, and Rio Tinto, as a fellow Tier 1 miner – looking to assess the performance of the trucks in a production environment.
The trial is generating critical data to assess technical readiness, infrastructure requirements and commercial feasibility, including trialling high-powered static and dynamic charging solutions. Following the joint trial, BHP and Rio Tinto will independently determine progress towards scaled trials within their respective operational environments.
Looking at the big picture, the challenge with battery electric mining trucks was always going to be factoring in charging time in the truck duty cycles and whether the same productivity can or could be achieved as a large diesel or diesel-electric truck, especially when using static charging only. BHP in its recent ESG Roundtable on September 16 has given some insight into the potential shortfall as things stand with current technologies – it estimates a loss in production time of 1,000 hours per truck per year, which over a full fleet adds up to a big number in lost tonnage terms.
Of course there are aspects to counter this, such as the potential for battery trucks to run at higher speeds on ramps and factoring in a lower cost of power versus diesel. Then there is the potential for further evolution and progress of ultrafast variants of MCS chargers. Finally, the role of autonomy and AI in the future in being able to send trucks at the most optimal point in time, operationally, based on the truck position and status, which may not necessarily mean waiting till the battery charge is very low.
BHP acknowledges this, stating that mining trucks need energy at the right
4 place at the right time, ideally integrated with existing systems like autonomy. This is already being done in China, where charging thresholds are changed in real time based on operational realities. EACON’ s fleet management technology, for example, considers battery levels, predicted energy consumption, charging station availability and production requirements when scheduling charging.
The comments from BHP show there is work to be done to achieve parity as things stand – at the end of the day this is what trials are there for. And the miner does not state that this number is based on the Cat 793 XE – instead, it says this is a theoretical example“ of a current generation precommercial 220-tonne class battery-electric haul truck; not intended to represent any particular OEM’ s product.” It also says this theoretical truck has a 3 MWh battery.
BHP also says this assumes six to eight static charging events of approximately 30 minutes each per 24-hour period for a 220-t class battery-electric truck, compared with approximately 15 minutes to refuel an equivalent diesel truck once per 24- hour period. It adds the caveat that actual charging requirements vary by the specific haul cycle and energy requirements.
The hope is that dynamic charging can fill the gap for now, with BHP saying it will be trialling Caterpillar’ s Dynamic Energy Transfer( DET) system in FY27 with a view to using DET and static charging together. DET also offers the potential to run conventional diesel-electric trucks via a conversion kit and save fuel in a similar way to how standard trolley assist is currently used.
As a final note, despite the path to electrification not having been as straightforward as originally envisaged, BHP says its preferred solution remains batteryelectric equipment, adding that transitional and alternative technologies for diesel displacement like renewable diesel and hybrids“ can preserve flexibility, but most offer lower emissions abatement, narrower application and greater site dependency than battery electrification.”
www. bhp. com
Sandvik striving for Toro standard as part of new electrification strategy
Sandvik’ s Future of Mining 2026 event highlighted significant wins for the OEM across the mining technology space, as well as areas for potential improvement. When it came to underground equipment electrification, the event showcased both. Speaking at the company’ s load and haul hub in Turku, Finland, Tommi Valkonen, Head of BEV Strategy at Sandvik, said:“ We recognise here and now that we are not meeting the [ Toro™ ] expectation on every single standard when it comes to batteryelectric vehicles( BEVs).”
That Toro standard comes with a rich history that is globally respected, and its current crop of electric load and haul vehicles needs to attain that market-leading standard, according to Valkonen.
“ Toro is a promise that you get the most productive thing there is on the market,” he said.“ That is a very high bar that we have set ourselves.”
That bar has been hit on the productivity side of the Toro load and haul equation already, as evidenced on an electrification panel chaired by Valkonen during the same event.
LKAB, for instance, had seen a more than 20 % payload-adjusted average increase in productivity when comparing the performance of its LH518iB with a Toro LH621i working 13 different routes across its Malmberget mine in Sweden.
Eldorado Gold had witnessed a more than 34 % payload-adjusted boost in productivity using two TH550Bs( compared with TH545is) running over a 1.5-year period at its Lamaque mine in Quebec, Canada.
“ This is one of the key reasons why we believe in electrification,” Valkonen said of these examples. And, in certain cases – especially those with a ventilation constraint – the fact BEVs produce 80 % less waste heat and come with no local diesel emissions already brings the total cost of ownership( TCO) down below the diesel baseline, according to Valkonen, in line with that Toro standard.
Sandvik has estimated an 84 % lower energy cost for the use of BEVs at Lamaque, for instance, as part of an ongoing business case evaluation.“ With these two factors combined, we can no longer look away from the fact that we have the absolute best tool for the job for certain applications with our BEVs on both a productivity and TCO basis,” he added.
Still, Sandvik believes it can do more to ensure the benefits are felt earlier in the BEV deployment process. It also thinks the TCO equation between diesel and BEVs can improve further.
Valkonen explained:“ We will recognise immediately that, yes, BEVs currently cost too much for our comfort, and we need
International Mining | OCTOBER 2026