THE ELECTRIC MINE 2023 REVIEW
Haul , Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions , said : “ This business case existed before there was an ESG acronym ; underground electrification made sense .”
Despite it ‘ making sense ’ for decades – thanks to the inherent value battery-electric equipment can bring when it comes to ventilation requirements – it is only recently that the sector has moved from trials and tests , to securing fleet-wide orders of the newest generation of battery-electric machines .
Sandvik has been a major recipient of such orders , with representatives from Rana Gruber , Torex Gold and Foran Mining joining Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions ’ Global Sales Director , BHEV , Jakob Rutqvist , on stage for a panel session shortly after Huff . This panel looked at
MacLean ’ s Maarten van Koppen ( pictured left ) and Torex Gold ’ s Gertjan Bekkers ( on the right ) talked about the challenges associated with installing the first battery-electric fleet in Mexico at Torex ’ s Media Luna project
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the reasons why the mining firms chose to commit to operating 54 of the OEM ’ s BEVs at their operations by the end of 2025 .
Huff wanted these companies and the mining community at large to “ expect more ” from BEVs , arguing that the investment operations make in time and money should be repaid with not only GHG emission reduction benefits , but also higher productivity .
“ We ’ re now getting to a phase where we are seeing fleets successfully operate reliably ; we ’ re seeing the value and our customers are seeing the value ,” he said . “ These machines are worth the effort .”
A video testimonial from Newcrest Mining Brucejack was evidence of this , highlighting BEV fleet availability of 92 %, a 50 % improvement in up-ramp speed , the removal of 3,200 horsepower of diesel-powered equipment and savings of 5,000 litres of diesel per day with the use of seven ( at the time ) 50-t-payload Z50 batteryelectric haul trucks at the British Columbia mine .
Huff said the recent launch of a next generation battery module – able to offer an energy boost of up to 36 % within the same footprint – was aiding the business case for the use of BEVs . He also said using batteries in secondary and tertiary applications would further improve the economics and associated sustainability impacts .
Sandvik ’ s battery-electric gains could also be leveraged in hybrid power setups in the future , with Sandvik announcing plans to develop diesel-electric loaders and trucks .
Speed and sustainability gains
Another operation , also in Canada , has been feeling the positive effects of using battery-
24 International Mining | OCTOBER 2023