BATTERY AND ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Inevitable innovation
Electrification‘ field of dreams’ continues to play out despite some high-level knocks, Dan Gleeson says
Hybridisation provides valuable field experience with battery systems to mine operators, easing the transition to full electrification later, ABB says
With several major miners paring back their electrification and decarbonisation plans in recent times, one could be forgiven for thinking that the technology gains made in the last six-or-so years towards achieving net zero operating conditions could be wasted.
The current situation might not look ripe for the transition, but a sense of inevitability remains intact when it comes to electrifying mining equipment.
It is not‘ if’ but‘ when’ in terms of electrification adoption; just‘ when’ that wholescale shift starts to occur is less certain. There are a few realities worth spelling out though.
Any miner classified as being a mid-tier or above would struggle to publish a technical report on a new greenfield asset that left out fleet electrification. Even if an electrification exploration was filed away in an annexe, a scoping exercise would have to be included for investors and stakeholders to accept said report.
There are also juniors that recognise the circularity benefits of producing battery metals and leveraging such metals in the batteries of equipment serving the operations. These companies, quite often backed by non-traditional mining investors, are moving forward with plans to implement electric fleet in a production scenario.
And there are already frontrunners advocating for this technology adoption, realising they have a chance to stand out from their peer group by leading this transition – the ultimate prize could be premium pricing in some commodities, for instance.
Learning in real time
A recent blog post by Jeremy Byrd, Product Support Manager, Caterpillar Electrification + Energy Solutions Division, provided some insight into the learning journey with electrification implementation that OEMs and those frontrunner mining companies are going through.
He says Caterpillar has similar questions come up from mining customers all the time who are thinking about electrification:“ What happens if my battery-electric equipment won’ t start or breaks down? I don’ t know anything about batteries. Is it safe to work on one myself? My dealer knows diesel equipment. Can they fix an electric product? How much downtime is this all going to cost me?”
Byrd says these are questions Caterpillar hears every day from customers thinking about electrification.
“ Beyond upfront factors like cost, charging, infrastructure and energy flow, you also have to think long term: how to keep everything running safely and reliably, day after day.”
He adds:“ At Caterpillar, product support has always been at the heart of our commitment to customers. That doesn’ t change with electrification – in fact, it matters now more than ever.
“ Our goal is simple: when you’ re ready to electrify your job site, your Cat dealer will be ready, too.”
How is his team helping make that happen?
He explains:“ Our official name is the Caterpillar Electrification + Energy Solutions Division’ s Product Support Field Engineering team … In simple terms, think of us as the link between customers, dealers and the engineers back at Caterpillar.”
Byrd says the team’ s mission is threefold. First to keep the new electric mining equipment up and running.“ We’ re the boots on the ground, troubleshooting and repairing first-generation products in realworld applications. Our team makes sure Cat electric equipment operates safely, productively and efficiently wherever it’ s being tested or piloted. Today, that means supporting tens of thousands of assets worldwide – machines, batteries, chargers, fuel cells and energy storage systems( ESSs), and solving potential problems before these products ever reach your site.”
This is a continuation of how the company already works closely with dealers to support Cat diesel-electric equipment( like the 794 AC and 798 AC trucks), which is far from new, having logged more than 50 million hours of operation to date.
International Mining | APRIL 2025