The Electrification of Mining Vehicles: How is the mining sector reaching net zero?
Did you know that for the standard EV, its usage doesn’t actually have lower emissions than a petrol car until between 8,000 to 20,000 miles depending on vehicle’s drive cycle. That’s because the production of an EV passenger car – and in fact any Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) – requires much more CO2 than the production of a standard ICE car.
Of course, BEVs keep residential and urban spaces free of harmful emissions, but the main reason they can’t truly be considered zero emission vehicles over their total lifespan is the production of the Lithium Ion Battery that most EVs use.
And one of the largest contributors to those emissions is the extraction of lithium and other resources from mines across the globe.
According to a report by McKinsey, the mining industry generates between 1.9 and 5.1 gigatons of CO2 emissions every year (about 2-3% of all global emissions) and as we continue to move into a world whereby new technology helps reduce emissions, how is the mining sector keeping up as most other industries move towards net zero?
Carbon credits have had a huge impact on the way business is done all around the world, with some industries almost entirely reliant on them to make any significant effort towards their emission goals. The mining sector is no different. Rio Tinto, a global leader in mining, has ramped up its usage, and plans on purchasing 3.5 million carbon credits annually until 2030. This initiative comes after the company failed to meet its 2025 decarbonisation targets without the use of offsetting, but the plan should see 10% of the company’s baseline emissions reduced thanks to this addition.
Brazilian mining company Vale S.A. have set themselves a series of ambitious targets, including using 100% renewable electricity in Brazil by 2025 and globally by 2030; reduce their emissions by 33% by 2030 from the baseline set in 2017; and to achieve net zero Scope 1 and 2 (Direct and indirect) emissions by 2050. In 2022, Vale S.A already managed to source 99.95% renewable electricity in Brazil and 86.67% in their global operations. Even with this achievement, Vale S.A. is reliant on investing in carbon credits to help them reach net zero.
And unfortunately, carbon credits are not without their criticisms. Many companies choose to treat carbon credits as a last resort should they not hit their targets. But other than using renewable energy to source electricity, how can corporations in the mining sector reduce their emissions?
Another Australian mining company, BHP, is taking a unique approach towards reducing their carbon impact by using Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) to power their mining equipment at their Yandi iron ore operations in Western Australia. Utilising alternative fuels like HVO helps them in the transition into fully electric fleets, but it raises a question: will these low-carbon alternatives be accessible enough to be an option for mining facilities across the world and do they go far enough to be worth the investment?
In our guide Hydrogen: The Future of Fuel? we discussed how JCB has taken steps to adapt their existing internal combustion engines to work with hydrogen fuel over diesel, and earlier this summer showcased a hydrogen-powered generator. Of course, traditional construction vehicles are much smaller than those used on a mining site, but if hydrogen becomes more readily available, it could follow along with HVO in helping vehicles become carbon neutral.
With the larger vehicles used in mining, you might think it will be difficult to have a battery strong enough to power the monster mining trucks expected to carry 100s of tonnes in weight, but manufacturer Hitachi have actually been using a system that might seem familiar to fans of trains.
Hitachi’s Truck Trolley system requires the installation of electric cables over the roads that haul trucks will be driving on. The haul trucks will connect to these electric cables and then recharge as they drive beneath them. This technique was originally used on hybrid(-like) haul trucks where Hitachi would add an electric motor system to traditional diesel engine trucks that would only be in use whilst the truck was attached to the electric cables.
This system doesn’t entirely reduce the charging time to zero without a huge amount of necessary infrastructure, but it does allow for multiple vehicles to be charging at once from the same system.
Hitachi aren’t the only ones working on developing electric dump trucks, in 2022, Australian mining company, Fortescue, committed a US$6.2 billion investment into cutting their emissions by 2.5 million tons a year to Real Zero by 2030 without using carbon offsetting. A huge task, but one that has already made real strides – having already manufactured a prototype 21-ton electric mining truck that they have been in the process of testing for almost a year.
The difficulties around the manufacture of these trucks goes far beyond just needing a bigger battery for a larger vehicle. The environment can have a huge impact on the capabilities of a battery, and where passenger EVs can lose range in colder temperatures, mining operations can see ambient temperature vary from -40°C up to 60°C , and where batteries are most optimal at 25-30°C, cooling battery systems at high temperatures is vital.
Temperature is only a small part of what needs to be a considered though. Road surfaces on mining sites are often very steep, with mechanical shocks, vibrations and potholes incredibly common. And with the dynamic weight of the trucks, where some can weigh up to 400 tons in weight, it’s important to make sure that the motors can generate enough power to move the truck.
However, haul trucks are only one type of vehicle used daily by the mining sector and if the infrastructure required to charge or power a fleet of haul trucks is built on a site, further electrification of other vehicles used in mining operations will be much easier.
Hitachi has also developed a battery-powered excavator, the EX8000-7, which is one of their largest ever excavators. Unlike haul trucks, which are designed specifically to transport payloads from one place to another, movement across a site is less of priority for manufacturers to focus on with excavators and similar mining vehicles. Because of this, Hitachi aren’t the only ones who have developed, or are looking to develop, battery-powered excavators.
Liebherr and JCB have also developed electric excavators; Liebherr is taking their existing diesel-powered R 9400 and swapping out its engine for an electric powertrain. Liebherr use a modular system with their equipment which makes swapping out their diesel engine much easier than having to develop an entirely new vehicle from scratch. For those who can’t yet invest money in net zero, this might become the most cost-effective way to transition into zero-emission mining vehicles.
The transition from diesel-power to electric will have a huge impact on the mining industry and – though the investments might be great – the trailblazers in the sector could end up seeing a huge return on investments as other mining companies look to their solutions as alternatives to developing their own.
The benefits of transitioning to electric are more than just combating climate change. When mining underground, venting out emissions from vehicles is vitally important to the health of workers, yet despite this being in operation, miners’ health is still massively impacted when working in these conditions. By switching to electric, these vehicles no longer create significant emissions and the cost of creating ventilation systems to combat those emissions is eliminated.
Access to electrification technology may require huge investments early on, but as cheaper, cleaner energy becomes more accessible, we’ll likely see electrification become the cheaper alternative for many mining operations across the globe. For mining companies, there is a big opportunity to invest in the wider community around mining sites by building solar fields, wind farms or even hydro-electric dams to help benefit the communities near mines as well. Giving them and their community cheaper electricity to keep the site running.
Where does electricity come from to power this mining equipment? Africa, South America, Australia, all places with significant mining operations have huge solar fields, while countries with mining operations that don’t have as much access to sunlight, like Canada and Lapland, can use extensive wind farms or hydro power. One of the downsides of reusable energy sources like solar is lack of storage, as electricity is most often used when the sun is out, but for mining operations this electricity can be sent straight to mining sites to be used. And even in more remote locations where infrastructure needs to be built, there is an opportunity to store energy in large batteries which can then feed vehicles.
Every industry is making a move towards net zero, and if manufacturers of the largest, strongest vehicles can make the transition, there won’t be many others in the automotive sector who can’t.
