Page 95 Brian Huf V P of T echnology for Artisan V ehicles speaks on the opera tional advantages of using battery electric vehicles in mining only to the areas where work will be occuring Thereby saving on wasted energy costs Another cooli ng system of the fu ture was explained by Dr Daniel Cluf CEO of CanMIND Associ ates he examined cryogenic based chilling as a way of cooling deep mines It s cold liquid air that you can store and pump anywhe re you need it during the summer when temperatures in the mine are high er he said T oday mining companies such as V ale Glencore and Newmont Goldcorp are embracing battery electric vehicles not only for con serving energ y costs but also be cause they generate no emissions and improve the air qual ity and health of people working under ground Paul Summers of Miller T echnolo gy cited the benefts of going elec tric as being in both health and costs No emissions are produced and they are as easy to drive as a T esla electric car Maintenance of truck axel rotation can be monitored so they can be repaired without sufering down time Mainten ance costs are also reduced because the brakes pro duce very little heat and there is less wear and tear compared to diesel driven trucks Brian Huf cofounder and V P of T echnology for Artisan V ehicles showed another advantage of BEV that recharge themselves by recycling the small amount of heat produced in braking Artisan V ehicles such as those used at Kirkland Lake Gold s Macassa Mine and V ale s Cole man Mine produce nine times less heat as most heat goes into recharging the battery A ve hicle such as a scoop truck can make 50 trips on a battery charge meaning that the battery must be completely recharged every oth er day Ken Schroeder the Digital Prod uct Manager at Epiroc addressed the need for mining companies to improve efciencies through digitizing and data collection He described a pilot proje ct the Mobilaris Mining Intelligence sys tem as the backbone for data collection The information can be deployed to ensure mining operations such as mucking and scooping are carried out efcient ly This leads to more ore being transported with less truck move ments thereby reducing waste W orking at deeper levels rock stress and the need for ground stability becomes very important Monitoring of rock stress and seis mic activity is required to enhance safety and to protect the lives of employees Stronger more tensile meshing for rock bolting is being developed and utilized in deep un derground mine T raditional mining consists of four major activities drilling blasting ore transport and ground support Mining at greater depths requires improved technology to make drilling and ore transport more ef fcient and blasting and ground support improved to keep the work area safer Ultimately keeping the mine safer will lead to greater au tomation and reduced number of people at the rockface Mining companies like Kirkland Lake Gold V ale Glencore and Newmont Goldcorp Embrace battery electric vehicles Page 93