MayJune 2020 MaiJuin 2020 41 Goldcorp s Bor den oper ation Kirkland L a k e Gold s Macas sa oper ation and Glencor e s under c onstruction Onaping Depth pr oject electric surf a c e mining is much earlier on the develop ment curve both at home and abr oad N o u v eau Monde Gr aphit e r eleased a f easibility study f or it s Mat a winie openpit gr aphit e pr oject in 2018 that conc eived a fully electric mine P r ogr es s is constr ained by the limit s of low carbon surf a c e equipment ac cor ding t o V e r onica Martine z senior pr ogr am off i c er f or innov a tion and climat e chang e at the Int ernational Coun cil of Mining and Met als ICMM W e ve seen hug e pr ogr es s in t erms of electric vehicles and trucks in the past f e w y ears but the scale of what is needed in the mining industry f or example a 400 t onne haul truck is quit e diff er ent she said explaining that 80 per c ent of oper ational emis sions on mine sit es emanat e fr om mobile equipment E ven if companies w ant t o adopt t ech nology or buy off the shelf t echnology right now t o cut oper a tional emis sions the t echnology is not a v ailable she added T he ICMM s Innov a tion f or Cleaner Saf er V ehicles IC S V connect s it s 2 7 members with leading original equipment manuf actur ers OEMs t o encour ag e the adapt ation of existing t echnologies and the cr eation of pilot pr oject s f or newer t echnologies T he initiative is designed t o pr omot e the com mer cializ ation of z e r o c arbon surf a c e mining vehicles by 2040 If we w ant t o ha ve the t echnology commer cially a v ailable by 2040 that means that between now and 2030 we ha ve t o develop and t est the t echnology bef or e we can incorpor at e it at scale So it may seem lik e 2040 is a long time aw ay but actu ally we don t ha ve that much time Martine z said Pet er W an t echnology and innov a tion lead at T eck an IC S V contribut or emphasiz ed the ur g ency of trialling and deploying electric mobile equipment t o deleg at es at the SME Mine X chang e Conf er enc e and Expo in F ebruary the same month that T eck un veiled it s new t a r g et t o be a carbonneutr al oper at or by 2050 If we buy a f leet of trucks t oday we r e only one f leet cy cle aw ay fr om 2050 W an said T eck is t aking a st ag ed appr oach t o deploying z e r o c arbon equipment W an explained Given that f i r st movers typically pay a c apit al pr emium the plan is identify those sect ors that ha ve maturity wher e pric es ar e alr eady coming down t o early major ity pric es he said Early majority r e f e rs t o the f i rst siz able chunk of the mark et t o in vest in an innov a tive solution f ollowing br a v e early adopt ers Early majority pricing is typically lower than intr oduct ory pricing but higher than when the it em is mor e of a commodity T hen T eck will adopt the t echnology those industries use and help drive the mining mark et An example of this is a pilot pr oject at it s Elk V alley oper a tions wher e two Lion Electric buses ha ve been intr oduc ed f o r cr ew tr ansport SaintJ e r ome Quebecbased Lion has existing school bus cust omers acr os s N o rth America and it also off ers Clas s 8 OTR trucks and g arbag e trucks so T eck can benef it fr om that experienc e even if mining applic ations ar e a new usag e f o r the vehicles Intr oducing electric vehicles on sit e in volves overhauling oper ating philosophies W an added F or example the r e c ent trial of a 15t onne aut onomous electric haul truck made by V o lvo demonstr at ed that the miner could r educ e truck siz es but main t ain pr oductivity An electricf irst mindset also thr ows open the door t o alt ernative appr oaches such as inpit crushing and con veying and r eimagines how mat erial is handled W an not ed that a lot of the surf a c e equipment used by T eck t oday including 300 t onne haul trucks Cat erpillar D11 do z e rs and Cat erpillar 2 4 mot or gr aders ar e simply not a v ailable as electric models Powering up Renew ables ar e alr eady the cheapest sour c e of electricity in man y part s of the world and they ar e pr edict ed t o become even mor e aff or dable T he Int ernational Renew able Ener gy Ag ency f o r e cast s that electricity g ener at ed by onshor e wind and solar phot ovolt aic PV t echnologies will be c onsist ently cheaper than electricity by f o s sil fuels worldwide in 20 20 Financial sa v ing s ar e one of the r easons wh y mining is f ast becoming one of the big g est corpor at e buy e rs of r enew able ener gy Anglo Amer ican signed a US190 million C AD2 7 3 million deal with A tlas Renew able Ener gy in Mar ch f or 15 y ears of solar power fr om a t o be c onstruct ed 330 meg aw at t solar plant In lat e 2019 BHP signed f our deals f or r enew able power that would r educ e power cost s at it s Chilean copper mines by 20 per c ent while fully tr an sitioning their electricity supply off f o s sil fuels T he economics of the s wit ch wer e so r o s y that BHP set aside a pr ovisional US 7 80 million C AD1 billion in it s f inancials t o nix pr e existing coal deals featur e