The electrification of mobile fleets in underground mining was kicked off in earnest in Canada when Goldcorp decided to move their Borden exploration project forward as an all-electric mine. MacLean was honoured to be chosen as one of the two suppliers to this project in 2016, at this point a bulk sample ramp advancing at some 4 to 5 m per day. The mine of the future will indeed be all-electric, and it will also have a smaller geographic footprint, industry-leading water management practices, and partnerships with the local First Nation communities.

“Our first five battery electric units arrived at Borden in April of 2017, two bolters, an emulsion loader cassette, a boom truck cassette and a scissor lift, with nine more MacLean EV units to be shipped in 2018, including a blockholer, the first of our Ore Flow suite to be electrified. In total, we put seven EV units underground in 2017 and we have orders that will double this in 2018.”

MacLean adds: “The EV mine upside of zero emissions, lower total cost of ownership, and reduced ventilation requirements are simply too compelling for mining companies to ignore much longer. Glencore’s two cornerstone Sudbury basin expansion projects – Onaping Depth and Nickel Rim Deep – are case in point in this transition to diesel-free mines to leverage ventilation savings and reduced infrastructure costs, along with the benefits of exhaust-free and lower maintenance fleets. Full-fleet electrification will be available by the end of 2018, but we know this is just the first step to aligning our company to what our customers need and expect. We moved rapidly into the EV propulsion space because we saw the business drivers the industry was facing – heat and ventilation requirements