Centamin is to trial Caterpillar’s Dynamic Gas Blending (DGB) technology at its Sukari gold mine in Egypt as part of a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower costs.

The mine will trial the technology on three or four its haul trucks next year, Centamin CEO, Martin Horgan, told attendees at its capital markets webcast today.

The DGB conversion kits, available on Cat 785C and 793D haul trucks, are a dual-fuel technology that enables miners to substitute diesel fuel with LNG, according to Cat. The use of LNG has been proven to reduce emissions by up to 30%, as well as lower costs by up to 30%, Cat says.

Just last week, Gold Fields’ CEO Nick Holland told a panel at IMARC Online that the company would trial DGB technology on four of its haul trucks at its Tarkwa gold mine in Ghana.

While the use of DGB technology will partially displace Centamin’s use of diesel fuel with LNG, the company said it was also working on “full displacement” with LNG as part of its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The company has already committed to delivering a Stage 1 30 MW solar plant at Sukari, expected to replace 18–20 million litres of diesel consumption per year through operation during daylight hours.

In other areas of technology development, Centamin said it would soon be adding new Cat 6040 hydraulic face shovels to its existing fleet at Sukari, it had four “lightweight truck trays” currently operating at the mine, and it was trialling Metso Outotec Poly-Met mill liners on ball mills in its processing plant.