The Electric Mine Consortium is not Graeme Stanway’s first innovation rodeo. As the founder of State of Play, a global research platform in natural resources, energy and infrastructure, which also publishes the largest survey on strategy and innovation in mining, he has engaged with many individual and groups of companies looking to spur on mining innovation.

State of Play is the custodian of the EMC and is responsible for bringing almost 20 companies all focused on accelerating progress towards the fully electrified zero CO2 and zero particulates mine together.

Stanway, as Chair of the EMC, has had a front row seat for this journey over the last four years, and was aware the time would come to ‘wrap up’ the consortium’s proceedings – expected on September 30.

“We always knew it was a fixed term,” he told IM. “To be honest, I thought it would be sooner. When we first started, a three-year engagement period sounded about right if things worked well. There is only so long you can keep a core group of companies and people on such an intense innovation journey.”

Four years might sound short – according to Stanway and State of Play’s data it’s the average period that business’ plan their innovation journeys for – but the electrification landscape has changed substantially in that period.

“When we started there was no significant electrification simulation capability, not really any specialised consulting, limited engineering services,” he said. “Now, you can go out and get a study and people are already building mines that are 90% powered off renewables. We also have metrics being introduced that could have a noticeable impact on the way projects go through FIDs.

“The large production equipment is the one thing that is left, but people now know the pathways they need to follow. They would acquire this electric equipment tomorrow if the incentives were there. This would accelerate equipment supply and bring capital costs down, creating a virtuous cycle of adoption.”

He can reference a white paper released by EMC members Perenti and IGO, along with ABB, in May, as an example of how an all-electric mine is possible. It can also be argued that the Australian underground mining sector has caught up and, in some respects, overtaken its rivals in Canada when it comes to electrification. This includes its leading status as an off-grid renewable energy pioneer, as well as hosting the first trial of the world’s biggest underground battery-electric truck at Sunrise Dam in Western Australia’s Goldfields region.

The numbers also back this up, with the EMC starting with five mining companies and getting to 13 in the end. The EMC has also overseen more than 15 non-commercial engagement forums with OEMs and CEOs.

Yet, the EMC’s influence goes beyond this, according to Stanway.

Major and mid-tier Canadian gold miners – Agnico Eagle Mines and New Gold, for example – have generously provided valuable input to specific EMC teams, while a significant amount of suppliers engaged with and learnt from that core group of 13 mining companies.

“Many of the small suppliers used this experience as a product and business development opportunity,” Stanway says. “This also benefitted the mining companies that were able to realise new solutions or services in the marketplace.”

One area that Stanway reflects on as lagging his initial expectations was getting trials off the ground.

The EMC has seen over 70 equipment trials across all fleet types, supplemented by an industry first data sharing platform. This has led to accelerated equipment adoption, but Stanway still thinks there could have been more, particularly with larger production equipment.

“I underestimated how quickly trials would get off the ground,” he said. “Even after everyone’s aspirations were laid out and there was a broad understanding of the technology at hand and the opportunities to be had with these, the momentum slowed in terms of moving to trial and adoption stages.”

He also laments that the initial push to accelerate progress towards the fully electrified zero CO2 and zero particulates mine did not result in an overarching commitment to fully remove diesel particulate matter (DPM) from the underground mining sector.

At The Electric Mine 2024 in May, Chris Carr, Acting COO of IGO, said stricter standards for airborne DPM emissions in Australia and elsewhere would “push electrification a lot harder”.

MasterMined Innovation CEO, Tony Sprague, added to this, telling The Electric Mine 2024 that DPM, and specifically nano-DPM, was “the elephant in the room” and the “real driver of getting diesel out of the underground mine and to achieve the electric mine”. He explained: “There is a new [emission] target that is coming from Safe Work Australia that is not far away. When it’s going to land we’re not too sure, but if it does land it’s going to be very problematic for the industry.”

Stanway said some of this reticence could be tied to the “portfolio mentality” of some of the larger mining companies with legacy assets, and a lack of acknowledgement from leaders on the health and safety risks that come with going underground at existing operations.

“The one thing that hasn’t happened with electrification is the wholesale change in leadership intent to shift as fast as possible,” Stanway says. “A lot of these targets, particularly production equipment conversion, are set to beyond 2030 which is outside of the purview of what gets the attention of the current crop of CEOs.

“I think it is the leadership intent that is needed as much as the technology development in this space. Once the leadership intent ‘flips’, the momentum will step up another gear.”

Progress towards the fully electrified zero CO2 and zero particulates mine has still been vast, he acknowledged, saying that the investment climate and mentality has shifted to help fund new technology adoption.

“People are now open to spending more money in areas that come with uncertain outcomes,” he says, referencing investments in artificial intelligence (AI). “In that regard, it’s not just the quantum of money that has increased, it’s also the willingness to spend money in areas that they wouldn’t have before.”

This shift will benefit other complementary areas of mine electrification and decarbonisation – such as automation, AI and energy sourcing.

Yet, there is no obvious next consortium opportunity on the horizon, according to Stanway.

“Electrification was that rare beast in that it was decarbonisation driven so wasn’t competitive at the time we started,” he said. “These types of opportunities only come around once in a while. In that regard, I’m glad we were able to make such an impact in a short space of time, and we’re able to hand the baton onto the consortium members and the broader industry to advance these areas further.”