As the global mining community prepares to assemble at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention next week, MacLean Engineering is announcing the establishment of a Surface Mining Vehicle Division, building on its 50-year reputation as a fit-for-purpose underground OEM and a decade of battery-electric vehicle (EV) design and support in North America, Africa and Australia.
The inaugural model for this new division is the GR8 EV Surface Grader. MacLean has already announced its first customer, a collaboration with Fortescue that was announced at MINExpo 2024, in support of Fortescue’s industry leading Real Zero 2030 decarbonisation strategy for its iron ore operations in Western Australia. MacLean plans to develop additional products to complement the GR8 and help the global surface mining sector accelerate its decarbonisation timelines for ancillary equipment.
David Jacques, MacLean Vice President of Surface Mining Vehicles, said: “As a company we turned 50 in 2023 and in 2025 we are also celebrating our 10-year anniversary of our EV Series. Now we are making another decisive move towards providing EV for the surface mining sector around the globe. With a decade of EV experience in the underground mining sector, 100-plus units sold and commissioned and 500,000-plus operating hours logged, we are well positioned to bring our expertise and learnings around EV equipment to surface mining operations.”
Dan Stern, Senior Product Manager at MacLean, added: “Our message to the mining world is simple and powerful – we are here now to accelerate your fleet decarbonization requirements. Our aspirations are much broader and longer-term than just that one surface mining vehicle model, we have a variety of planned ancillary EVs to help you realise this to meet your core business objectives of safety, productivity, and cost controls. To mining companies around the globe – we want to hear about your decarbonisation and operational optimisation plans. We’re here to listen and provide solutions. As we like to say at MacLean, our history runs deep, and now our future is looking up.”