Tag Archives: Aitik

Komatsu’s pre-production Power Agnostic 930E haul truck heading to Boliden’s Aitik mine

Automation, Base metals, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining events, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, , ,

Komatsu has announced a significant step forward in their joint commitment to sustainable mining together with Boliden, a leading global mining and metals company with a strong focus on sustainable production.

At MINExpo 2024, Komatsu unveiled its all-new Power Agnostic 930E haul truck, built on Komatsu’s modular power-agnostic platform, this new generation truck allows customers to future-proof their operations with a versatile approach to decarbonisation.

Thanks to this modular power-agnostic platform, customers are able to start with conventional diesel engines and gradually transition to cleaner energy sources as needed. Whether adopting battery technology, hydrogen fuel cell technology or a combination of energy systems, the Power Agnostic 930E provides the infrastructure and adaptability necessary to meet evolving sustainability goals.

Following the exhibition, this pre-production haulage truck will make its way to Boliden’s Aitik mine – Europe’s largest and one of the world’s most productive open-pit copper mines. This marks a milestone moment as the truck will become the first of its kind to undergo field testing in production at a customer’s mine site including the ambition of conversion to battery technology.

This one-year field trial will take place within the Komatsu Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Alliance framework, where Boliden will work closely with Komatsu to gather first-hand insights and feedback based on real-world applications. This collaboration will contribute to the advancement of Komatsu’s power-agnostic truck concept.

“We are excited to continue our partnership with Boliden in their Aitik mine, where the Power Agnostic 930E truck, showcased at MINExpo, will soon start the first field trials in a customer mine site,” Jeroen De Roeck, Senior Manager Mining for Komatsu Europe. “This milestone not only represents a major step forward in our decarbonisation strategy but also exemplifies our commitment to support our customers in achieving their sustainability goals. Together with Boliden, we are paving the way for a more responsible mining industry.

As one of the founding members of the GHG Alliance, Boliden has consistently demonstrated its commitment to ambitious carbon reduction goals within the mining industry.

In 2023, Boliden became the first company in Europe to implement Komatsu Frontrunner, an Autonomous Hauling System, on 17 haul trucks at the Aitik mine. This initiative aimed to optimise productivity and asset utilisation to meet increased transportation demands while maintaining world-leading cost competitiveness.

As the demand for essential minerals continues to grow, mining companies face increasing pressure to deliver these crucial resources productively and responsibly. Komatsu is focused on supporting mining operations in meeting these challenges through innovative solutions that prioritise both productivity and climate performance.

ABB’s Dittakavi looks forward to more Real Progress with eMine ecosystem

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Three years after the launch of ABB’s eMine™ ecosystem, the results speak for themselves: six operational trolley systems, a proven fast charging system and numerous project leads in the offing.

Speaking to Ratna Kanth Dittakavi, Global eMine Sales Manager, it is clear the best is still yet to come from the ABB business line.

In the lead-up to a showcase of the company’s underground trolley capabilities at Boliden’s Rävliden mine in northern Sweden this week, Dittakavi was effusive about the company’s prospects – both with OEMs and mining companies.

He was able to share such foresight with numerous eMine consultative studies ongoing.

“We have about a dozen of these studies going on at the moment,” he told IM. “These are all in various stages of development – from prefeasibility study and feasibility, through to engineering.”

Such studies underpin the company’s eMine execution strategy, considering all electrification options for clients and coming up with a tailored, technology-agnostic plan for the company.

ABB’s close ties with a growing number of OEMs and suppliers – it recently signed a collaborative agreement with Komatsu, for example – plus its ability to carry out the majority of electrification, automation and digital work on its own, differentiates this offering from the standard engineering or consulting services available to mining companies or contractors.

“When we come up with an electrification plan for a client, say, 3-5 years ahead of production with 10-15% contingencies, we have to execute it for them,” Dittakavi says. “We don’t devise these studies for someone else to enact them. It goes beyond project execution too, as we’re often supporting the electrical infrastructure on site throughout the life of the mine.”

Ratna Kanth Dittakavi (left) speaking with IM Editor, Dan Gleeson (right) this week

Early engagement is the key to being able to devise these strategies with clients, according to Dittakavi, however when looking at the six trolley projects the company is currently able to talk about – Aitik, Aitik Extension, the second trolley line at Kevitsa, Copper Mountain, Los Pelambres and Rävliden – he admits that the engagement timeframe hasn’t always been consistent.

“Just as we look to come up with a tailored solution for the client depending on their green energy inputs, site-wide infrastructure and load and haul fleet, for example, we also have to work within the constraints of the project timelines we are given,” he says.

Outside of the existing trolley projects the company is working on – including the 800-m test track at Rävliden – ABB is also working on a Robot Automated Connection Device (ACD) to charge future battery-electric trucks. This is planned to be a fully automated interoperable connection device working in tandem with the ABB eMine Fast Charge solution.

The ACD is set to be showcased in some form at next month’s MINExpo INTERNATIONAL 2024 event in Las Vegas IM understands, with a prototype also set to arrive at Boliden’s Aitik mine shortly for testing with a “dummy plug” connection, Jonas Ranggård, Program Manager at Boliden Mines, confirmed this week.

Boliden to implement Hypex Bio climate-friendly explosives at Kankberg mine

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Boliden says it has become the first mining operator to sign an agreement for the production and delivery of a newly developed explosive from Hypex Bio with significantly improved environmental and climate performance.

In the process, the company’s need for nitrogen treatment of water is being reduced and its climate performance is improving by around 400 t of CO2 per year, it says.

Peter Bergman, General Manager of the Boliden Area, said: “For us, it is important to be part of technology development in many areas and, when it is successful, we also want to be early with implementation. Together with the electrification of transport and other machines, this means another important step towards being able to conduct mining operations that are, in principle, fossil-free.”

The agreement with the Swedish explosives supplier Hypex Bio is for the production and delivery of nitrate-free and environmentally friendly explosives to Kankbergsgruvan, Boliden. Boliden and Hypex will cooperate on the production and delivery of nitrate-free and environmentally friendly explosives to the Kankberg mine, which includes the establishment of a production facility at the mine as well as a delivery and service agreement.

The supply and service agreement for Hypex’s explosives solution spans five years, starting in 2024. The production quantity is expected to amount to 400-450 t and, thus, largely meet the Kankberg mine’s annual needs. In addition to the fact that the explosive drastically reduces the need for nitrogen treatment of water, the climate impact is reduced by approximately 400 t of CO2 per year (Scope 3), Boliden added.

The collaboration between Hypex Bio and Boliden has been ongoing since 2020, where the nitrate-free explosive has been developed and tested in the Kankberg mine. The technology has proven to meet Boliden’s requirements for safety, performance, environment and reduced carbon dioxide emissions. Tests have also been carried out in the Garpenberg mine and are to be started in the Aitik copper mine, the company says.

Back in October, Omnia Holdings announced a strategic partnership with Hypex Bio and the acquisition of a minority equity stake in the company.

Boliden looks to strengthen biodiversity ties with Sarkanenä Sustainability Park near Aitik

Base metals, Environmental, Mining services, Sustainable mining, , , , ,

In order to strengthen biodiversity and create accessible nature experiences for the public, Boliden has today inaugurated the Sarkanenä Sustainability Park close to its Aitik mine in Sweden.

The company’s aim is for additional sustainability parks to be introduced in connection with active or decommissioned sites, it says.

Åsa Jackson, Executive Vice President People and Sustainability at Boliden, said: “Mines inevitably have an impact on the environment and the local community in which mining takes place. However, by restoring the land or setting aside other land and initiating efforts to promote biodiversity, we can strengthen the overall natural values and contribute to long-term solutions for both ourselves and others.”

Boliden’s sustainability parks are areas within our land holdings consisting of forest land, decommissioned sites or land adjacent to active sites that can be opened to the public. The sustainability parks reflect the conditions at the site in question and will demonstrate the site’s history and Boliden’s association with it, historically, today and in the future, the company said.

A meeting place protected from weather will be available at all parks, along with nature experiences in the form of trails, playful elements, activities and more to learn about biodiversity. The information provided is also based on ecological, economic, socio-cultural and legal aspects, such as the natural values associated with the site and how these can be recreated and strengthened.

Sarkanenä Sustainability Park is located about 10 km south of Gällivare along the road to Nattavaara and includes, in addition to other features, a circa-2 km hiking trail with an experience trail.

Boliden’s trolley journey continues to evolve with Kevitsa line launch

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In its latest move to become the most climate friendly and respected metal provider in the world, Boliden has opened the trolley line at its Kevitsa mine in Finland.

The line, which encompasses a 1.3-km-long track, now has three Komatsu 227 t 830E-5 trucks running on it, according to Stefan Romedahl, President Business Area Mines, Boliden. “The following 10 trucks will be converted in the spring of 2023 when the in-pit trolley line will be commissioned,” he told IM.

This project aims to cut the mine’s carbon dioxide emissions, with estimates the volume of CO2 emitted could reduce by 9% over mine’s lifetime using this electrical infrastructure.

Boliden is not new to trolley operations. It started testing trucks on the Kevitsa line late last year, while its Aitik copper mine in northern Sweden ran electric-drive trucks on trolley as far back as 2018.

Following a two-year trolley assist pilot project on a 700-m-long line at Aitik – which saw Eitech and ABB supply electrical infrastructure; Pon Equipment and Caterpillar carry out truck modifications; and Chalmers University provide supporting research on system aspects of the electrification – the company, in late-2019, decided to further invest in trolley operations at Aitik. This was announced at the same time as the Kevitsa trolley plans.

Romedahl confirmed there are now 14 Caterpillar 313 t 795F ACs trucks running on a 1.7-km-long trolley line at Aitik, which will be extended as the depth of the mine increases.

Stefan Romedahl, President Business Area Mines, Boliden

While all the trucks at these two operations use diesel-powered propulsion after they come off the trolley infrastructure, Romedahl said the plan was to convert them to ‘zero emission’ solutions in the future, with a battery-trolley setup under consideration.

“Yes, this is the long-term strategy,” he said. “Boliden is working closely with our suppliers to achieve this in the upcoming years.”

With the world requiring many more mines to electrify industry, Romedahl was hopeful more of these would move towards fossil-free operation.

“At Boliden we have the vision to be the most climate friendly and respected metal provider in the world,” he said. “That is not something you can have as a vision without doing quite a lot in the field of sustainable company development. The trolley lines are one of many activities we do to reach that vision.

“For Boliden, it is crucial to perform in the direction of fossil freeness as soon as possible. The green transition can’t happen in 10 years; it needs to happen now.”

Boliden to become EU automation FrontRunner with help of Komatsu AHS

Automation, Base metals, IoT, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining safety, Mining services, Sustainable mining, , , , , , ,

Boliden has decided to introduce Komatu’s FrontRunner Autonomous Haulage System (AHS) on 11 haul trucks at its Aitik copper mine in northern Sweden, in the process becoming the first company to introduce AHS in the European Union.

The investment, which will see 11 930E-5 ultra-class trucks automated, is for a total of SEK218 million ($25 million) and will be fully implemented during 2024.

While the production rate at Boliden Aitik remains constant, the required transport work is increasing with the size and depth of the mine, Boliden explained. Automation of the haul truck fleet will increase productivity and asset utilisation in order to meet increased transportation demands in the mine while retaining world leading cost competitiveness, according to the company.

Stefan Romedahl, President Business Area Mines, Boliden, said: “Haul truck automation in Aitik is securing that the mine will stay in the position as the world’s most productive copper mine, while continuing to deliver copper with industry leading climate performance.”

Apart from the technical aspects, the project will include in-depth training of mine staff, both for current and new roles. The expectation is that the work environment will become safer and more attractive with the introduction of automation, Boliden added.

In September, Komatsu announced that mining companies had hauled more than four billion metric tonnes of materials leveraging its FrontRunner AHS, with the milestone achieved just in advance of MINExpo 2021.

First deployed in 2008 at Codelco’s Gabriela Mistral (Gaby) copper mine in Chile, AHS brings together Komatsu ultra-class dump trucks with Modular Mining’s DISPATCH Fleet Management System. Since start-up, zero system-related injuries have been reported, according to Komatsu.

Alongside automation, Boliden is also investing in trolley assist operations at Aitik where it has plans to deploy more than 10 trucks on around 3.5 km of electric trolley line.

Cummins’ PrevenTech Mining keeps Komatsu trucks, wheel loaders going at Boliden mines

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Cummins says its solutions are helping maximise machine uptime on trucks and wheel loaders running its engines at Boliden’s mines in Sweden and Finland.

In the vast open-pit copper mines here, the temperatures can drop as low as -40°C, testing the sturdiest of machinery working day and night extracting and hauling ore.

“It wouldn’t be so tough on the equipment if the thermometer stayed in roughly the same place for any decent length of time, but up there on the edge of the Arctic Circle it’s not unusual for a bitingly cold day to be followed by a more temperate one that feels positively tropical by comparison,” Cummins says.

The unpredictable swing in temperatures makes it difficult to keep equipment in full working order, with parts freezing and thawing, but it’s a challenge taken on by Cummins, which has signed service and maintenance agreements with the Swedish and Finnish distributors of Komatsu specialist mining equipment.

Cost-per-hour agreements – the first of their kind for Cummins in Europe – cover a total of 17 QSK60 Tier 4 Final engine-powered vehicles in Finland, while, in Sweden, a support contract covers a further nine examples of Komatsu’s 2,700 hp 930-E dump truck and a pair of the world’s largest wheel loaders, the L2350.

European DBU leader, Alok Joshi, and Sander Thorstensen, Cummins Leader for the Nordic region, arranged the contracts with the Komatsu distributors Hesselberg (Sweden) and SRO (Finland).

“We are relatively new to the mining sector in Europe,” Thorstensen says, “but all the feedback we have received so far has been incredibly positive, helped by our outstanding new PrevenTech® Mining telematics technology.”

PrevenTech Mining is a real-time digital monitoring and reporting system that provides an early warning of potential equipment operating issues. It helps plan maintenance and service, ensuring machinery is offline as little as possible, boosting productivity for, in this case, Boliden.

Janne Valmari is managing the Komatsu operations for Cummins Sweden. He has appointed two dedicated service technicians for Boliden’s Aitik copper mine just south of Gällivare in northern Sweden, and four technicians to cover Boliden’s Kevitsa mining operations across the border in Finland.

Valmari said the stream of data from PrevenTech allows the Cummins technicians to identify and diagnose performance issues faster and with greater accuracy, so they can see, for example, if an engine has been idling too long or revved too high, and can plan in the right fixes.

“It puts the mine owner in complete control, with no expensive surprises and benefitting from a higher return on their investment in product,” Valmari says.

Thorstensen added: “With their goal of keeping production running non-stop round-the-clock, I am certain Boliden sees the Komatsu-Cummins relationship as a core element of its strategy, and we will continue to strengthen our ties with Boliden and the Nordic mining industry in general.”

This is an edited version of an article that appeared in The Cummins Magazine

Metso Outotec and Boliden renew service contract for Aitik copper mine

Base metals, Comminution of minerals, Equipment maintenance, Mine operation news, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining safety, Mining services, , , , , , , ,

Metso Outotec and Boliden have signed an extension of their service contract for Boliden’s Aitik copper mine in Gällivare, northern Sweden.

The “3+2-year extension” of the Life-Cycle Services agreement covers the supply of mill lining, chute lining solutions, preventive maintenance of the grinding circuit and recycling of used wear parts, the mining OEM said. The first part of the contract has been booked in Metso Outotec’s orders received in the September quarter of 2020.

The contract is a performance-based cost-per-tonne agreement, in which Metso Outotec gets paid according to the output of the customer’s process. The goal is to ensure the availability of the grinding circuit and to maximise valuable production time, striving for a common goal that benefits both parties, the company said.

Metso Outotec and Boliden have cooperated since the 1960s. Throughout the decades, the collaboration has evolved to meet new emerging needs, while continuing to improve uptime and annual production, Metso Outotec said.

“Safety is Boliden’s top priority and enhancing it is also embedded in the scope of the new contract,” the OEM said. “Metso Outotec will provide solutions that simultaneously cut maintenance time and increase the wear life of parts even further.”

The new contract also focuses more on the management of worn wear parts, with Metso Outotec developing capabilities to recycle and dispose of them more sustainably. The AG mills in Aitik will continue to use Metso Outotec’s innovative Megaliner™ mill lining.

Megaliner helps to maximise the availability of large mills by using an innovative design that speeds up liner replacement. The larger-than-average liners mean fewer individual pieces are needed. Megaliner also has fewer attachment points compared with conventional liners, further improving installation and removal time, Metso Outotec says. It also improves worker safety during maintenance as the liners are bolted into position from outside the mill.

The pebble mills and two regrind mills at Aitik will be lined with rubber and Poly-Met mill linings, Metso Outotec said.

Aitik is one of the largest copper mines in Europe. In 2019, the mine produced close to 41,000 t of copper, employing nearly 800 people.

Visualising the future of particle measurements with 3DPM

Automation, Base metals, Comminution of minerals, Equipment maintenance, IoT, Mine operation news, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining services, Mining software, Steel and iron ore, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The 3DPM vision system has had quite a journey. Since the first prototype was installed at LKAB’s Malmberget iron ore to help the miner optimise its pellet production, the system has helped ‘settle the argument’ between mine and mill at base metal mines in Europe and improve the quality of coke being fed to blast furnaces in Japan.

The future looks bright too, with the potential for the system to play a major role in the automation of mine process plants.

Users of 3DPM have seen the importance of having a high-quality vision system that can measure material from a few millimetres to as big as 300 mm in size at relatively high speeds on conveyor belts.

Matthew Thurley, Principal Scientist at Innovative Machine Vision and one of the inventors of the system, has seen the system evolve at the same time as the industry’s understanding of orebody characterisation has grown.

Sweden-based MBV Systems was involved from the beginning on the system, working in partnership with Thurley during his time at Lulea University. It was a three-way collaboration between the university, the SME, and mining companies that got the product to market.

3DPM stands for three-dimensional particle measurement. The system consists of high-performance hardware for 3D scanning of particles and state-of-the-art software for analysis of the size and distribution of particles on a conveyor belt.

“Each system is optimised regarding the hardware and software to best fit each individual installation site and customer preference,” MBV Systems said. “A few examples include OPC communication, heating options to allow functionality in freezing environments, bulk volume calculation, rock bolt detection, and alarm triggering on oversize material.”

Back in 2006, the system installed at Malmberget was very different.

Thurley said the physical hardware, mounted above a conveyor, was pieced together to function properly, but required integration of many individual parts which was hard to maintain.

Still, it provided the iron ore miner with a detailed particle size distribution down to mm-size classes of its high-grade iron ore pellets.

And, in the 14 years since first installation, the principle of the system has remained: to provide increased knowledge of particle size distribution to generate value in, for instance, crusher/mill control, blast furnace effectiveness, process optimisation, or process knowledge.

As more companies have become familiar with the system, the advanced features such as algorithms to detect fines and partially embedded particles have come to the fore. The hardware has been reinforced for rough environments with IP65 rating and the need for very low maintenance even when running 24/7.

This has meant the system has potential in projects focused on improved quality control, automation and process control; three topics the industry is looking at to improve its bottom line, increase its revenues and remove people from operations.

MBV Systems said: “Our customers, who are already highly automated, must continually make their operations more efficient and reduce costs in increasingly tougher international competition. MBV Systems’ machine vision systems constitute a decisive factor for higher productivity, improved efficiency and for complete quality control.”

LKAB started using the system more than 10 years ago. Over that timeframe, the system won many admirers.

Boliden is a big fan of 3DPM, with installations at its Garpenberg, Aitik and Tara operations.

Earlier this year, the miner decided to install another 3DPM system at Garpenberg, four years after the first system was delivered to the Aitik mine to help boost process knowledge and control strategies for crushers and grinding mills.

The way the Sweden-based miner has applied this technology makes for a great case study, according to Thurley.

At Tara, the system is being used for increased process knowledge – “settling the argument between mine and mill”, Thurley says – while, at Garpenberg, the vision system is being leveraged to detect boulders and rock bolts online in a safe way.

This shows 3DPM can be used for multiple purposes.

Such flexibility is down to the system’s ability to provide full size distribution measurements from 0-300 mm and the use of newer algorithms, with the accuracy dependent on the speed of the conveyor belt and the target size of the material under scrutiny.

One of the differentiating factors of 3DPM compared with other vision systems – many of which are now used within ore sorting projects – is the ability to provide a good 3D data profile of the surface of the rock mass. This helps distinguish between rocks and fines, for instance, even when the two are interwoven.

“With the system, we can classify fines and embedded rocks,” Thurley explained. “In other systems, fines may be mistaken for large ‘rocks’ and significantly skew the measured size distribution resulting in bad data and bad decision making.”

This is particularly important in operations that produce several products within one mine – for instance iron ore lump and fines – ensuring that the correct product ends up in the correct stockpile.

The vision system can be tailored to each application.

“At a pigment producer, for instance, we are looking for material that is 3 mm in size,” Thurley said. “In order to carry out that sort of classification, we use the latest technology to measure 3D points at 0.3 mm resolution.”

Typically, visualisation down to this size of material is not required in mining operations, where the company is really competing with batch ‘mine-to-mill’ ore characterisation studies carried out through sieving or some type of other manual process. Such classification can work well for that ‘sample’ but can be misrepresentative depending on the orebody’s heterogeneity.

“3DPM can, instead, provide an end-to-end analysis that can now start to be used as a decision-making tool,” Thurley said.

Analysis of the ore coming through just after blasting can help provide the reconciliation tool miners require to check how effective the blasting practice is, for instance, helping provide the “pre-crusher size distribution feedback much earlier in the value chain”, he said.

With the incorporation of new software and camera technology, the company is expecting more complex analysis to be carried out on bigger amounts of material, according to Thurley.

“These new technologies will allow us to analyse material on a conveyor belt going at 6 m/s where the previous generation was limited at around 2 m/s,” he said.

This could open opportunities at much bigger operations – some large copper or iron ore mines, for instance – as well as automated plants of the future.

It is not farfetched to see the system operating in the same blasting reconciliation position but providing crusher operators with the analysis required to optimise operations ahead of receiving the material.

Moving one step further, it could provide the same information to a system that operates autonomously.

“This could eventually lead to automatic control of the crusher,” Thurley said.

ABB envisages eliminating diesel from the open-pit mining mix

Base metals, Environmental, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining safety, Mining services, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , , , ,

Reducing carbon emissions during open-pit operations is now a major driver for global mining companies, who are going back to the future by employing trolley assist systems for trucks to limit diesel fuel usage and costs, while at the same time boosting speed-on-grade for greater throughput, write ABB’s Mehrzad Ashnagaran and Michel Serres*.

Haul road electrification technology has been in development for decades, but the emergence of a new generation of diesel-electric trucks that already have an electrical system on board to tap into – making it easy to attach them on a trolley line – means the concept has recently begun to gain significant traction as a commercially viable way to facilitate the all-electric mines of the future.

One of the key challenges when it comes to reducing diesel fuel usage is cycle times. There is no technology today that enables miners to fill the truck’s tank and complete a shift without stopping; either you have to increase the speed of the mobile equipment or the size the fleet itself – both of which have a direct impact on capital expenditure.

Trolley assist systems have returned to the market in the last two to three years in places such as North and South America, Africa and Turkey, mainly due to CO2 emission taxes, the removal of tax advantages from diesel, and premiums offered by energy suppliers to incentivise companies to use electricity.

Going forward, there are many synergies with using trolley lines, which offer huge benefits in terms of CO2 reduction.

Large trucks regularly carry 3,000-5,000 litres of diesel in the tank and consume around 300-400 litres per hour while travelling up a 17 km ramp in half an hour.

By going electric, the vehicles, when on-trolley, only use around 30-50 litres an hour, which equates to a reduction in diesel consumption of as much as 350 litres an hour, making operations much more CO2 efficient. In addition, the speed of the trucks will increase, meaning you have a higher throughput at the mine. Operators can also start to think about parking some of their fleet, which will bring additional indirect value to overall operational improvements through better maintenance planning to improve fleet availability and fleet longevity.

One example of the revival of trolley assist systems is at the Aitik open-pit copper mine in Sweden. Here Boliden, ABB and partners trialled the electrification of four haulage trucks on a 700 m trolley line, with the goal of reducing annual diesel usage by 800,000 litres and carrying 70 Mt of ore every year at the mine without using fossil fuel.

Reduced diesel consumption at Boliden mines

Boliden has now moved on from the 700 m trolley line trial at Aitik to confirming it will install an additional 3 km of trolley line at the mine, plus 1.8 km at Kevitsa (in addition to the accompanying conversion of diesel-electric haul trucks). By doing so, Boliden says it will reduce its diesel consumption by 5,500 cu.m/y when its investment is complete. That is a big number.

Aitik is currently the only mine in an arctic climate where electric trolley has been installed. Overall, with the further three kilometres of electric trolley line, greenhouse gas emissions from transportation over the life of mine are reduced by nearly 15%.

In Kevitsa, 13 mining trucks are converted for electric trolley lines at the same time as the 1.8-km-long electric trolley line is being built. The investment means that greenhouse gas emissions over the life of this mine will be reduced by 9%.

In addition, productivity gains are added as the electrically powered trucks can run at a higher speed, and the working environment for the drivers is also improved, not least through lower noise levels.

Today’s mine design

Diesel-electric trucks have an electrical powertrain in the wheels, meaning they can be driven fully electric, and have an electrical genset on board, so they generate electricity as they go.

However, due to the limitations of existing battery technologies at surface mines, we cannot yet manage large payload trucks of 280-400 tons (254-363 t) fully battery equipped. Companies are therefore trying to close the gap between the trolley and the loading or dumping point using battery packs and other solutions.

Constraint management

The transformation from diesel to electric is bringing new advantages in terms of CO2 reduction but also new constraints in terms of mine planning and fleet management. Energy costs represent almost one third of a mining company’s total cost base; helping industry to manage these costs is therefore key.

Switching OEMs on to electrification

Having initially adopted a ‘fast follower’ approach to new digital technologies, the risk-averse mining sector has also been slow to embrace electrification. Operators are looking to technology leaders such as ABB as well as more niche players to make change happen.

A lot of mining companies are looking to the likes of ABB to influence mining equipment manufacturers and engage them in the electric transformation, and so accelerate the process.

A clear technology roadmap and shifting workforce skill are key to this transition.

The biggest challenge is that customers are nervous about redesigning existing diesel-powered mines to integrate new electrification systems. Asset lifecycle strategies, ownership models and duty cycles are all subject to change. Ultimately, the customer needs a very clear technology roadmap and finding the right partner for this major undertaking is key.

According to Accenture’s resources practice, the profile of the future mining workforce could change by up to 80% by 2024, driven by increased adoption of advanced technologies. The onus is therefore on mining companies to demonstrate a progressive commitment to electrification to attract and retain the next generation of digitally literate talent.

Today the worldwide situation with COVID-19 may accelerate these changes faster than forecast.
Current skill sets will have to be re-evaluated for the all-electric mines of the future, and so the need for change management is key. Tomorrow we will need more workers understanding the concept of electrification, in addition to digital and planning skills – so the shifting skill profile is an important consideration.

*Mehrzad Ashnagaran is Global Product Line Manager Electrification at ABB, while Michel Serres is VP Innovation and Digital North America at ABB