In another move towards further electrifying mining operations, Sandvik has initiated a pilot project to deploy a second-life battery energy storage system (BESS) at to-be-determined Glencore assets.

The BESS is expected to support mine services such as lighting and light EV charging at the Glencore operations. Sandvik will study additional use cases during the pilot, including power shifting, peak shaving and arbitrage, it says.

Sandvik’s technology partner in the project is ECO STOR AS, a second-life energy storage system provider. ECO STOR will use its BESS expertise to develop the solution with modules recovered from Sandvik BEVs that have reached their optimal use in mobile mining applications.

“The modularity of our battery packs provides a strong foundation to build energy storage systems from second-life modules and create a valuable use for ‘used’ batteries,” said Ville Laine, Vice President, Batteries and Chargers at Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions.

The BESS will be constructed as an industrial 20-foot (6.1-m) container holding 128 Sandvik battery modules. The nominal energy of the system is expected to be around 1 MWH. The container includes Sandvik systems for battery management and monitoring as well as systems for energy management and fire detection and prevention.

“Modules can be easily replaced when they reach the end of their second life,” Laine said. “Ensuring the batteries that power our mining equipment are used to their full potential before being recycled improves circularity and substantially reduces our carbon footprint.”

According to Alvaro Baeza, Glencore’s Decarbonization Manager for Copper Assets, openness and collaboration among industry partners is crucial to finding solutions for electrification implementation challenges.

“Circularity and recycling are at the core of our business model and we look forward to working with Sandvik on this project that is well aligned with both transition challenges and our business focus,” Baeza said.

Sandvik aims to deploy the prototype BESS container at a Glencore asset in 2025, with the ambition to launch a commercialised solution in 2026.

“Due to such early adoption of our battery systems in mines around the world, thousands of modules will reach the end of their first life over the next few years,” Laine said. “These modules still hold as much as 70% of their original energy storage capacity when they reach the end of their optimal use in a mining loader or truck. Utilising this remaining capacity in a stationary energy storage solution is a win-win, providing both environmental and economic benefits. We can as much as double the useful life of our batteries and optimize their full lifecycle.”

Once commercialised, Sandvik plans to assemble each BESS as close as possible to a customer’s mine, reducing shipping and further improving sustainability.