Tag Archives: ASI Mining

Epiroc focused on ‘connecting the dots’ to create mine of the future

Ahead of Epiroc’s Capital Markets Day (CMD) and MINExpo 2024 at a hotel just outside of Las Vegas, Helena Hedblom, Epiroc President and CEO, was happy to tackle the industry’s big three: automation, digitalisation and electrification.

Hedblom, like the heads of her fellow OEMs, has big ambitions for these three technology pillars, but the way Epiroc is looking to meet these ambitions is different.

The company’s “agnostic” philosophy has been a key differentiator for the past years, and even as more OEMs start to open up their architecture and platforms to the wider vendor marketplace, it is this attitude that is likely to help it lead from the front.

“Our ambition is to provide mixed fleet automation,” Hedblom told IM last week. “That is what we have invested in quite heavily over the last two years; we have acquired two companies in RCT and ASI Mining to allow us to achieve this.

“This is how we see the future of mining when it comes to automation, having the capabilities to operate whatever type of equipment there might be in that mine, including utility vehicles.”

Epiroc has, as of the CMD last week, 3,100 machines running without drivers. This is up 29% from the last CMD in June 2023, with the company noting that there was “great potential to connect an even larger fleet” via Epiroc machines and/or units from other OEMs.

RCT, underground, has a track record of achieving such autonomy on a wide range of machines, while, on surface, ASI Mining has proven it can do the same with the fleet at Roy Hill, in Western Australia.

Epiroc is currently converting Roy Hill’s mixed fleet to driverless operation in Australia, with 78 autonomous haul trucks made up of Caterpillar and Hitachi trucks, and over 200 utility vehicles.

Roy Hill remains the sole case study on surface, but Hedblom says the company will soon transition to the ‘scale’ of its “nail and scale” process that leads to adding more mine sites to its agnostic automation platform.

Hedblom is convinced the ability to automate the entire fleet – whether the machines are “digitally connected” or not – plus integrate the highest levels of collision avoidance solution, will go far in eradicating the need to allow autonomous and staffed equipment to operate in the same zones underground and on surface.

“If you have all the utility vehicles automated, that is the key,” she said. “It is more than just automation; through the Mernok acquisition, we’re now able to bring in Level 7, 8 and 9 collision avoidance technologies.

“Technology-wise, it is all coming together.”

IM Editor, Dan Gleeson, met with Epiroc President & CEO, Helena Hedblom, ahead of the company’s CMD and MINExpo 2024 in Las Vegas

Electrification

The big stats in terms of electrification include:

  • 42% of the offering in “fossil free” versions;
  • Battery-electric vehicles deployed at 34 sites;
  • An active electric fleet of rigs, loaders and trucks totalling over 600 units (of which a large portion is historical fleet, including cable);
  • Recurring battery-electric vehicle orders from 12 sites; and
  • A three times increase in the utilisation rate of battery-electric vehicles during the last 12 months.

The other statistic of note is that, as it stands, Epiroc group revenues related to electrification amount to just 4%.

This indicates both Epiroc and the industry are still in the initial stages of this transition; an opinion backed up by claims from the Electric Mine Consortium that Sandvik’s battery-electric truck population across the globe represents only 15% and, as it stands, no battery-electric load and haul equipment has been sold commercially in one of the biggest underground markets: Australia.

Hedblom, here, sees parallels with the automation uptick in the industry.

“This transformation is happening in the same way that automation evolved,” she said. “A couple of years ago, we had some customers that had greenfield operations and decided to go fully electric. Now we see more customers looking at repeat orders.”

The automation analogues also come with the fact that Epiroc – unlike other OEMs – is offering a mid-life rebuild option to convert some of its existing diesel-powered load and haul fleet to battery-electric operation.

Epiroc has plans to offer this conversion option across its full existing diesel-powered load and haul fleet by 2030.

The addition of ‘fossil free’ in the Epiroc lexicon over the last few years reflects the need to put multiple options on the table for miners.

“We see that there will be different types of solutions needed during the coming 10 or 20 years, depending on mining method, type of application, etc,” Hedblom said.

This was made apparent on the floor at MINExpo where Epiroc showcased the MT66 S e Drive, a Pit Viper 271 E and a SmartROC D65 BE. The former is a diesel-electric haul truck that uses both diesel engine and electric drivetrain to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, the SmartROC D65 is a battery-electric down-the-hole drill demonstrator that trams on battery yet is plugged in for drilling, while the Pit Viper 271 E is currently envisaged as a unit connected to the site’s renewable electricity infrastructure for that ‘fossil free’ operation.

The Minetruck MT66 S e Drive

“We believe there will be a combination of different energy sources in this mix,” Hedblom said, reeling off the likes of battery-electric, cable, trolley and hybrid options. Additionally, biofuel ‘drop-in’ solutions are already available for conventionally powered machines in its offering.

She added: “Sometimes the discussion is all about benchmarking diesel against a fossil-free machine, but the reality is that every machine we are developing now cannot just be on par with its diesel counterpart. It must be better – faster up the ramp, filling the bucket faster, etc – to ensure we provide productivity benefits and a lower total cost of ownership for customers.”

Digitalisation

From an M&A perspective, digitalisation has been a key focus area for Epiroc since the Atlas Copco spinoff in 2018, with many of the 27 acquisitions since listing tied to this trend.

This, as well as many organic initiatives, has led to the company building up a revenue base for its Digital Solutions division of SEK2.4 billion ($234 million).

“Our digital solutions are agnostic, working on different types of machines and systems, so this opens up many ways to engage with our customers,” Hedblom said, noting that the platforms it had created are being used by existing Epiroc equipment customers, as well as those with fleets from other OEMs.

“The areas of high interest are around collision avoidance, situational awareness and mixed fleet automation,” she said. “I see that digitalisation creates that transparency needed to drive productivity.”

Digitalisation, itself, represents an easier ‘sell’ for Epiroc due to its seamless nature – ie not creating multiple change management issues – when compared with adopting automation and electrification technologies, Hedblom added.

Going forward, she is convinced a digital backbone will become more important with the increasing uptake of automation and electrification.

“Today, a lot of the different tools mining companies are using – for the mine plan, for maintenance, etc – are still not connected,” she explained. “You don’t use all data at the same time for the best type of decision.

“A lost hour of productivity is a lost hour of productivity; we are seeking to avoid this through increased digitalisation.”

This is where the individual solutions Epiroc has acquired through the likes of Mernok (collision avoidance), RCT and ASI Mining (agnostic automation solutions), Meglab and JTMEC (battery-electric chargers and infrastructure) could combine with its digitalisation platforms to optimise the overall mining process.

“By connecting the dots, there are many more optimisation opportunities to be had,” Hedblom said.

The difference here is that Epiroc is willing to look outside of its own four walls to the broader industrial space to ‘connect these dots’, meaning the idea of a fully-electric, fully-autonomous, fully-digitalised mine could be much closer to becoming a reality.

Epiroc reinforces OEM-agnostic autonomous haulage solution vision with new Utah facility

Epiroc has opened its new Surface Mining Automation Center in Providence, Utah, USA, dedicated to developing autonomous haulage solutions.

Epiroc celebrated the grand opening of this new facility last week. It is dedicated to the former ASI Mining team, following Epiroc’s acquisition of the remaining stake in the company. The OEM say it represents a significant investment in developing OEM-agnostic autonomous haulage solutions for the mining industry.

The grand opening on September 4 included a ribbon-cutting ceremony, guided tours and demonstrations of advanced automation technologies, showcasing how these innovations will enhance safety, efficiency and sustainability in surface mining operations, Epiroc said.

The centre will serve as a hub for developing, testing and deploying OEM-agnostic autonomous haulage solutions for surface mining, offering a valuable resource for customers seeking to integrate the latest breakthroughs in mining autonomy.

“This facility represents an important milestone in Epiroc’s journey to lead the industry in surface mining automation,” José Sánchez, President Surface division, Epiroc, said. “It also demonstrates our investment and commitment to develop advanced autonomous haulage solutions for the mining industry.”

Diederik Lugtigheid, General Manager Surface Mining Automation – Haulage, said: “The technology developed here will challenge what’s possible in surface mining autonomy, thanks to the skill and expertise of our new team. Their commitment to developing the most effective autonomous solutions for our customers is the key to driving innovation.”

Local authorities, community leaders and general public attended the event, including Mayor of Providence, Kathleen Alder; Cache County Executive, David Zook; and President of the Cache Chamber of Commerce, Jamie Andrus.

EU competition, collaboration and connections helping Epiroc solve mining challenges

Epiroc’s start-up mentality is enabling it to continue to solve the mining industry’s biggest challenges, but it is not doing this alone, according to Katarina Öquist, R&D Manager of Technology and Innovation in the Underground Division.

Speaking ahead of her appearance at the EIT Raw Materials Summit 2022 in Berlin, Germany – taking place on May 23-25 – Öquist said access to other industry partners, academic institutes and start-ups through initiatives like EIT Raw Materials continues to help the company overcome challenges the sector throws at it.

“Specifically on the EIT Raw Materials project, there is the possibility to take in young start-ups and academic institutes, which can prove key when considering the ‘kicks‘ the funding can provide such companies and initiatives,” she said. “It is important for these young technology companies to have a connection to applications, being able to test out concepts and ideas in a real-world environment with companies like Epiroc, and, at the same time, introduce new thinking into industries such as mining.”

This wide scope of participation is increasingly required when considering the future direction of the mining industry, according to Öquist.

Katarina Öquist, R&D Manager of Technology and Innovation in Epiroc’s Underground Division

“If you look at the mining industry, and the part I am in with Epiroc, we are experiencing the biggest technology shift ever,” she said. “We are looking at electrification, autonomy and digitalisation all at the same time. All of these have interdependencies and connections in between, which make it quite complicated.

“When I started in the start-up sector some 15 years ago, you often were looking to solve one problem, but, today, you are not offering the sole solution; you must interact with a much bigger technology ecosystem.

“For this, collaboration is very important.”

In this regard, EIT Raw Materials and European Union Commission funding are more important than ever, ensuring all stakeholders are connected and focused on coming up with workable solutions for industry to achieve their lofty ambitions.

While not tied to EIT Raw Materials, the NEXGEN SIMS project is a good example to highlight here.

NEXGEN SIMS builds on the EU-sponsored SIMS (Sustainable Intelligent Mining Systems) project, which aimed to demonstrate new technology and solutions for the mining industry. Running from 2017 to 2020, the SIMS project resulted in, among other things, the Epiroc line of battery-powered mining machines.

NEXGEN SIMS, meanwhile, is a consortium of 13 partners collaborating in an EU-sponsored project to develop autonomous, carbon-neutral, sustainable mining solutions, building on the SIMS success. The partners are Epiroc Rock Drills, AFRY – ÅF Digital Solutions, Agnico Eagle Finland, Boliden Mineral, Ericsson, KGHM Cuprum, KGHM Polska Miedź, K+S Minerals and Agriculture, Luleå University of Technology (LTU), LTU Business, Mobilaris MCE, OZ Minerals and RWTH Aachen University. The project, led by Epiroc, has a budget of €16 million ($16.8 million) and will run from May 2021 to April 2024.

“In the case of NEXGEN SIMS, it is built on a known partnership including new partners,” Öquist said. “After being involved with the majority of these partners since SIMS, we build from a high level of trust, which increases the possibility of success, especially concerning integration.

“Europe, in general, is very good in facilitating these type of collaborative projects that involve all segments of the innovation ecosystem – start-ups, industry partners and academics.”

According to Öquist, the NEXGEN SIMS project remains on track, with the integrations between electrification, automation and digitalisation likely to hold the most exciting outcomes for the wider mining industry.

For its part, Epiroc is also helping accelerate the development of start-ups of its own, taking stakes/interests in key technology providers and allowing them access to its much larger network.

ASI Mining, FVT Research and Mining TAG represent just a few examples here.

Öquist expanded on this with a reference to Mobilaris MCE, a company Epiroc acquired outright just last year, after five years of holding a 34% stake.

“They (Mobilaris MCE) started off in 1999 as a start-up from the telecoms business,” she said. “Due to them being in the northern part of Sweden, they tagged onto the mines and we ended up acquiring a minority interest in them.

“In the five years since, they have had a nice journey under the guise of Epiroc. They represent a local small start-up growing by going under the wings of a much larger industry partner.”

Epiroc, too, has benefitted from this collaboration, with Mobilaris MCE’s situational awareness technology recently becoming a key part of the OEM’s 6th Sense digital solution.

Not all OEMs would be willing to facilitate the growth of other companies in such a way, but Öquist, who has only been in her role with Epiroc for two years, puts this down to the company‘s unique culture.

“We call ourselves a 150-year-old start-up,” she said. “Regardless of how big we grow, that mindset remains – if someone highlights a problem, we set out to solve it through both internal and external collaboration.”

Ferrexpo to decide on trolley assist-backed haulage project by year-end

Ferrexpo’s decarbonisation and electrification plans in Ukraine are continuing to accelerate, with the company confirming it will make a decision by the end of the year on the selection of a provider for the installation of pantograph network to enable trolley assist haulage at the group’s iron ore mines.

The iron ore pellet producer previously said it was embarking on scoping studies investigating trolley assist technology at its Poltava mine in Ukraine, as part of its plans to reduce both C1 costs and Scope 1 carbon emissions.

In its first half interim results, Ferrexpo said the installation of the network of overhead power cables will enable haul trucks to ascend from the group’s open-pit mines using electricity rather than diesel fuel.

“This technology is expected to provide a significant reduction in each truck’s diesel consumption whilst driving up haul ramps, which will directly reduce the group’s Scope 1 emissions footprint per tonne,” it explained.

In the first half of the year, the group achieved a 6% reduction, year-to-date, in Scope 1 and 2 emissions combined. Following upgrade work on its pelletiser in this period, the group expects production volumes to increase in the second half of the year and, as a result, lower the group’s CO2e footprint on a per tonne basis.

Alongside the company’s latest electrification plans, Ferrexpo also updated investors and interested parties on its progress deploying autonomous haul trucks at the Yeristovo iron ore mine. These were the first large-scale haul trucks to be deployed in Europe when they were introduced in 2020 as part of an agreement with Epiroc and ASI Mining.

Ferrexpo said it now has five Cat 793D haul trucks operating in production areas in autonomous mode, with the conversion of the group’s remaining 793Ds planned as this project advances.

“Fleet automation represents a significant advancement in modern mining techniques, removing individuals from potentially hazardous production areas, whilst also providing benefits in terms of productivity and maintenance,” it said.

Highlights from the company’s first half results included a 74% year-on-year rise in revenues, to $1.35 billion, reflecting positive market conditions and investments in increasing pellet quality. It also increased its underlying EBITDA by 147% ($868 million) compared with the first half of 2020.

Ferrexpo confirms trolley assist scoping studies at Poltava

Ferrexpo, as part of its efforts towards integrating into a ‘Green Steel’ supply chain, is embarking on scoping studies looking at installing trolley assist technology at its Poltava mine in Ukraine.

The iron ore miner produced 11.2 Mt of iron ore pellets in 2020 from its Yeristovo and Poltava mines, up from 10.5 Mt in 2019. With iron ore prices on the rise and costs down during the 12-month period, the company recorded underlying EBITDA of $859 million, 46% higher than 2019.

During 2020, the company achieved material reductions in its carbon footprint per tonne for both Scope 1 (8%) and Scope 2 (21%) emissions, with a similar trajectory expected in 2021, Lucio Genovese, Non-executive Chair of Ferrexpo, said.

In the future growth investment program of its 2020 annual results statement, the company unveiled several projects to boost production, operating efficiency and sustainability.

The first one up was its mining fleet automation project.

In December 2020, the company commenced Phase 1 deployment of autonomous trucks at its Yeristovo iron ore mine, also in Ukraine. This project saw Caterpillar 793 haul trucks retrofitted with autonomous haulage capabilities through an agreement with ASI Mining.

The company said: “Phase 1 deployment of autonomous trucks commenced in December 2020, with an expectation to deploy additional autonomous Cat 793 haul trucks to production areas throughout 2021 (Phase 1), delivering gains in both safety and productivity.”

The autonomous truck deployment represents a significant milestone, with Yeristovo becoming the first mine in Europe to successfully invest in this modern technology, Ferrexpo said.

Deployment of autonomous haul trucks follows Ferrexpo’s investment in semi-autonomous/autonomous drill rigs (with Epiroc) and drone surveys since 2017 and 2018, respectively, which have brought significant safety improvements, it said.

“We expect to see similar benefits throughout our mining department as further automation investments are realised,” the company added.

On the trolley assist project at Poltava, Ferrexpo said scoping studies were underway to install a pantograph network of overhead cables in the group’s mines, which would enable haul trucks to ascend the open pit using electricity rather than diesel. It noted benefits were expected in its C1 cost base and Scope 1 carbon footprint.

In December, Ferrexpo Acting CEO, Jim North, told IM that the company planned to move to electric drive haul trucks in the next few years as a precursor to applying trolley assist at the operation.

Power infrastructure is already available in the pits energising most of its electric-hydraulic shovels and backhoes, and the intention is for these new electric drive trucks to go on trolley line infrastructure to eradicate some of the operation’s diesel use.

“Initially we would still need to rely on diesel engines at the end of ramps and the bottom of pits, but our intention is to utilise some alternative powerpack on these trucks as the technology becomes available,” North said at the time.

He expected that alternative powerpack to be battery-based, but he and the company were keeping their options open during conversations with OEMs about its fleet replacement plans.

With around 15% of the company’s carbon footprint tied to diesel use, this could have a big impact on Ferrexpo’s ‘green’ credentials, yet North said the transition to trolley assist made sense even without this sustainability benefit.

“The advantages in terms of mining productivity are huge,” North said. “You go from 15 km/h on ramp to just under 30 km/h on ramp.”

Another carbon-reduction project the company is pursuing is the development of a 5 MW pilot solar plant positioned at its concentrator. In its 2020 results statement, the company said procurement for this project was expected in the second half of the year.

There was $4 million of capital outstanding associated with this project in 2021, with the pilot looking to investigate the potential for industrial-scale generation of solar power at the company’s operations, commencing with the 5 MW pilot plant.

Ferrexpo said: “Electricity consumption accounted for 55% of the group’s Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions in 2020, with solar power offering significant potential for cutting the group’s carbon footprint.

“Should this trial be successful, we will look to significantly expand this particular project.”

North sets Ferrexpo on a course for ‘carbon neutrality’

Ferrexpo is used to setting trends. It was the first company to launch a new open-pit iron ore mine in the CIS since Ukraine gained its independence in 1991 and has recently become the first miner in Ukraine to adopt autonomous open-pit drilling and haulage technology.

It plans to keep up this innovative streak if a conversation with Acting CEO Jim North is anything to go by.

North, former Chief Operating Officer of London Mining and Ferrexpo, has seen the technology shift in mining first-hand. A holder of a variety of senior operational management roles in multiple commodities with Rio Tinto and BHP, he witnessed the take-off of autonomous haulage systems (AHS) in the Pilbara, as well as the productivity and operating cost benefits that came with removing operators from blasthole drills.

He says the rationale for adopting autonomous technology at Ferrexpo’s Yeristovo mine is slightly different to the traditional Pilbara investment case.

“This move was not based on reduction in salaries; it was all based on utilisation of capital,” North told IM. While miners receive comparatively good salaries in Ukraine, they cannot compete with the wages of those Pilbara haul truck drivers.

Ferrexpo Acting CEO, Jim North

North provided a bit of background here: “The focus for the last six years since I came into the company was about driving mining efficiencies and getting benchmark performance out of our mining fleet. This is not rocket science; it is all about carrying out good planning and executing to that plan.”

The company used the same philosophy in its process plant – a philosophy that is likely to see it produce close to 12 Mt of high grade (65% Fe) iron ore pellets and concentrate next year.

Using his industry knowledge, North pitted Ferrexpo’s fleet performance against others on the global stage.

“Mining is a highly capital-intensive business and that equipment you buy has got be moving – either loaded or empty – throughout the day,” North said. “24 hours-a-day operation is impossible as you must put fuel in vehicles and you need to change operators, so, in the beginning, we focused on increasing the utilised hours. After a couple of years, I noticed we were getting very close to the benchmark performance globally set by the majors.

“If you are looking at pushing your utilisation further, it inevitably leads you to automation.”

Ferrexpo was up for pushing it further and, four years ago, started the process of going autonomous, with its Yeristovo iron ore mine, opened in 2011, the first candidate for an operational shakeup.

“Yeristovo is a far simpler configuration from a mining point of view,” North explained. “It is basically just a large box cut. Poltava, on the other hand (its other iron ore producing mine currently), has been around for 50 years; it is a very deep and complex operation.

“We thought the place to dip our toe into the water and get good at autonomy was Yeristovo.”

This started off in 2017 with deployment of teleremote operation on its Epiroc Pit Viper 275 blasthole drill rigs. The company has gradually increased the level of autonomy, progressing to remotely operating these rigs from a central control room. In 2021-2022, these rigs will move to fully-autonomous mode, North says.

Ferrexpo has also been leveraging remotely-operated technology for mine site surveying, employing drones to speed up and improve the accuracy of the process. The miner has invested in three of these drones to carry out not only site surveys, but stockpile mapping and – perhaps next year – engineering inspections.

“The productivity benefits from these drones are huge,” North said. “In just two days of drone operation, you can carry out the same amount of work it would take three or four surveyors to do in one or two weeks!”

OEM-agnostic solution

It is the haul truck segment of the mine automation project at Yeristovo that has caught the most industry attention, with Ferrexpo one of the first to choose an OEM-agnostic solution from a company outside of the big four open-pit mining haul truck manufacturers.

The company settled on a solution from ASI Mining, owned 34% by Epiroc, after the completion of a trial of the Mobius® Haulage A.I. system on a Cat 793D last year.

The first phase of the commercial project is already kicking off, with the first of six Cat 793s converted to autonomous mode now up and running at Yeristovo. On completion of this first phase of six trucks, consideration will be given to timing of further deployment for the remainder of the Yeristovo truck fleet.

This trial and rollout may appear fairly routine, but behind the scenes was an 18-month process to settle on ASI’s solution.

“For us, as a business, we have about 86 trucks deployed on site,” North said. “We simply couldn’t take the same route BHP or Rio took three or four years ago in acquiring an entirely new autonomous fleet. At that point, Cat and Komatsu were the only major OEMs offering these solutions and they were offering limited numbers of trucks models with no fleet integration possibilities.

“If you had a mixed fleet – which we do – then you were looking at a multi-hundred-million-dollar decision to change out your mining fleet. That is prohibitive for a business like ours.”

Ferrexpo personnel visited ASI Mining’s facility in Utah, USA, several times, hearing all about the parent company’s work with NASA on robotics. “We knew they had the technical capability to work in tough environments,” North remarked.

“We also saw work they had been doing with Ford and Toyota for a number of years on their unmanned vehicles, and we witnessed the object detect and collision avoidance solutions in action on a test track.”

Convinced by these demonstrations and with an eye to the future of its operations, Ferrexpo committed to an OEM-agnostic autonomous future.

“If we want to get to a fully autonomous fleet at some stage in the future, we will need to pick a provider that could turn any unit into an autonomous vehicle,” North said. It found that in ASI Mining’s Mobius platform.

Such due diligence is representative not only of the team’s thorough approach to this project, it also reflects the realities of deploying such a solution in Ukraine.

“It is all about building capability,” North said. “This is new technology in Ukraine – it’s not like you can go down the road and find somebody that has worked on this type of technology before. As a result, it’s all about training and building up the capacity in our workforce.”

After this expertise has been established, the automation rollout will inevitably accelerate.

“Once we have Yeristovo fully autonomous, we intend to move the autonomy program to Belanovo, which we started excavating a couple of years ago,” North said. “The last pit we would automate would be Poltava, purely due to complexity.”

Belanovo, which has a JORC Mineral Resource of 1,700 Mt, is currently mining overburden with 30-40 t ADTs shifting this material. While ASI Mining said it would be able to automate such machines, North decided the automation program will only begin when large fleet is deployed.

“When we deploy large fleet at Belanovo and start to move significant volumes, we intend for it to become a fully-autonomous operation,” he said.

Poltava, which is a single pit covering a 7 km long by 2 km wide area (pictured below), has a five-decade-long history and a more diverse mining fleet than Yeristovo. In this respect, it was always going to be harder to automate from a loading and haulage point of view.

“If you think about the fleet numbers deployed when Belanovo is running, we will probably have 50% of our fleet running autonomously,” North said. “The level of capability to run that level of technology would be high, so it makes sense to take on the more complex operation at Poltava at that point in time.”

Consolidation and decarbonisation

This autonomy transition has also given North and his team the chance to re-evaluate its fleet needs for now and in the future.

This is not as simple as it may sound to those thinking of a typical Pilbara AHS fleet deployment, with the Yeristovo and Poltava mines containing different ore types that require blending at the processing plant in order to sustain a cost-effective operation able to produce circa-12 Mt/y of high-grade (65%-plus Fe) iron ore pellets and concentrate.

“That limits our ability in terms of fleet size for ore mining because we want to match the capacity of the fleet to the different ore streams we feed into the plant,” North said.

This has seen the company standardise on circa-220 t trucks for ore movement and 300-320 t trucks for waste haulage.

On the latter, North explained: “That is about shovel utilisation, not necessarily about trucks. If you go much larger than that 320-t truck, you are talking about the need to use large rope shovels and we don’t have enough consistent stripping requirements for that. We think the 800 t-class electric hydraulic excavator is a suitable match for the circa-320 t truck.”

This standardisation process at Poltava has seen BELAZ 40 t trucks previously working in the pit re-assigned for auxiliary work, with the smallest in-pit Cat 777 trucks acting as fuel, water and lubrication service vehicles at Poltava.

“The Cat 785s are the smallest operating primary fleet we have at Poltava,” North said. “We also have the Hitachi EH3500s and Cat 789s and Cat 793s, tending to keep the bigger fleet towards Yeristovo and the smaller fleet at Poltava.”

In carrying out this evaluation, the company has also plotted its next electrification steps.

“Given we have got to the point where we know we want 220 t for ore and 300-320 t nominally for waste at Yeristovo, we have a very clear understanding of where we are going in our efforts to support our climate action,” North said.

Electrification of the company’s entire operation – both the power generation and pelletising segment, and the mobile fleet – forms a significant part of its carbon reduction plans.

A 5 MW solar farm is being built to trial the efficacy of photovoltaic generation in the region, while, in the pelletiser, the company is blending sunflower husks with natural gas to power the process. Fine tuning over the past few years has seen the company settle on a 30:70 sunflower husk:natural gas energy ratio, allowing the company to make the most of a waste product in plentiful supply in Ukraine.

On top of this, the company is recuperating heat from the pelletisation process where possible and reusing it for other processes.

With a significant amount of ‘blue’ (nuclear) or ‘green’ (renewable) power available through the grid and plans to incorporate renewables on site, Ferrexpo looks to have the input part of the decarbonisation equation covered.

In the pellet lines, North says green hydrogen is believed to be the partial or full displacement solution for gas firing, with the company keenly watching developments such as the HYBRIT project in Sweden.

On the diesel side of things, Ferrexpo is also charting its decarbonisation course. This will start with a move to electric drive haul trucks in the next few years.

Power infrastructure is already available in the pits energising most of its electric-hydraulic shovels and backhoes, and the intention is for these new electric drive trucks to go on trolley line infrastructure to eradicate some of the operation’s diesel use.

“Initially we would still need to rely on diesel engines at the end of ramps and the bottom of pits, but our intention is to utilise some alternative powerpack on these trucks as the technology becomes available,” North said.

He expects that alternative powerpack to be battery-based, but he and the company are keeping their options open during conversations with OEMs about the fleet replacement plans.

“We know we are going to have to buy a fleet in the next couple of years, but the problem is when you make that sort of purchase, you are committing to using those machines for the next 20 years,” North said. “During all our conversations with OEMs we are recognising that we will need to buy a fleet before they have probably finalised their ‘decarbonised’ solutions, so all the contracts are based on the OEM providing that fully carbon-free solution when it becomes available.”

With around 15% of the company’s carbon footprint tied to diesel use, this could have a big impact on Ferrexpo’s ‘green’ credentials, yet the transition to trolley assist makes sense even without this sustainability benefit.

“The advantages in terms of mining productivity are huge,” North said. “You go from 15 km/h on ramp to just under 30 km/h on ramp.”

This is not all North offered up on the company’s carbon reduction plans.

At both of Ferrexpo’s operations, the company moves a lot of ore internally with shuttle trains, some of which are powered by diesel engines. A more environmentally friendly alternative is being sought for these locomotives.

“We are working with rail consultants that are delivering solutions for others to ‘fast follow’ that sector,” North said referencing the project already underway with Vale at its operations in Brazil. “We are investigating at the moment how we could design and deploy the solution at our operations for a lithium-ion battery loco.”

Not all the company’s decarbonisation and energy-efficiency initiatives started as recently as the last few years.

When examining a plan to reach 12 Mt/y of iron ore pellet production, North and his team looked at the whole ‘mine to mill’ approach.

“The cheapest place to optimise your comminution of rock is within the mine itself,” North said. “If you can optimise your blasting and get better fragmentation in the pit, you are saving energy, wear on materials, etc and you are doing some of the job of the concentrator and comminution process in the mine.”

A transition to a full emulsion blasting product came out of this study, and a move from NONEL detonators to electronic detonators could follow in the forthcoming years.

“That also led us into thinking about the future crusher – where we want to put it, what materials to feed into the expanded plant in the future, and what blending ratio we want to have from the pits,” North said. “The problem with pit development in a business that is moving 150-200 Mt of material a year is the crusher location needs to change as the mining horizons change.”

It ended up becoming a tradeoff between placing a new crusher in the pit on an assigned bench or putting it on top of the bench and hauling ore to that location.

The favoured location looks like being within the pit, according to North.

“It will be a substantial distance away from where our existing facility at Poltava is and we will convey the material into the plant,” he said. “We did the tradeoff study between hauling with trains/trucks, or conveying and, particularly for Belanovo, we need to take that ore to the crusher from the train network we already have in place.”

These internal ‘green’ initiatives are representative of the products Ferrexpo is supplying the steel industry.

Having shifted away from lower grade pellets to a higher-grade product in the past five years and started to introduce direct reduced iron pellet products to the market with trial shipments, Ferrexpo is looking to be a major player in the ‘green steel’ value chain.

North says as much.

“We are getting very close to understanding our path forward and our journey to carbon neutrality.”

Epiroc surprises with positive Q3 financials and automation, electrification advances

It is fair to say Epiroc’s September quarter results surprised on the upside.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, orders received held up, dropping just 2% to SEK9.37 billion ($1.07 billion) compared with orders in the September quarter of 2019. In fact, on an “organic basis”, orders received were up 10% year-on-year.

At the same time, operating profit remained stable, only decreasing by a little over 5% year-on-year to SEK1.82 billion.

The Epiroc management team took the view that this performance was no exception, issuing a plan to propose a second dividend of SEK1.20/share at the Extraordinary General Meeting on November 27.

Investors viewed these numbers positively: its Stockholm-listed shares closed 8% higher.

While the revenue numbers were dominated by the company’s aftermarket business, which generated 69% of the SEK8.7 billion, it was on the equipment side where some very interesting developments were observed.

The company recorded a 25% year-on-year organic increase in equipment orders in the period, reinforced by a few large orders such as those from Norilsk Nickel. The majority of orders were small- to medium-sized contracts of, say, one or two pieces of equipment, according to Helena Hedblom, President and CEO.

“More customers have taken the decision to invest,” she told IM, adding that this development followed two quarters where mining companies were hesitant to commit.

Within these new orders were several automation agreements, the company said, alongside new battery-electric equipment and digital bookings.

Epiroc has continually committed to advancing technology related to digitalisation, automation and electrification, and it appears the fallout from COVID-19 and the sector’s sustainability drive are strengthening demand for these products.

“I see clearly the interest and demand for automation and tele-remote solutions is increasing in light of the pandemic,” Hedblom said of how COVID-19 had impacted the company’s product focus.

“The key to success for us is we have built up these regional application centres that have given us the capability to deploy automation and teleremote systems without international travel.”

Still on the topic of automation, Epiroc revealed even more today.

The first snippet of news, which Hedblom snuck in during the webcast, was that the company had secured an order for an autonomous fleet of surface drill rigs from an unnamed customer in southern Africa.

The second, which she teed up in the official results release, built on in the webcast, and expanded on for IM, was the successful deployment of “unique solutions” for OEM-mixed fleet automation.

In surface mining, the company, in tandem with ASI Mining, has retrofitted automation on Caterpillar haul trucks running at Ferrexpo’s Yeristovo iron ore mine, in Ukraine. The market had already been told about this.

Solutions for OEM-mixed fleet automation underground was very much representative of ‘news’.

“For underground, we have deployed very advance traffic management solutions for mixed fleet automation where we have automated our loaders and then machines from another OEM,” she said. “That is a breakthrough.”

While Hedblom was not able to say too much more about the project, she did acknowledge the solution was a few years in the making and had been advanced with an existing customer.

“The traffic management solution is based on the partnership we have with Combitech,” she explained. “It is a traffic management system being used in airports and subways in the big cities of the world, so is a highly advanced solution.”

Such a partnership dates back to 2017 when Atlas Copco (the Epiroc predecessor) signed an agreement with the Saab subsidiary to advance its digitalisation and automation initiatives.

There was also some news on the battery-electric front, too.

Back in November 2018 at the company’s Power Change Days event in Örebro, Sweden, Erik Svedlund, Global Marketing Manager – Electrification, mentioned the potential for retrofitting battery-electric technology on Epiroc diesel equipment. He said there was also the potential for such a solution being employed on other OEMs’ machines.

IM asked Hedblom about this.

“We have developed the first retrofit kit for a ST1030,” she replied, explaining that the company was “coming close” to releasing such a solution to the market.

While the company has electrified its Scooptram ST7 and its Scooptram ST14, the 10 t payload LHD has been, to this point, only available in diesel-powered form.

She added: “We have also partnered up with a couple of other OEMs that will use our battery system.”

This could be similar to how Railcare, a Swedish manufacturer of machines that keep railways safe and clean, will use Epiroc’s modular and scalable battery-electric technology platform (including batteries supplied by Northvolt) to power its Multi-Purpose Vehicle for rail maintenance applications.

“It goes very much hand-in-hand with the OEM-agnostic approach that we strongly believe in,” Hedblom said.

Those words are backed up by some substantial actions.

Barrick trialling autonomous and battery-electric tech at North America mines

Barrick Gold’s automation and electrification efforts look to be gaining pace, with the leading gold miner revealing it has been testing out new technology at some of its operations in the US and Canada.

In its recently released annual report, Barrick said the first stage of a project designed to retrofit an autonomous system at its Carlin gold mine, in Nevada, had been completed successfully.

Matthew Majors, Open Pit Operations Superintendent at Carlin Surface, said in a presentation last month that multiple underground evaluation deployments, surface drilling OEM evaluation, and non-OEM surface production haulage options had been evaluated across the Barrick and Newmont jointly-owned Nevada Gold Mines business.

While the company didn’t provide any more details on the project, Barrick has previously leveraged ASI Mining’s OEM-agnostic autonomous solution at its jointly-owned South Arturo gold operation, also in Nevada. This saw the completion of a proof of concept (POC) using five haulage units “that have delivered over 5.5 Mt faster than any other similar POC in the industry”, Barrick said last year.

At Kibali, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which remains a world leader in underground automation with multiple autonomous machines operating on the same haulage level, the company recently completed a trial to use this technology on the mine’s production levels. This means a single operator can now control up to three machines acting semi-autonomously in different zones, Barrick said.

It added: “An additional system, which will provide real-time visibility of the underground operations, including personnel and equipment tracking, is currently being commissioned.”

And, lastly, on the electric vehicle front, the company said its Hemlo gold mine, in Ontario, Canada, has introduced a battery-powered development drill “as a first step towards establishing the potential of this new technology”.

Hemlo recently moved from a combined open-pit and underground owner-operated mine to an underground-only contract mining model as part of a plan to transition Hemlo into a Tier Two asset with a life of mine well into the future.

Barrick’s Turquoise Ridge gold operation is also evaluating new battery-electric technology, with the company confirming a battery-powered underground haul truck is being trialled at the mine.

MTU and ASI Mining to offer ‘integrated future-oriented autonomous solutions’

Rolls-Royce and Autonomous Solutions Incorporated (ASI) have signed a memorandum of understanding enabling Rolls-Royce to offer autonomous-compatible, Mobius-ready MTU engine solutions for equipment in a wide range of mining applications.

As part of the agreement, ASI Mining, a subsidiary of ASI, has agreed to ensure compatibility of MTU engines and ASI’s Mobius command and control software for autonomous vehicles.

With its brand MTU, Rolls-Royce business unit Power Systems is a leading provider of advanced power solutions for a wide variety of applications, including mining equipment. ASI Mining, meanwhile, is an industry leader in the development and sales of high-tech autonomous solutions for mining equipment and other machinery in a wide range of applications. The companies plan to leverage their experience to offer customers engine solutions that are compatible with ASI’s vehicle automation software to help optimise vehicle power performance and efficiency, thus enabling more environmentally friendly and safer mining operations, the two said.

Scott Woodruff, Global Director for Mining and Oil & Gas at Rolls-Royce Power Systems, said: “We are excited to shape the mining industry’s future together with ASI and further leverage our advanced MTU technologies. Together we will offer our customers integrated future-oriented autonomous solutions. This agreement may help mining operators save big on operational costs and at the same time, reduce their environmental footprint by cutting emissions.”

Drew Larsen, Director of Business Development for ASI Mining, said: “We are excited to start these discussions with Rolls-Royce Power Systems. This is another testament to the interoperability of Mobius and real value it adds to our mining customers.”

One potential benefit to customers of Rolls-Royce and ASI Mining may be the ability to retrofit the power system on existing haul trucks and convert them to autonomous operation, the companies said. The companies are interested in exploring the value customers would receive by modernising their trucks with more efficient MTU engines along with implementation of ASI’s industry-leading autonomous mining solutions. Customers would thus save on operating costs and further benefit from the increased performance of the autonomously optimised MTU engines, they said.

MTU says its diesel engines have been setting the standards for performance and fuel efficiency in mining applications around the globe for decades. “They reliably power vehicles for underground and surface mining, including loading vehicles such as excavators and wheel loaders, transport vehicles such as haul trucks or blasthole drilling rigs, and other mining machines – diesel-mechanic, diesel-electric or diesel-hydraulic,” it said. “For these applications, MTU engines provide high performance, reliability and availability as well as a maintenance-friendly construction. Long service intervals and an efficient use of fuel provide for exceptionally low operating costs of machines powered with MTU engines.”

ASI Mining’s Mobius, meanwhile, leverages advanced multi-vehicle command and control software to set up and manage a coordinated system of haul trucks. The Mobius Haulage Platform manages autonomous traffic, coordinates manned or unmanned vehicles and regulates the haul cycle in the most efficient way possible. By employing Mobius software, mines can improve utilisation, along with increase safety and productivity.

Epiroc and ASI Mining to automate Roy Hill haul truck fleet

Epiroc has signed a contract with Roy Hill to deliver a fully automated haul truck solution for the iron ore mining operation in Western Australia.

In partnership with automation specialist ASI Mining – which Epiroc owns 34% of – Epiroc is to convert Roy Hill’s haul trucks from manned to autonomous use. The two will deliver a safe and interoperable solution for Roy Hill’s mixed truck fleet, with an ability to expand to other mining vehicle types and manufacturers, and capability to integrate with existing Roy Hill systems, Epiroc said.

Epiroc and ASI Mining will also be working closely with Roy Hill and its partners Hitachi and Wenco on truck conversion and integration of the Wenco fleet management system.

The project will see a phased implementation, with testing and production verification of up to eight trucks undertaken in the initial phase prior to the second phase of full fleet expansion from mid-2021.

Helena Hedblom, Epiroc’s Senior Executive Vice President Mining and Infrastructure, said: “Epiroc is proud to collaborate with Roy Hill, ASI Mining and other partners to automate Roy Hill’s haul truck fleet, boosting safety and productivity for a crucial aspect of its mining operation. This is a very strong example of how automation will take a mining company’s operation to the next level.”

Roy Hill CEO, Barry Fitzgerald, said the mining company was well positioned to transition to automation. “Our teams on site and in our Remote Operations Centre (ROC) in Perth have demonstrated a clear capacity to deliver complex projects, sustainable change and operational excellence with the recent success of our autonomous drill program and fleet optimisation initiatives. Now is the right time to bring the combined expertise of Roy Hill, Epiroc, ASI Mining and Wenco together to convert our haul truck fleet.”

Fitzgerald added: “Care is one of our core values, with safety at the heart of everything we do. Roy Hill’s Smart Mine program is driving innovation across our business, and the automation of our haulage fleet is central to delivering safety and production improvements.”

Roy Hill is an iron ore mining project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Located 340 km southeast of Port Hedland, it has an integrated mine, rail and port facilities and produces 55 Mt/y of iron ore, with approval to increase to 60 Mt/y. Its ROC in Perth provides end-to-end integration of operations, according to Epiroc.