Tag Archives: battery-electric jumbo

Bellevue Gold reinforces sustainable production growth plans with addition of Sandvik DD422iE BEV

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Bellevue Gold Limited has started the underground decline development at the Tribune portal, part of its namesake mine in Western Australia, employing a new Sandvik DD422iE battery-electric jumbo as part of its production growth strategy.

The Tribune decline milestone is significant because Tribune will provide a second independent mine access route. It will be the sixth independent mining area, which is being developed by an additional fifth jumbo (the Sandvik 422iE). It is expected to access ore from the Tribune lode in the December 2024 quarter.

Bellevue’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Darren Stralow, said: “The commencement of Tribune is important as it not only provides an additional mining area and haulage decline, but it also creates the platform for commencement of the southern drill drive to target mine life extensions.

“The key infrastructure upgrades are a core part of the Bellevue growth plan and will unlock the ability to achieve the mining rates required for increased production. We are already seeing the benefits of increased ventilation and work areas in our underground mining rates, and the successful dewatering of the old workings unlocks high-grade ore to mine in the upcoming quarters that was previously inaccessible.”

Underground development rates are scheduled to increase over the second half of the company’s 2025 financial year as infrastructure constraints are released and more working areas become available, with the production expected to be back-ended to the second half of the financial year as further development headings and underground advance rates ramp up to a forecast run rate of 1.35 Mt/y by the end of the financial year.

Production guidance for FY25 is 165,000-180,000 oz at a project all-in sustaining cost of A$1,750-1,850/oz ($1,166-1,233/oz) of gold with the production profile weighted towards the second half of this financial year.

The company recently released its five-year growth plan which sees production forecast to ramp up to more than 200,000 oz/y run rate from the last quarter of that financial year before reaching circa-250,000 oz/y in the 2028 financial year.

The ramp up of underground tonnages continues to advance with the key ventilation upgrade in construction and commissioning due to commence on September 18, 2024. The ventilation upgrade will initially increase underground vent flows by 50% and will provide fit-for-purpose vent fans suitable for the life of mine, Bellevue says. Historic mine dewatering has also reached a significant milestone with the dewatering of the old workings now allowing for the removal of the safety exclusion zone from the historic underground. This will unlock mining of high-grade development and stoping in the Armand mining area.

These two key infrastructure works are expected to assist in de-bottlenecking the underground and allow more efficient use of the mining fleet.

The addition of a Sandvik DD422iE battery-electric vehicle, which trams on battery and plugs into the mine’s captive power infrastructure during drilling operations, demonstrates Bellevue’s commitment to electrification of the mining fleet where practical, the company says.

The Sandvik DD422iE is an electric development jumbo designed to drive down production costs while reducing the environmental impacts of drilling and tunnelling. By using electric energy from an onboard battery during tramming, Sandvik DD422iE produces zero emissions while manoeuvring between headings, the OEM says. This improves health and safety for miners working underground. Less diesel usage in a mine thanks to diesel-free drilling can ease ventilation requirements, while also reducing associated diesel logistics and maintenance expenses. Using a mine’s existing electric infrastructure, the Sandvik driveline technology enables the battery to recharge during the drilling cycle. The battery will even recharge while Sandvik DD422iE is tramming downhill, using energy generated by the braking system.

Byrnecut rolls out first Sandvik battery-powered jumbo in South Australia

Environmental, Mining equipment, Mining services, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Contract miner Byrnecut has taken the next step on its journey towards expanding its battery-electric equipment fleet with the roll-out of the Sandvik DD422iE development drill with dual controls at the BHP-owned Prominent Hill mine in South Australia.

The drill is the first battery-electric Sandvik development drill in operation in Australia.

Byrnecut took delivery of the battery electric jumbo at Prominent Hill copper mine in December 2023. The machine was put to work alongside Byrnecut’s existing fleet of diesel-powered equipment, including Sandvik development drills, production drills, cable bolters, trucks and loaders. Five months on, drill operators and Byrnecut management alike are impressed by the jumbo’s reliability and its contribution to a cleaner, quieter underground environment, Sandvik reports.

Technical Services Manager at Byrnecut, Dave Taylor, said th Sandvik DD422iE jumbo has “fitted in exactly” as a diesel-powered drill would have, working as it is designed to.

“It’s got all the pros that you would expect, just without all the fumes that come out of the diesel engine,” he added. “We always want to be at the forefront of technology and to look for ways to reduce emissions and diesel particulates – and this is one way of doing that.”

Taylor says the roll-out was simplified, as the Sandvik DD422iE charges by using the same electrical infrastructure used to power the rock drills on the diesel-powered jumbos. “The jumbos we currently have use their diesel engines to tram around but are plugged in and the rock drills run off thousand-volt power via a trailing cable,” he says. “There’s was no additional infrastructure because the DD422iE is charging using what’s already there in the diesel version.”

In a typical scenario, the Sandvik battery-electric jumbo will tram to the work site using electricity stored in its battery. While drilling is underway, the battery is recharged via the patented Sandvik Charging While Drilling technology, allowing the machine to tram away once the drilling cycle is completed.

General Manager for Byrnecut Australia, Craig Barendrecht, says the feedback he has received on the drill is positive despite some initial reservations. “It’s fitted in seamlessly and we’ve had no dramas with operating a battery drill amongst the standard diesel fleet.”

Barendrecht says with Byrnecut planning to increase their battery-electric equipment fleet, the performance of the jumbo is encouraging. “We’ve never previously seen a massive market for the battery jumbo because of the restrictions around tramming distances,” he says. “This is helping to dispel some of those preconceived concerns with how to actually fit an electric jumbo in amongst the traditional diesel fleet.

“This is just an incremental step in getting to that ultimate point where we run a full electric fleet of drills and loaders and trucks.”

Maintenance Superintendent, Mark Noden, says there was an initial learning curve around maintenance requirements for the battery electric rig. However, from an operator perspective it is simple to step from the diesel model to the electric. “I have had no complaints and the support from Sandvik is always good,” he says.

Nathan Cunningham, Business Line Manager for Underground Drills at Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, says Byrnecut has consistently demonstrated that it is a forward-thinking mining business, and the purchase of the Sandvik DD422iE reinforces this. “Byrnecut’s trust in the Sandvik product has paid off with the rig operating exactly as it was expected to.”