Tag Archives: LH518B

Boliden Garpenberg set for first Sandvik LH518B BEV trial in Europe

Boliden’s Garpenberg zinc operation in Sweden will become the first mine in Europe to trial the battery-electric Sandvik LH518B LHD, the OEM has confirmed.

Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions and Boliden have agreed on a 12-month collaborative trial period for the new 18-t battery-electric loader.

Garpenberg is considered the world’s most productive underground zinc mine and Sweden’s oldest mining area still in operation. As a purely battery-powered loader, the Sandvik LH518B will support Boliden’s efforts to improve sustainability by reducing greenhouse gas emissions underground. The trial is planned to start in late 2022.

The Sandvik LH518B is easy to implement in most underground operations, as it does not require any major changes to mine infrastructure, Sandvik said. The loader’s Sandvik AutoSwap and AutoConnect features facilitate seamless installation of a fresh battery in less than six minutes, enabling it to return to operation sooner than ‘fast-charge’ mining BEVs. The battery swap is performed by the loader itself, controlled by the operator in the cabin, without need for overhead cranes or forklifts.

As a third-generation BEV, the Sandvik LH518B has been designed from the ground up entirely around its battery system and electric driveline to fully leverage on the battery system possibilities.

Garpenberg joins a host of other mines across the globe trialling this battery-electric LHD. There are two trials set to take place in Australia – at Kirkland Lake Gold’s Fosterville mine and Gold Fields’ Hamlet North mine – plus units at New Gold’s New Afton in Canada, Kennecott Utah Copper’s underground development project at Bingham Canyon and Gold Fields’ South Deep operation in South Africa.

Sandvik on the growth path with Artisan as mine electrification takes hold

Sandvik’s Artisan business unit is continuing to ride the battery-electric vehicle wave in mining, having just moved premises in California, USA, to expand its production and testing capabilities.

Based in Camarillo, Artisan has been on a steep growth trajectory since it was established just over a decade ago. Having initially manufactured machines for several OEMs in the mining sector, the company was acquired by Sandvik in 2019. It had revenues of $12.3 million and approximately 60 employees back in 2017.

Both of these numbers have accelerated in line with increased take-up – and an expansion – of its battery-electric solutions for mining since it became a business unit of Sandvik.

Artisan’s 4-t (A4) and 10-t (A10) battery-electric underground loaders have found their way into mines in Canada and the US, while its 50-t Z50 haul truck has found a home in mines in Canada, the US and Australia. One of the bigger deployments has been at the Barrick Gold majority-owned Turquoise Ridge underground mine in Nevada, USA.

More recently, the portfolio was broadened with an 18 t LHD called the LH518B. This machine is the first true collaborative design effort between Sandvik and Artisan, marrying Sandvik’s underground mining engineering expertise with the Artisan™ battery system and electric driveline to “best leverage the possibilities that the battery technology brings”, the companies say.

This machine’s first deployment will be at a gold mine in British Columbia, Canada, but Artisan has also booked several orders for it in Australia, one of these being for Kirkland Lake Gold’s Fosterville gold mine, in Victoria.

With a range of new battery-powered equipment in the pipeline, Artisan has moved into a larger facility in California that will help it build these new vehicles from the ground up.

“We’re definitely growing in Camarillo,” Artisan’s Vice President of Technology, Brian Huff, told IM recently. “The move to a larger facility comes at the same time we are ramping up a lot of hiring in terms of engineering and manufacturing personnel.”

Artisan’s new facility comes with a test ramp with a 20% grade and a whole area for mucking on the property (pictured above).

“This will allow us to do a lot more development testing in a short period of time, giving us an advantage in terms of validation testing and trials of new designs and tools,” Huff said.

The potential for speeding up Artisan’s time to market will be increasingly important as more mines replenish fleets with battery-electric equipment.

As COVID-19-related restrictions ease, expect the new testing facility – and the manufacturing plant – to be regularly frequented by mining companies eyeing these new solutions.

Kirkland Lake Gold to trial battery-powered Sandvik LH518B at Fosterville

Kirkland Lake Gold, one of the leaders in battery-electric vehicle adoption in mining, is to trial a Sandvik LH518B LHD next year at its Fosterville underground mine, in Victoria, Australia, Rob McLean, the operation’s Chief Mining Engineer, has confirmed.

Speaking during a session titled: ‘What are Fosterville’s Current and Future Technology and Innovation Requirements, and Why?’ at the IMARC Online event, McLean said the trial is part of the company’s vision to “have a fully electric mine”, with the immediate goals being to remove diesel emissions and reduce heat at the operation.

Longer-term, electrifying the company’s fleet could result in the need for less ventilation, lower power costs and the elimination of infrastructure upgrades at the high-grade gold operation, he said.

Sandvik launched the 18 t battery-electric LH518B during its Innovation in Mining event in late September.

The loader, a Sandvik and Artisan Vehicle Systems joint development effort, has been designed from the ground up, entirely around the loader’s Artisan™ battery system and electric driveline to best leverage the possibilities the battery technology brings, Sandvik says. It can fit in a 4.5 x 4.5 m tunnel and is equipped with three 2,000 Nm permanent magnet motors and 450 kN of tractive effort. It can operate at speeds of up to 30 km/h and has 560 kW of continuous power output (peak power output of 660 kW).

McLean said the trial of the LH518B would inform the mine’s future electrification direction, but he said the company was also considering the use of battery-electric or trolley assist trucks at the operation, in addition to battery-electric charging/spraying rigs.

Kirkland Lake says its Macassa mine, in Ontario, Canada, is a “world leader in the use of battery-powered equipment” with more than 80% of its fleet made up of battery-powered vehicles from the likes of Artisan, Epiroc and RDH Scharf.

Sandvik and Artisan reveal new 18 t battery-electric LHD

Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology has matched its decades of engineering expertise with Artisan Vehicle Systems’ 18 years of innovative powertrain technology and battery system expertise to come up with the new 18 t payload LH518B battery-electric loader.

Sandvik acquired Artisan last year, in the process gaining 10 years of mining battery-electric vehicle (BEV) deployment experience. The latest BEV loader, which comes on top of Artisan’s 4 t and 10 t capacity loaders – plus its 50 t payload truck – is the first true collaborative design effort between the two companies.

The LH518B from Sandvik has been designed from the ground up, entirely around the loader’s Artisan™ battery system and electric driveline to best leverage the possibilities that the battery technology brings, Sandvik says.

“It was not enough to replace some components or redesign only a part of the equipment: the designers were compelled to rethink the whole machine,” Sandvik said.

The most powerful 18 t loader ever built, according to Mike Kasaba, Managing Director of Artisan, a Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology business unit, the new LH518B can fit in a 4.5 x 4.5 m tunnel and features independent front and rear drivetrains, allowing high payload capacity while keeping a low overall height, Sandvik says.

This low overall frame height of 2,565 mm – significant lower than other machines in its class – provides “for better manoeuvrability in low back height applications while increasing stability”, Kyle Hickey, VP of Engineering for Artisan, said at the Innovation in Mining virtual event on September 29.

“The use of smaller diameter tyres in the rear is an example of how this machine has been optimised for the application,” he added.

The LH518B is equipped with three 2,000 Nm permanent magnet motors, 450 kN of tractive effort, can operate at speeds up to 30 km/h and has 560 kW of continuous power output (peak power output of 660 kW).

“With no torque converter, transmission or engine to rev up, the loader is fast and agile,” Sandvik says. This means it can travel at a speed of 12 km/h fully loaded on a 20% grade ramp.

In practice, changing the loader battery is easy and quick, thanks to the patented AutoSwap feature, Sandvik says.

This self-swapping system for the Artisan battery pack has been developed to offer a minimum amount of manual handling. According to Sandvik and Artisan, changing the battery only takes about six minutes, and it can be done in a passing bay or old re-muck bay with no need for overhead cranes or external infrastructure.

“The new AutoConnect feature, available for the first time on the LH518B, is making swapping even easier and faster by automatically connecting and disconnecting the battery pack to the machine,” Sandvik says. “Aside from unplugging and plugging in the charger, the operator doesn’t need to leave the cabin, which saves minutes on the swapping procedure and decreases effort and risk in the swapping process.”

This is aided by a stability system, within the Artisan battery system, that allows the battery to be dropped off at any location without any prepared infrastructure, according to Hickey.

Kasaba said the LH518B is the “only battery loader capable of dropping off and picking up its own battery”. This process of tramming between battery swaps is enabled by the LH518B having a small on-board battery that remains in place at all times, according to Hickey.

Brian Huff, VP of Technology for Artisan, explained during the event that the LH518B is built for automation and will be available in the future with AutoMine integration.

The LH518B will be available to customers in North America this year, followed by select other areas in 2021, he added.

Sandvik concluded on the subject of BEVs: “Currently, Sandvik is expanding the battery-electric vehicle loader and truck offering and prepares to enter new market areas, which will happen in phases and model by model. When the battery loaders and trucks are introduced to new markets, Sandvik will be ready to offer full product support and aftermarket services for its customers.”

Included in this is the company’s Battery as a Service offering which IM understands will help miners adopt these new battery-electric vehicle solutions, which currently come with a higher capital cost than the diesel equivalent.