Tag Archives: Scooptram ST14

Epiroc LHDs, trucks and drills set for Kipushi underground project in DRC

Epiroc says it has won a large order from JCHX Mining and Construction Ltd for equipment to be used at the Kipushi underground project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Kipushi is an underground mine that is reopening under the leadership of Kipushi Corporation, a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines of Canada and Gécamines, a DRC state-owned mining company.

JCHX, a mining contractor, has ordered several Epiroc loaders, mine trucks and drill rigs, including service support, for use at the zinc, copper, germanium and silver mine in the Haut-Katanga, province in southern DRC. After decades of production, the mine closed for care and maintenance in 1994. Construction started last year to re-open the mine, with late 2024 as target to start production. The mine will be powered by clean, renewable hydro-generated electricity, according to the owners.

The equipment order is valued at about $17 milion and was booked in the March quarter of 2023.

“We look forward to supporting JCHX in making operations at the Kipushi mine as safe and productive as possible,” Helena Hedblom, Epiroc’s President and CEO, says.

Sami Niiranen, President of Epiroc’s Underground division, said: “JCHX has been a customer of Epiroc for many years, both in Africa and Europe, and we are pleased to continue delivering innovative solutions that will help to optimise operations at Kipushi.”

JCHX International Division President, Youcheng Wang, added: “From the group headquarters to the front-line team, Epiroc sets the highest priority on this equipment order, also when it comes to on-site technical support.”

The ordered equipment, manufactured in Sweden, includes Scooptram ST14 loaders, Minetruck MT42 haul trucks, and Simba production drill rigs. The Scooptram and Minetruck machines will be equipped with Epiroc’s telematics system Certiq, which allows for intelligent monitoring of machine performance and productivity in real time, and with Epiroc’s Rig Control System, RCS, which makes them ready for automation and remote control.

Delivery begins shortly and will continue into early 2024.

Epiroc’s Scooptram ST14 to receive the Cummins X12 Stage V engine treatment

Epiroc says it is continuing to reduce the emissions and fuel consumption of its solutions with the incorporation of the new Cummins X12 Stage V engine for its Scooptram ST14 LHD.

“We are happy to further expand our Stage V offering by adding the Stage V engine to Scooptram ST14,” Erik Gert, Global Product Manager – Scooptram at Epiroc’s Underground division, said. “This means fulfillment of the latest emission standards in the EU and North America. We also expect other regions to follow the development towards more sustainable operations.”

First introduced in 2017, the Cummins X12 Stage V engine builds on Cummins’ proven technology, Epiroc says. The emissions of toxic gases and diesel particulate matter (DPM) are reduced by a sophisticated aftertreatment system consisting of a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) combined with a diesel particulate filter (DPF) and a selective catalytic reduction (SCR).

Gert added: “By reducing the particles in the diesel exhaust, a better working environment and air quality for the people working in the mine can be reached. In addition, the Stage V engine is expected to reduce diesel consumption with up to 5% compared to Stage IIIA engines.”

The Cummins X12 Stage V engine is globally available as an option for the Scooptram ST14 and Minetruck MT436B. Epiroc already offers Stage V engines for the Scooptram ST18, Minetruck MT42, Minetruck MT65 and Minetruck MT54.

Stage V engines require ultra-low sulphur fuel to operate, which reduces harmful emissions compared to traditional diesel. The Cummins X12 engine is approved to use paraffinic fuel, meeting the EN 15940 requirements. Paraffinic fuels, often called “clean diesel”, are made from alternative feedstocks, including natural gas (GTL, gas-to-liquid), vegetable oils, waste and residues (HVO, hydrotreated vegetable oil).

Epiroc records ‘best quarter ever for electrification’

In a quarter of record revenues and adjusted operating margin, Epiroc’s battery-electric equipment orders and market demand for electrified mining solutions again came to the fore.

The company posted revenues of SEK11.9 billion ($1.2 billion) in the June quarter, 22% up on the same three-month period of a year ago. Its adjusted operating margin came in at 23.6%, compared with 22.6% a year earlier.

Epiroc’s aftermarket division continued to dominate the balance sheet, accounting for 73% of revenues, which itself was up on the 69% registered in the June quarter of 2021.

Included within this revenue is the company’s growing mid-life battery retrofit solution, which it launched last year to provide a second electrified life for its diesel-powered machines. Able to convert existing machines to battery-electric versions, CEO Helena Hedblom said the offering continued to find favour with existing mining customers.

“With brownfield operations, there are great opportunities to bring battery-electric solutions into the fleet with our retrofit option when, for example, existing diesel-powered machines go in for their mid-life upgrades,” she said.

To this point, the company has devised readily available battery-electric retrofit options for its diesel-powered Scooptram ST1030, Scooptram ST14 and Minetruck MT436 machines, but Hedblom said the company was working on offering this option across its entire diesel-powered fleet, with the machine retrofit rollout plan determined by the size of the installed base in the marketplace.

The company also won several major equipment contracts in the June quarter that included battery-electric solutions.

Its electric machines are set to feature on major projects such as Odyssey and Onaping Depth in Canada. Closer to home in Sweden, the Epiroc battery-electric fleet will grow at LKAB’s underground iron ore operations and Boliden is set to use several of zero-emission truck and loaders at numerous mine sites.

Epiroc labelled Q2 as its “best quarter ever for electrification”, and Hedblom was equally effusive about the company’s offering, saying it was built for both greenfield and brownfield mines.

“We have a strong position in the electrification market; both for equipment sales, retrofit and electrical infrastructure,” she said.

The company’s infrastructure proposition was strengthened during the quarter with the acquisition of JTMEC, an Australia-based company specialising in providing mines with electrical infrastructure.

This comes on top of the company’s recent purchase of Meglab, a Canada-based company with expertise in providing electrification infrastructure solutions to mines, meaning it has electrification infrastructure expertise in two major mining hubs.

One of the battery-electric orders received during the most recent three-month period was from Boliden for the Rävliden, Kristineberg and Renström mine sites in northern Sweden. Included within this order was an Scooptram ST18 Battery that, the company previously confirmed, will include the incorporation of Scooptram Automation, representing one of the first times these battery-backed machines will receive an automation upgrade.

While a solution for automating the battery charging or swapping process remains some way off, Hedblom sees the convergence of the two – electrification and automation – getting closer in the future.

“Electrification and automation go hand in hand, with companies that are high on electrification also typically being high on automation,” she said.

Epiroc to supply Vale with BaaS agreement, battery-electric equipment

Epiroc says the world’s first Batteries as a Service (BaaS) agreement has been finalised in Canada, with Vale and the mining OEM partnering on this new approach for utilising battery technology in mining operations.

Along with the BaaS agreement, Epiroc will be providing Vale with 10 battery-electric vehicles for two Canadian mine sites. These machines will include four Scooptram ST14 loaders, two Boomer M2C drill rigs, two Boltec MC bolting rigs and two Minetruck MT42 trucks. The miner will also acquire three of Epiroc’s charging cabinets and seven charging posts for equipment support, the company said.

Vale has previously said it hopes to have upward of 20 battery-powered vehicles operating within its North Atlantic operations (Creighton, Coleman, Copper Cliff, Garson and Thompson mines) by the end of 2020.

As mining companies continue to strive for sustainable productivity and zero emissions, the fast evolution and development of different options within the field of battery technology can be extremely challenging, Epiroc says.

With BaaS, Epiroc works directly with the customer to define a battery plan that suits the needs of their operation. The lifespan is guaranteed and the battery status is carefully monitored to ensure predictive maintenance with reduced downtime, according to the company. If a customer wants to increase or decrease their capacity, they can adjust their plan and the service will be tailored to meet their requirements.

As part of an ongoing sustainability commitment, Epiroc will remove old batteries from site and replace them with new batteries. These older batteries are then used for secondary applications and will be recycled at the end of the process, the company says.

The delivery of the battery equipment to both sites will occur over the course of 2020 and into the March quarter of 2021, according to Epiroc.

“A key component to the success of this offering is the flexibility it allows our customers,” Shawn Samuels, Product Manager Rocvolt, Epiroc Canada, said. “We take ownership of the battery itself and automatically replace and update the units as needed, which means the mine site can breathe easier and continue to focus on heightened production.”

Jason Smith, General Manager Epiroc Canada, said: “We value and look forward to continuing our successful partnership with Vale as we move towards a zero emissions future in mining together. We both recognise the positive impact a successful battery service implementation can have on operations, so our mutual confidence in one another is well placed.”

Northvolt charging up Epiroc battery-electric mining solutions

Northvolt has recently delivered its largest order of lithium-ion battery systems to date to Epiroc, as the two companies’ partnership continues to blossom.

The delivery of systems – which will be integrated into Epiroc’s mid-sized drilling family, Scooptram ST14 LHD and Minetruck MT42 – is the latest in a series made for Epiroc since 2018 and represents the first commercial roll-out of the latest generation of battery system from Northvolt, the Swedish battery developer and manufacturer said.

In an online post from Northvolt, the company interviewed Anders Lindkvist of Epiroc’s underground division to hear about the delivery and find out what it means for the original equipment manufacturer.

“The development of the battery system solution we’re integrating into Epiroc machines, both in terms of hardware and software, has been a true collaboration between Epiroc and Northvolt,” Lindkvist said. “The most recent delivery represents a major update compared to the earlier ones.

“Implemented into the new design are a lot of improvements in terms of reliability and serviceability. These design improvements come from the learnings taken from the common trial, which Northvolt and Epiroc have been involved in over the last 18 months. The changes appear promising.”

Demonstration activities which Lindkvist spoke of began with machine testing at Epiroc’s facilities in Örebro. But, in Spring 2019, testing stepped up to involve the first real-world test for the new battery-powered machines when Epiroc, as part of the EU funded Sustainable Intelligent Mining Systems (SIMS) program, brought several electric machines into commercial operation at Agnico Eagle’s Kittilä gold mine in Finland.

The fleet, running on earlier generation batteries supplied by Northvolt, included a Minetruck MT42, an underground truck which has a 42 t payload capacity – making it one of the largest battery-operated mine trucks on the market.

Commenting on these recent experiences, Lindkvist said: “We’ve gained a deeper knowledge of the limitations of batteries and greater perspective on how to handle and operate them. The limitations are fewer than on diesel engines, but they are different, so these need to be addressed with different actions. This was something we started to learn with our first-generation electric machines, but we now have a much deeper knowledge of the issues.”

Machine performance

“The performance we’re getting from the machines is at the level we expected,” explains Lindkvist. “Actually, battery running time appears longer than estimated, and we have not yet finalised the tuning of energy management which could optimise performance further.”

With battery cell development and optimisation of battery management systems as Lindkvist noted, driving time is likely to increase further still.

“Additionally, we’ve collected feedback from operators who experience the machines to be more powerful,” noted Lindkvist. “Other benefits are becoming clear too – such things as the quietness of operations, and possibility to talk to bystanders next to machines, seem more important than we thought.”

New solutions for an electric future

Close collaboration between Epiroc and Northvolt’s industrial battery design and development teams has been critical, Northvolt says. For Epiroc, an interesting dimension to the partnership is how it has shifted the company’s approach to “surrounding product development”.

Lindkvist said: “Epiroc has a typically involved itself with implementing well-proven solutions; it is very exciting to work with technology in the forefront. Combine this with the rapid growth of Northvolt, in an area where much is happening, and you get a very inspiring and innovative collaboration.”

Looking ahead, the path is bright. Evaluation of electric machine performance and operations will continue with the demonstration project in Finland, and validation of the new battery systems will be undertaken, according to Northvolt.

“As validation is concluded, this new generation system will be available for delivery to customers all over the world,” Lindkvist says. “This will be the moment when we grow to substantial volumes and this is very significant for Epiroc.”

Epiroc already has a sense of demand for these machines. In September 2019, the company announced orders for battery-electric mining equipment from customers in several countries including Finland, Australia and Canada. The orders were for Epiroc’s latest generation of electric machines consisting of 14 t and 18 t loaders, the Minetruck MT42 and a mid-sized drilling family including face drilling, production drilling and rock reinforcement rigs.

Epiroc aims to be able to offer its complete fleet of underground mining equipment as battery-electric versions by 2025.

“We will continue to diesel engine versions, but the volume of machines running on battery power will grow fast as customer readiness develops further,” Lindkvist says.

Successful electrification of mines, of course, relies on more than just machines. To operate a battery-electric fleet effectively, mines need to be designed differently, charging stations and ancillary equipment must be in place and operating profiles for efficient machine usage need to be established.

“Fortunately, the ongoing work of Epiroc is helping to fill out an in-depth understanding of what an electric mine may look like,” Northvolt says.

While underground mines might be some of the first to go electric, in large part thanks to the potential reductions in ventilation underground that create a strong business case, electric machines will soon become common above ground, too, according to Northvolt.

It says: “Epiroc has observed that ongoing success in the underground mine market is proving the viability of the technology and its competitiveness against performance of diesel-powered equipment – points which serve to strengthen the case for developing surface mining solutions.”

This is an edited version of a post that first appeared on Northvolt’s website here.