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PERTH, Australia — In an business first, Rio Tinto and BHP will collaborate on the testing of huge battery-electric haul truck know-how within the Pilbara, Western Australia, to speed up the potential for its future deployment.
The 2 corporations will work with producers Caterpillar and Komatsu to conduct unbiased trials of their battery-electric haul vans, together with testing of battery, static and dynamic charging programs, to evaluate efficiency and productiveness within the Pilbara setting.
The collaboration displays the person commitments produced from BHP, Rio Tinto, Komatsu and Caterpillar to help Rio Tinto and BHP’s shared ambition of web zero operational greenhouse fuel emissions by 2050.
As a part of the collaboration, two Cat 793 haul vans will probably be trialled from the second half of 2024, and two Komatsu 930 haul vans examined from 2026 at mine websites in Western Australia’s Pilbara area.
Caterpillar and Komatsu will every present one truck every to each BHP and Rio Tinto for these trials. BHP will trial the Caterpillar vans, whereas Rio Tinto will trial the Komatsu vans. Outcomes of the trials will probably be shared between BHP and Rio Tinto.
These trials signify the primary stage of battery-electric haul truck testing at BHP and Rio Tinto’s Pilbara operations.
Ongoing testing, growth and refinement of truck and battery design is anticipated with every producer. It will inform the strategy for testing a bigger variety of haul vans and the potential deployment of battery-electric haul truck fleets into every firm’s operations.
Rio Tinto Iron Ore Chief Govt Simon Trott mentioned: “This collaboration brings collectively two main international miners with two of the world’s largest producers of haul vans to work on fixing the crucial problem of zero-emissions haulage.
“There isn’t any clear path to web zero with out zero-emissions haulage, so it’s necessary that we work collectively to get there as shortly and effectively as we will. Testing two kinds of battery-electric haul vans in Pilbara situations will present higher information, and by combining our efforts with BHP we are going to speed up studying.
“As we work to repower our Pilbara operations with renewable energy, collaborations like this move us closer to solving the shared challenge of decarbonising our operations, and meeting our net zero commitments.”
BHP President Australia Geraldine Slattery mentioned: “Operational decarbonisation depends on breakthroughs in know-how and partnerships like it will assist drive our business ahead. We’re thrilled to work with Rio Tinto, Caterpillar and Komatsu on these trials.
“Changing diesel as a gasoline supply requires us to develop an entire new operational ecosystem to encompass the fleet. We have to tackle the best way we plan our mines, function our haulage networks, and take into account the extra security and operational issues that these adjustments will convey. For this reason trials are so crucial to our success as we search to check and learn the way these new applied sciences will work in follow and combine into our mines.
“We’ve already seen a step-change reduction in Scope 1 and 2 operational greenhouse gas emissions through switching some of our supply to renewable electricity, and we are looking to build on that progress through development of battery-electric technology to reduce diesel usage across our operations.”
Be aware to editors
In 2021, Rio Tinto and BHP labored with each Caterpillar and Komatsu to help the event and validation of their prototype battery-electric haul vans. The vans included in these trials are primarily based on these prototypes.
Carbon emissions from diesel consumption in our mining tools and rail fleet accounted for 12% of Rio Tinto’s Scope 1 and a pair of emissions in 2023.
Carbon emissions from the combustion of diesel accounted for round 40% of BHP’s Scope 1 and a pair of emissions in FY2020.
Press launch from Rio Tinto.
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