“Just like a normal digger but quicker:” BHP switches on its first giant electric excavator

Mining giant BHP has followed in the path of fellow iron ore major Fortescue by deploying its first electric excavator, dumping a diesel engine and replacing it with an electric motor fed by a trailing cable.

The R 9400 excavator is made by Liebherr and is operating at the Yandi mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, and will be key to helping the iron ore miners reduce emissions from the billions of litres of diesel that are burned each year in the mining province.

Fortescue started trialling an electric excavator in December last year, and after finding that it lowered costs and boosted productivity, and cut emissions, it plans to replace all its diesel excavators, saving a total of 95 million tonnes a year.

Fortescue, however, is in a hurry. It has a target of “real zero” emissions by 2030, which means no burning of fossil fuels, while BHP’s target is for a 30 per cent reduction by 2030. BHP’s longer term target is “net zero” by 2050.

“Electrification of our fleet is our preferred solution to displace greenhouse gas emissions from using diesel – from trucks to trains to excavators – we’re working hard to electrify our equipment,” said Tim Day, the head of iron ore in Western Australia for BHP.

One of its operators at the mine says the new electric excavator is “just like a normal digger, but quicker.”

However, to make the switch to electric excavators, and electric haul trucks that BHP and fellow miners Rio Tinto are also trialling, the companies will need to build renewable energy capacity to keep emissions low.

BHP says it cannot buy renewable electricity is not purchased through the market as the mining operations are not connected to an existing grid, “so we are working through the best way to introduce the large volumes of renewable or other low to zero emissions power that we will need,” it says.

It has previously announced plans to build up to 550 MW of new wind, solar and storage capacity, with around 200MW each of wind and solar to replace gas in its Pilbara operations and add another 150MW of battery storage. (The storage duration was not specified).