Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals has brought in a new supplier to help deliver the up to 400 giant electric vault trucks that his company will need to meet its ambitious target of reaching “real zero” emissions at its Pilbara iron ore mines by the end of the decade.
Forrest announced on Friday that the China-based XCMG, which already supplies electric mining equipment to Fortescue, will supply up to half of Fortescue’s future fleet of 240-tonne electric haul trucks.
The company said it will need between 300 and 400 of these giant machines, and says the deal will “strengthen and diversify” its supply chain for battery electric trucks.
It says its agreement with Liebherr has been “amended” and it will now provide “at a minimum” the other half of the haul truck fleet and the electric excavators agreed in a partnership announced in September 2024.
“While XCMG and Liebherr will make Fortescue’s battery electric trucks and other heavy mining equipment, Fortescue Zero will continue to focus on developing and integrating advanced power systems for Fortescue’s fleet – including optimisation of battery electric truck performance in Pilbara conditions.
“Technology is driving Fortescue to a more profitable Real Zero future,” Forrest said in a statement. “We will prove that profits go up when emissions go down.”
The plans for Pilbara involve electrifying all the transport and mining equipment at the site – including excavators, bulldozers, haul trucks and other vehicles.
Plans for a so-called “infinity” train – using locomotives with giant batteries to charge through “region” as they went downhill, fully laden, from mines to port, and then return under battery power to the mine site – have not progressed as well as hoped and the company is currently reviewing its operations there.
Fortescue Zero is also working developing and integrating advanced power systems for Fortescue’s fleet – including optimisation of battery electric truck performance in Pilbara conditions, and charging equipment.
The company on Friday also announced new partnerships with BYD, Longi and Envision to secure battery storage, solar and wind turbines for its renewable plans to power the mines and their electric equipment.
Fortescue is already building its third big solar farm in the Pilbara, and is looking to start work on the giant 2.1 GW East Pilbara generation hub, using a mix of Envision turbines and unique “self-lifting” turbines developed by Spanish based Nabrawind, which Fortescue announced it now fully owns.
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of The Driven, and also edits and founded the Renew Economy and One Step Off The Grid web sites. He has been a journalist for nearly 40 years, is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review, and owns a Tesla Model 3.