Australian mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP have announced plans to collaborate and fast track the testing of large battery electric haul trucks at their massive iron ore mines in the Pilbara in the north west of Western Australia.
Rio Tinto and BHP says that they will partner with manufacturers Caterpillar and Komatsu to conduct independent trials of their battery electric haul trucks.
Two CAT 793 battery electric haul trucks will be trialled first from the second half of 2024, and two Komatsu 930 battery electric haul trucks will be trialled from 2026.
Caterpillar and Komatsu will each provide one of their 240 tonne trucks to both BHP and Rio Tinto for the trials, and the two companies will share the results. Brazilian miner Vale has also signed up to trial the CAT 793 electric haul trucks in Brazil.
BHP and Rio Tinto both have net zero targets for 2050, but neither of their emission reductions plans is as ambitious as rival iron ore miner Fortescue Metals, which aims for “real zero” in its iron ore operations by 2030, which means not burning fossil fuels by then.
Fortescue is already trialling battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell haul trucks in the Pilbara, as well as introducing electric excavators which will save nearly 100 million litres of diesel a year.
Geraldine Slattery, the president of BHP Australia, says replacing diesel as a fuel source will require a whole new operational ecosystem to surround the fleet.
“We need to address the way we plan our mines, operate our haulage networks, and consider the additional safety and operational considerations that these changes will bring,” she said in a statement.
“This is why trials are so critical to our success as we seek to test and learn how these new technologies will work in practice and integrate 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.”
The BHP trials will be at the Jimblebar Mine, which is now completing upgrades to site electrical transmission and distribution for high power charging infrastructure. The two companies will share their learnings on performance and productivity to help accelerate deployment of the giant battery vehicles.
Rio Tinto has previously been skeptical of the ability to rapidly transition to electric trucks at its mining operations, and recently scaled down its plans for new renewables in the Pilbara because it said the timeline for large-scale deployment of battery electric haulage solutions has been extended until the 2030s.
Rio Tinto had been trialling a 20-tonne Scandia truck in the Pilbara. But it now seems to have changed its tune.
“This collaboration brings together two leading global miners with two of the world’s biggest manufacturers of haul trucks to work on solving the critical challenge of zero-emissions haulage,” said Simon Trott, chief executive of Rio Tinto Iron Ore.
“There is no clear path to net zero without zero-emissions haulage, so it’s important that we work together to get there as quickly and efficiently as we can. Testing two types of battery-electric haul trucks in Pilbara conditions will provide better data, and by combining our efforts with BHP we will accelerate learning.”
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.