One of the keys to Andrew Forrest’s goal of reaching “real zero” emissions at his giant iron ore mines in the Pilbara by 2030 is the transformation of its trucking fleet from diesel to electric – and it has been a rapid learning curve.
Fortescue Metals has been conducting trials with both battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell iterations of its 240-tonne haul trucks that are key to the mines’ operations, and been testing out Fortescue Zero’s own drive train and battery technology along the way.
CEO Dino Otranto says it has been a rapid learning curve, but now the company is in a position, with two different suppliers – Liebherr and XCMG – to take its first deliveries in 2026.
“There is a bit of history to this,” Otranto says in the latest episode of Energy Insiders, the weekly podcast on The Driven’s sister site Renew Economy.
“We put the call out to our suppliers around partnering with us on net zero, and then real zero now. And what that meant was having a commercially available zero emission truck.
“And at that point, and it wasn’t too long ago, actually, it seemed pretty crazy. And lo and behold, not many people put their hand up to say, hey, you can buy one of these off the shelf. And that can, you know, worried us a little bit, because we knew what the next challenge would be, was to go and build one ourselves.
“It was a pretty visionary statement from our chairman (Forrest). And look, less than 100 days later, we had built one. I mean, it didn’t go very fast, it didn’t go very far, but hey, we did it.
“It was a bit of a Frankenstein, we put our own power system into into a readily available chassis. It was a Terex chassis, which is a very long standing brand and it was a Terex 4400 for those out there who like their old trucks.
“So we put our power system inside this, and it ran quite successfully. And then we had Liebherr step up and say, we’re really impressed with what you can do. And so maybe the partnership is with a mining company, not a traditional OEM, because what we found is often disruption comes from places that you’d never expect.”
That led to the Roadrunner, which has been tested on site, with power systems from the Williams Advanced Engineering company that Fortescue purchased, and which is the centre of its R&D, where it is still learning and rolling out new products such as super-fast charging for Formula E races.
“The synergies between the racing industry and mining were not as far fetched as people thought. We’re all trying to move a lot of stuff really quickly, power to weight. That was the secret … and that then led to the partnership with Liebherr, who suggested they’ll supply the chassis and Fortescue the power systems.”
That partnership has now extended to China’s XCMG, largely because of the big gains it has made with its own technologies, and which will now provide half of the near 400-strong battery electric haul truck fleet.
Otranto says the trucks will charge whenever stationary, using a “reticulation system” of high speed charges, which will be autonomous.
“So they will automatically come out where the truck is in an idle position and fast charge and top up that that vehicle. The whole thing is managed by a very sophisticated operating system.
“So think about that. You’re deploying sun and wind through the battery system, through your reticulation into the truck. You’ve got insurgent high voltages when you plug it in. It’s a very, very sophisticated power utility business that we’ve largely had to build out of necessity.”
And how fast will that charging be? Otranto compares it to the old Formula 1 images to dropping huge amounts of fuel into the cars in their rapid pit stops.
“If you remember the old days of Formula One racing, you had a big jerry can, and they just open a big valve, and it would all dump into the car, close it, and away they go,” Otranto says.
“This is a very similar approach. You have a large battery style capacitor that you completely discharge instantaneously into a receiving battery vessel, and away you go. Amazing.”
You can listen to the full interview here: Energy Insiders Podcast: Fortescue’s bold charge to real zero by 2030
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.