BHP and Rio Tinto collaborate on battery-electric haul truck trials within the Pilbara

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Revealed Could 27, 2024 • 3 minute learn

A Caterpillar battery-electric haul truck that BHP will use within the trial. GNW

PERTH, Australia, Could 28, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In an business first, BHP and Rio Tinto will collaborate on the testing of enormous battery-electric haul truck expertise within the Pilbara, Western Australia, to speed up the potential for its future deployment.

The 2 firms will work with producers Caterpillar and Komatsu to conduct unbiased trials of their battery-electric haul vehicles, together with testing of battery, static and dynamic charging techniques, to evaluate efficiency and productiveness within the Pilbara surroundings.

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The collaboration displays the person commitments made by BHP, Rio Tinto, Caterpillar and Komatsu to help BHP’s and Rio Tinto’s shared ambition of internet zero operational greenhouse fuel emissions by 2050.

As a part of the collaboration, two CAT 793 haul vehicles might be trialled from the second half of 2024, and two Komatsu 930 haul vehicles examined from 2026 at mine websites in Western Australia’s Pilbara area.

Caterpillar and Komatsu will every present one truck to each BHP and Rio Tinto for these trials. BHP will trial the Caterpillar vehicles, whereas Rio Tinto will trial the Komatsu vehicles. Outcomes of the trials might be shared between BHP and Rio Tinto.

These trials characterize the primary stage of battery-electric haul truck testing at BHP’s and Rio Tinto’s Pilbara operations.

Ongoing testing, improvement, and refinement of truck and battery design is anticipated with every producer. It will inform the strategy for testing a bigger variety of haul vehicles and the potential deployment of battery-electric haul truck fleets into every firm’s operations.

BHP President Australia Geraldine Slattery stated: “Operational decarbonisation depends on breakthroughs in expertise and partnerships like this can assist drive our business ahead. We’re thrilled to work with Rio Tinto, Caterpillar and Komatsu on these trials.

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“Changing diesel as a gas supply requires us to develop a complete new operational ecosystem to encompass the fleet. We have to deal with the best way we plan our mines, function our haulage networks, and contemplate the extra security and operational issues that these modifications will deliver. That is why trials are so vital to our success as we check and learn the way these new applied sciences may work and combine into our mines.

“We’ve already seen a step-change discount in Scope 1 and a couple of operational greenhouse fuel emissions by means of switching a few of our provide to renewable electrical energy, and we want to construct on that progress by means of improvement of battery-electric expertise to scale back diesel utilization throughout our operations.”

Rio Tinto Iron Ore Chief Govt Simon Trott stated: “This collaboration brings collectively two main world miners with two of the world’s largest producers of haul vehicles to work on fixing the vital problem of zero-emissions haulage.

“There isn’t a clear path to internet zero with out zero-emissions haulage, so it’s vital that we work collectively to get there as shortly and effectively as we will. Testing two varieties of battery-electric haul vehicles in Pilbara situations will present higher information, and by combining our efforts with BHP we are going to speed up studying.

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“As we work to repower our Pilbara operations with renewable power, collaborations like this transfer us nearer to fixing the shared problem of decarbonising our operations and assembly our internet zero commitments.”

Notes for editors/additional data 

Since 2021, BHP and Rio Tinto labored with each Caterpillar and Komatsu to help the event and validation of their prototype battery-electric haul vehicles. The vehicles included in these trials are primarily based on these prototypes.

Carbon emissions from the combustion of diesel accounted for round 40% of BHP’s Scope 1 and a couple of emissions in FY2020. 

Carbon emissions from diesel consumption in our mining tools and rail fleet accounted for 12% of Rio Tinto’s Scope 1 and a couple of emissions in 2023. 

Each BHP and RT have been closely concerned with business our bodies akin to ICMM and CharIn to speed up improvement in battery electrification and supporting infrastructure.