by Kyle Molyneux | Mon 23 Nov 2020
Sandvik and Barrick test electric haul trucks
Sandvik and Barrick have signed a partnership agreement for trialling and enhancing Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) for underground hard rock mining. During a three-year production trial, Sandvik will deploy four Artisan Z50 BEV trucks at the Turquoise Ridge gold mine, part of the Nevada Gold Mines joint venture (JV). Barrick is the operator of the JV, which is the single-largest gold-producing complex in the world, forecast to produce a total of 3.4 to 3.65 million ounces of gold during 2020.
The Z50 haul truck, with a 50-tonne payload capacity, is a ground-up design that integrates an advanced battery electric powertrain with the latest haul truck features. The Z50 truck is equipped with AutoSwap, a patented self-swapping system for the Artisan battery pack. Battery swapping is made fast and easy with a minimum amount of manual handling: changing the battery only takes about six minutes, and it can be done in a passing bay or old re-muck bay with no overhead cranes or external infrastructure needed. In phase 1 trials, the Z50 truck racked up more than 1,400 hours of production with over 1,400 loads. It reached production operating up to 18 hours per day, and clocked speeds of 10km/h.
Some of the key performance indicators in the new partnership will include the performance of the BEV technology in a production environment, mechanical availability, average lifecycle cost and overall production cost. A dedicated site project team will be jointly working with the Barrick operations team during the trial period to ensure that all data is captured and the experience from both Sandvik and Barrick is utilised to ensure the uptime and productivity targets are met.
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