Reducing greenhouse gas emissions at mining sites is a pressing issue. The number of emissions from mines around the world is about 1.9 to 5.1 billion tons per year, which is more than Japan’s annual emissions of about 1.1 billion tons. In addition to methane gas emissions from coal mining, heavy equipment powered by diesel engines is also a source of emissions, and there is a trend toward electrification of mining equipment.
In August, Komatsu announced the development of a diesel-ethanol blended fuel engine. The engine is for large dump trucks, and Komatsu will work with Brazilian mining giant Vale and U.S. engine giant Cummins. Brazil has a high global share of bioethanol production from plant materials. The use of bioethanol is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 70%. The company wants to put it into practice at Vale’s mining sites. In 2023, it signed an agreement with General Motors of the United States to jointly develop hydrogen fuel cell modules. The goal is to install the batteries in large dump trucks with a load capacity of about 290 tons and to start testing them in the second half of the 2020s.
Hitachi Construction Machinery has set a goal of achieving sales of 600 billion yen from its mining equipment business by the fiscal year ending March 2031. The company believes that decarbonization efforts are essential to achieving this goal.
In June, it began a demonstration project to operate catenary-rechargeable electric dump trucks at a mine in Zambia in partnership with First Quantum, a Canadian mining company that owns copper and gold mines.
For battery development, it partnered with ABB, a major Swiss manufacturer of heavy electrical equipment. In September, it invested about 950 million yen in Envirosuite, an Australian company that provides environmental impact analysis services. Envirosuite can monitor air and water quality in real time. It plans to link with the operations management system developed by a subsidiary of Hitachi Construction Machinery and offers customers a service that allows them to carry out work while reducing their environmental impact.
Caterpillar has a plan to install a rail-like charging infrastructure on the side of trucks. This is said to be easier and more flexible to install than overhead wires on top of trucks. In 2023, Caterpillar had a partnership with Albemarle, a major U.S. chemical company, to develop batteries for electric mining trucks and to work on battery recycling.
Sweden’s Volvo Group has partnered with Boliden, a major Swedish natural resources company, to begin introducing electric trucks underground starting in 2023.
Source: The Nikkei
PSR Analysis: There are various issues surrounding the carbon neutrality of mining equipment, and it is unlikely to become as widespread as cars, but as the article notes, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from the industry is large. With the demand for resource development expected to continue to grow, mining equipment will continue to be used in the future. If things continue as they are, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions will not decrease, so the efforts of these companies are extremely important.
Actually, this kind of development does not contribute to short-term profits for either mining developers or mining equipment manufacturers. However, neglecting this development could lead to a loss of market share. Major resource companies are rushing to reduce CO2 emissions throughout the supply chain, and there is increasing demand for equipment manufacturers to develop models with low environmental impact. PSR
Akihiro Komuro is Research Analyst, Far East and Southeast Asia for Power Systems Research
