When you are innovating like this…the feeling is electric.
At the Borden Gold project near Chapleau in Ontario, Newmont has replaced all of its underground diesel fleet of trucks with Battery Electric Vehicles, making it one of the first all-electric underground mines in Canada.
This ambitious plan will not only make the future mine more operationally efficient, but it will improve its health and safety performance and reduce its environmental footprint.
Newmont teamed up with Sandvik Mining and MacLean Engineering to provide the battery-powered vehicles for almost all of the mine’s requirements. The new technology will range from battery-operated drilling and blasting equipment, to electric bolters, personnel carriers and, ultimately, a 40-metric-tonne battery-powered haul truck. This will eliminate all GHG emissions associated with the movement of ore and waste rock, which contributes roughly 50% of the total GHGs on site, or 5,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
Along with the decrease in emissions comes a reduction in underground ventilation needs. An efficient, on-demand ventilation system will require 50% less ventilation than an equivalent diesel-powered underground mine.
