Steve Gravel, manager of the Centre for Smart Mining at Cambrian R&D, said until recently, the market for industrial battery-electric vehicles has been “red hot, especially in underground mining.” While it has cooled a bit, it is still a booming field.
“When you’re not pumping diesel exhaust into the mining environment, there are a lot of gains to be made around ventilation provision and things like that,” he said. “Some operators think they have more power when they’re in the muck pile, for example. They’re really good pieces of equipment.”
Gravel said the market has slowed, in large part due to the costs associated with converting a mine built for diesel vehicles into an electric environment.
“There are a lot of technical challenges with the adoption of BEVs in existing mines,” he explained. “It’s a lot easier when you’re building a new mine and you can plan from the beginning what the electrical infrastructure will be, and what the training profiles of the people maintaining the equipment will be.
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