Surface mining uses a variety of often highly specialised equipment such as trucks, dozers and excavators for extracting resources from just below the Earth’s surface. It is generally more cost-effective than underground mining, with the process tending to recover a higher quantity of the mineral deposits.
However, the process, which encompasses removing layers of soil and rock to access minerals found nearer to the surface, contends with a variety of environmental and business-based issues – and has developed systems and technology to try and do just that.
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Mining Technology examines some of the biggest developments in surface mining equipment and how the industry is seeking to use innovation to help overcome problems, improve efficiency and reduce costs.
More and more machines
GlobalData’s Global Surface Mining Equipment: Populations & Forecasts to 2030 report, published in December 2024, estimates that the total number of dozers, hydraulic excavators, motor graders, rope shovels, trucks and wheel loaders across all active mines, excluding quarries, at the end of 2024 was 155,976.
In fact, the total number of active machines is forecast to rise to 170,982 by 2030, a compound annual growth rate of 1.5% from 2024 to 2030, with trucks being the largest contributor, followed by dozers, accounting for 14% of machines, and then hydraulic excavators/shovels at 11%.
The leading OEMs in surface mining trucks are Caterpillar, Komatsu and Volvo, says the GlobalData research, with Tata having a strong position in Asia-Pacific (mainly in India) and Belaz having a strong position in the former Soviet Union. Overall, Caterpillar is seen to be the market leader with a share of around 40%, followed by Komatsu with 20% and Volvo with 10%.
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By GlobalDataGrowing electrification of surface mining equipment
David Kurtz, director, mining & construction at GlobalData, Mining Technology’s parent company, suggests that to some extent the “electrification of surface equipment vehicles is an unstoppable trend in the industry as miners work towards minimising emissions. In some cases, mobile diesel can account for 40% or more of [a mine’s] scope 1 & 2 emissions”.
He adds that “customers place a high emphasis on lifetime costs, and so they are looking to continually improve in that area, as well as limit the environmental impact and continue to extend the technologies available, across areas such as the Internet of Things and connectivity to automation”.
A representative of Sandvik, a Swedish multinational engineering company specialising in mining products and services, says making all types of equipment “more productive and cost efficient while ensuring sustainability means leaning into automation that enables efficiency, ease of use and safety” while “electrification will play a significant part in ensuring sustainable drilling”.
Meanwhile, Epiroc, a manufacturer of mining and infrastructure equipment, says the electrification of surface equipment is beginning to appear more and more. “The past few years, electrification – and perhaps most noticeably battery electrification – has been used mostly for underground operations, with the most obvious benefit being the reduced need for expensive ventilation systems. However, we are seeing growing interest also for surface electrification,” an Epiroc representative tells Mining Technology.
In April, Epiroc took an order for a massive vehicle fleet, around 50 machines, of cable-electric and battery-electric drill rigs for Fortescue’s open-pit iron ore mines in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The order remains the largest in Epiroc’s history, with a value exceeding $220m (Skr2.2bn) over five years.
The driverless machines will eventually be operated fully autonomously, overseen from Fortescue’s Integrated Operations Centre in Perth more than 1,500km away, and will eliminate around 35 million litres of diesel consumption annually, according to a Fortescue statement released at the time.
When asked if the electrification of surface equipment vehicles was a growing trend, Sandvik replied that by “some estimates, 30% of surface mining already has the required infrastructure to support electrification of drills. For those operations, electrification is going to be a reality soon, if not already today.
“For other operations, we will continue to see a gradual increase in adoption driven by multiple factors including availability of cheap electricity, improved equipment performance and lower life cycle costs versus diesel-powered solutions,” adds the Sandvik representative.
Caterpillar, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of construction and mining equipment, has invested heavily in recent years in all manner of electric vehicles, launched its Early Learner programme in 2021 to “accelerate its development and validation of Cat battery-electric large mining trucks with support from key mining customers and Cat dealers”, according to a previous press statement.
The company expanded the programme – which is aimed at fostering collaboration with customers to better understand the impacts of the energy transition on mining technology – to include off-highway trucks to support increasing demand from the quarry and aggregates industries.
Mining and construction giant Liebherr tells Mining Technology that “for miners, renewable electricity, if available, will likely be the cheapest option for decarbonisation. In some cases, conditions such as weather, political environment, geographic area etc., might mean electricity is not consistently available.
“Different regions might have different energy types due to the unique local generic cost of these energies. This will lead to a larger variation of equipment and a higher customisation of the machines. Hence, Liebherr decided to build mining equipment in a modular form and so staying energy and powertrain agnostic by offering a variety of complementary solutions.”
More autonomy
As of November 2024, GlobalData was tracking 2,348 autonomous haul trucks (including autonomous-ready machines) operating at surface mines across the globe, up from 1,704 in November 2023. The largest population is in Australia with 942, followed by China (790), Canada (297) and Chile (172).
Autonomous or self-driving surface mining trucks – usually used in open-pit mines to move ore and waste rock – utilise technologies such as GPS, radar and AI to operate without human drivers. They can be remotely controlled or managed by a central system that predetermines speeds, routes, and ore or mineral collections.
Autonomous trucks also have an efficiency advantage over more traditional forms of transport, being able to operate continuously day and night, increasing productivity and reducing downtime. There are also savings around fuel consumption.
The autonomous operation of surface machines is a growing trend, strengthening productivity and reducing emissions, says Epiroc.
Liebherr also tells Mining Technology that “technology, digitalisation and automation remain key enablers for mining equipment optimisation. Technology plays a huge role in the support Liebherr Mining offers our customers as they work to meet their emission reduction targets.
“Advances in technology help to optimise mining by facilitating and/or improving processes for organising, tracking, informing, predicting and assisting mines in reaching maximum production with the least amount of energy used.”
The limited appeal of trolley trucks
In May, Komatsu achieved what it described as a “significant milestone of autonomously operating a power agnostic electric drive truck” while connected to a dynamic trolley line. It claims this was the first time in the mining industry’s history that power has been transferred to a moving, autonomously operated haul truck via a trolley system.
The solution is “designed to help operations reduce carbon emissions, extend engine life and support the journey toward a zero-emissions future”, says a statement from the company.
Amit Kumar, project manager, mining industry research, mining operations at GlobalData, suggests that trolley trucks are not suited to every mine site, but there are certain criteria that make them viable, such as mine sites requiring significant uphill/grade haulage or those that have uphill haul roads that do not change very often.
However, off-grid mines “producing electricity using diesel generators aren’t suitable for trolley truck systems. In fact, trolley trucks have been around for a couple of decades but didn’t gain much popularity because of the limitations involved,” says Kumar.
He continues that smaller and mid-size fully battery trucks already in use outnumber the trolley trucks, and in “coming years we are sure larger-size fully battery electric trucks will be more popular than trolley-assist trucks”.
Kurtz adds that while “the number of trolley trucks has risen from just over 200 three years ago, there were only prototype battery trucks running back then. Having said that, miners are also using renewable diesel in place of fossil diesel, and there is some potential for hydrogen-powered machines. Another trend is one towards hybrid machines due to concerns over uptime and charging.”
Liebherr argues that “using trolley systems can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80%. Already today, Liebherr can provide complete trolley system[s] including infrastructure as well as truck systems like pantographs.”
As of November 2024, GlobalData was tracking 263 trolley assist trucks and 207 battery-electric trucks operating at surface mines across the globe, with this information collected from secondary research as well as interviews with key personnel at mine sites. The largest population of trolley assist trucks is in Zambia (133), followed by Namibia (56) and South Africa (20).
Hitachi, Komatsu and Liebherr are the main suppliers of trolley assist trucks with more than 90% of the trucks tracked by the Mining Intelligence Centre, with the EH3500AC, 960E and T284 the most popular models for the three OEMs, respectively.
