Future Auto March 2024

24 FUTURE AUTO | MINING
“They can’t just switch diesel off straight away because
they have to set up the electrical infrastructure of the
mines themselves.”
Big players
The pressure to make positive change, Brendan said, is
coming from the very top of the industry.
“The big mining houses are predominantly the drivers of
BEV/hybrid supply.
“The majority of our sales are actually the
subcontractors but the mining houses are the ones
putting the big pressure on and a lot of that is driven
by shareholders.
“These companies want to be at the front for
the change.”
That pressure also trickles all the way to the bottom,
more than a kilometre below the earth’s surface where
some miners find themselves as old dogs learning
new tricks.
Normet’s SmartDrive machines,
including its explosive chargers
and shotcrete, can be plugged
into a 1000AC grid while they
operate or connect to any fast
chargers with CCS charging
communication standard and
CCS2 fast charging plugs,
including Normet’s own 40, 160
or 320 kW chargers.
Their batteries can also be
recharged via regenerative
braking as the vehicle travels back
underground.
But recharging below ground may still be necessary if
the vehicle needs to return to the surface.
“The expectation is that you get a full shift out of a tank
of fuel.
“BEV’s will do that with opportune charging during the
shift. But if they have to then get it out of the portal and
take it to the surface, they would have to stop for a bit
of a charge.
“We place a charger halfway along that journey so they
can pull up, connect the fast charger, get a really quick
20 minutes and that gets them out to the surface.”
Training, noise & heat
Normet deploys one of its own to spend the first
week of every machine’s life on any new site,
retraining drivers.
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Hybrid Electric Vehicle.
“The lack of requirement for fuelling is great but it
brings its own challenges to the operation because
operators have to learn how to correctly charge the
machine,” Brendan said.
“There’s some extra training involved with that, as well
as how to drive and maintain it.
“These trucks are quieter, generate less heat and the
underground air is cleaner.
“Once they see the positive benefit of that, we generally
get operators on board pretty quickly.”
MTA assistance
“In the past, where you had a mechanical fitter
and an auto electrician, now you need a 1000V
qualified or licensed electrician as well for isolation
procedures onsite.
“So there are implications on training and skillsets.
“With every customer we’ve delivered a BEV
too, the first thing we do is get them to the
MTA’s training course, and then we do
our own gap training after that.
“There’s a fair skillset change that
the MTA is helping.”
The MTA’s training module is
geared heavily toward safety
and it is an absolute priority
for Normet.
“MTA is also introducing some of
our training materials on Normet
specific systems.”
“When assessing the introduction of
BEV’s/HEV’s into a new customer’s system
and site, one of the first areas we advise on is skills
upgrade, including specific training avenues both
external and internal to our business.
“We also explain and assess the differences in cell
chemistry between those batteries and our current
battery technology, which is lithium titanate oxide (LTO).
“The battery strings are closely monitored by a
management system to ensure that any issue is
identified in the individual cell voltage and temperature.
“There’s a fire suppression system and multiple layer
control systems with complex cooling systems that
automatically shut machines down.”
The benefits clearly outweigh the risks, and with miners
continuing to operate under stringent licencing and
investor scrutiny, it will come as no surprise to see the
further electrification of mines around the globe.