Capital Equipment News June 2022

of Cat MineStar Solutions. “Since surpassing 1-billion tonnes, we have expanded our Command fleet by nearly 250%.” Command for hauling trucks now span class sizes from 190 to 360 tonnes (t). The Cat line of Command models include the Cat 789D, 793D, 793F, 797F and the 297-t 794 AC with electric drive. Command retrofit kits are available for Cat mining trucks as well as other brands of trucks and loading equipment. Since the first autonomous Cat trucks were commissioned in 2013, these AHS models have travelled more than 110-million km, equivalent to a minimum-distance, straight-line roundtrip journey to Mars, with no lost-time injuries associated with automated truck operation. At MINExpo 2021, Liebherr for the first time presented its new Mining Technology Product portfolio which defines the company’s interoperable and scalable approach to its equipment, technology and service product offerings. The Liebherr Mining Technology Product portfolio includes

machine automation, digital services, assistance systems and on-board analytics product lines. For automation of Liebherr trucks, the company is developing the next generation of autonomous solutions with the utmost safety and operational efficiency, supported by an open and interoperable mine autonomy platform. Liebherr’s autonomous haulage solution delivers the next generation of on-board intelligence, with reduced dependency on site infrastructure and centralised supervisory systems. Together with vehicle-to-vehicle technologies, Liebherr’s smart autonomous solutions provide on board obstacle avoidance and load area path planning capabilities for optimisation of traffic flow. Liebherr’s solutions offer a high level of safety integrity with the introduction of an eight-layer safety concept in combination with the latest on-board perception technologies for long range, high resolution and 360-degree coverage, which is unique to the Liebherr offering. b

Caterpillar and Rio Tinto have signed an agreement for retrofitting 19 Cat 793F mining trucks for autonomous operation at the Marandoo iron ore mine in Western Australia.

BELAZ-7558E is a South Korean company. Prototype testing is expected to be completed during the last quarter of this year. Production of the electric truck will start in 2023. According to marketing experts, BELAZ will be able to sell at least 20 such electric dump trucks annually at first. Meanwhile, Liebherr is targeting to offer completely fossil fuel-free mining equipment for hauling, digging and dozing by 2030. The development will take into consideration the GHG emissions over equipment’s full lifecycle, as well as the overall well-to-wheel energy ecosystem. The company is also considering the operational mining process conditions that influence the right energy type choice. Liebherr will develop three drivetrain options to achieve near zero emissions for its off-highway trucks: battery power module, internal combustion engines powered by renewable fuels, and H 2 fuel cell-battery power module. Drivetrain electrification through battery combined with trolley assist is already underway. Despite some challenges, Liebherr sees an opportunity that the propulsion energy can be provided by using hydrogen fuel cell-battery hybrids. Automation It wasn’t that long ago that an autonomous mine site was a far-off dream. Today, it’s reality, and it’s delivering, with rigid haulers again at the forefront of the autonomous revolution, as mines realise significant benefits in safety outcomes and productivity. In a major milestone in its autonomous hauling journey, Caterpillar last year announced that it had surpassed 3-billion tonnes hauled autonomously by Cat MineStar Command for hauling. The achievement coincided with an expansion of the types of commodities hauled autonomously across a growing number of Cat mining truck class sizes, as well as other brands of mining equipment. “Since surpassing the 2-billion tonnes milestone, we have equipped more mines with Command trucks and have established the world’s first gold mining application with Command for hauling,” says Jim Hawkins, director

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