New mining technology is being put to the test in Western Australia with trials of electric and hydrogen-powered trucks now underway.
He spent five months and $2.5 million converting a 160-tonne Caterpillar 777, one of the most commonly used haul trucks in the Australian resources sector, from diesel to electric. "This truck burns through $650,000 to $700,000 worth of diesel a year. It's a huge amount of diesel burn.", a technology analyst at UK-based IDTechEx, who estimated 40–50 per cent of emissions produced by the global mining industry were from diesel engines.
It's estimated up to 50 per cent of emissions produced by the global mining industry are from diesel engines.Mr Franklin's conversion of the diesel truck to electric saw more than 5.9 tonnes of components taken out and replaced with six batteries, each weighing 1.2 tonnes.Mr Franklin said charging the truck was straight-forward and took less than an hour.
He said it had not changed the payload capacity, which was still up to 100 tonnes, and the green paint job was designed to make the electric truck stand out on a mine site.