This zinc mine needed a truck no one made, so they made it themselves

Zijin Mining couldn’t find an ultra-class electric haul truck that could get the job done at its Wulagen mine in Wuqia County, Xinjiang, so they designed their own: a 140-ton BEV haul truck with a huge, 770 kWh swappable battery pack.

Then they built 290 of them. (!)

Xinjiang Zijin Zinc is one of the largest mining operations in China, and the world. Despite its size, however, this zinc mine is surprisingly clean, using a smart, zero-carbon transport loop involving local wind, solar, and battery energy storage resources to slash carbon emissions, and costs. As such, choosing to transition its truck fleet from diesel to battery power was a no-brainer.

The energy cost per tonne kilometre for electric mining trucks is only about RMB0.177, compared to as high as RMB0.68 when using fossil energy. In addition, the safety and operating efficiency of electric mining trucks have notable advantages over diesel trucks. With fewer complex transmission components … these trucks have a much lower failure rate than that of fossil fuel vehicles. Moreover, the simpler operation of electric vehicles reduces the risk of accidents due to operational errors.

ZIJIN MINING SUSTAINABILITY REPORT

Finding an electric haul truck that could meet the mine’s needs and fit into both its established infrastructure and budget proved to be more challenging than expected – but Xinjiang Zijin had an idea, the Longking CEO’s direct number, and whatever the Chinese equivalent of an Adidas gym bag full of cash is.

Co-developed by Zijin and Longking, the LK220E is a unique, 140-ton-class electric haul truck equipped with a whopping 770 kWh battery pack that, according to Zijin, is the world’s largest swappable battery. And, with battery swaps taking just four minutes, the LK220E can spend more time hauling and less time charging. Exactly what Zijin needs to keep the dirt moving, and the wheels turning.

The first example of the new LK220E (show, above) was first shown in December. Now, the company has 290 such electric trucks on the ground, amounting to 80%+ of the mine’s transport.

The 140-ton class fleet joins more than 1,700 electric vehicles currently deployed throughout the Zijin mining fleet, with plans for several hundred more to be deployed by the end of the year on its way to a goal of true net zero operations.

Electrek’s Take

Projects like this, and the autonomous Huawei-automated coal mine in Mongolia we covered back in March, are part of a larger shift taking place across the global mining sector. While passenger EV adoption dominates the headlines, the strongest economic arguments for electrification are often in industrial and logistical applications where vehicles follow fixed routes, consume enormous amounts of energy, and operate around the clock.

In those environments, every gallon of diesel displaced translates directly into measurable savings – more than enough savings, in this case, to spend the R&D money on developing a whole new truck.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Zijin Mining, via International Mining.

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