By Erik Pretorius, Business Line Mining Large and Strategic Projects global lead, ABB
Decarbonising the mining industry requires a purposeful methodology combined with a suite of solutions. This is especially important in countries such as South Africa where the considerations to convert to sustainable mining and factor in ‘all-electric’ mines are equally important.
Erik Pretorius, Business Line Mining Large and Strategic Projects global lead, ABB. Image credit ABB
ABB eMine™ has a strong automation and digital portfolio in which aspects such as energy management, peak demand management and excellence in operational management are addressed, all to better manage the way the mining industry uses electricity.
The solution also focuses on supplying power to mining vehicles, with fit-for-purpose electrification to achieve the most optimised electrified process. In addition, the solution integrates with ABB Ability™ applications to plan, monitor and control processes to optimise operations and energy usage.
A key component of keeping the all-electric mine running is ensuring that the equipment performs when required and that trucks can charge when they need to. ABB provides charging station solutions to meet the needs of modern mining operations and interface with all vehicles. ABB eMine™ FastCharge is vehicle type and OEM agnostic in that it supports an interoperable approach based on proven standards to provide any solution needed to charge battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
Our automation and digital portfolio empowers miners to not only consider, but to succeed, in their ‘all-electric’ ambitions despite the shortage of electricity in the region. The eMine solution consists of a broad portfolio of integrated electrification and automation solutions and takes on a different priority or definition in the respective regions globally.
In regions where underground mining is prominent, the company’s FastCharge solutions receive more interest and traction, while its digital offering in the space of Short Interval Control (SIC) has completely changed the efficiency with which underground operations are managed.
Interest in our Trolley Assist solutions is rapidly increasing in countries such as Canada and Australia. Generally, ABB eMine is most certainly living up to the expectation we had and conforms to the unique challenges that we find globally.
Mines where the company has begun providing its eMine solutions include the Boliden Aitik Copper Mine 100km above the Arctic Circle in Sweden. The mine’s hybrid trucks with on-board electrical systems are attached to a trolley line, leading to significant reductions in CO2 and improved fuel economy. The lane is ~700m and is expected to save ~830m3 diesel a year.
This infrastructure will ultimately enable Boliden to carry up to 70 million tons of rock every year at the mine and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by up to 80% along those routes where the technology can be implemented.
Near the town of Princeton in southern British Columbia, the company delivered a complete open-pit trolley-assist solution to Copper Mountain Mining Corporation. The mine produces over
41 000 metric tons of copper equivalent a year.
This is the first mining Trolley Assist solution that has been installed in North America in decades. Despite its cold climate, it is indicative of the region’s recent move toward mine electrification. Additionally, each truck is fitted with a pantograph to receive external electric power. ABB was responsible for the off-truck Trolley Assist infrastructure and provided engineering, project management, equipment supply, system commissioning and construction management.
The company designed the overhead catenary system (OCS) infrastructure and delivered a rectifier substation providing more than 12MW of DC power to the Trolley Assist system. The trolley control system is connected to the existing ABB Ability distributed control system (DCS) automation platform to seamlessly integrate and monitor trolley operations and energy consumption. ABB is also providing OCS components customised for mining applications.
The winning feature of the eMine is the fact that its solutions and implementation strategy is modular, allowing a client to develop a multi-year roadmap for rollouts aligned with their operational and technology lifecycles. It covers all bases from quick wins to longer, more strategic implementations, as evidenced by the broad client base and commodities catered for.
Moreover, the company’s services are tailored to the specific challenges of customers in the mining industry. Through remote services, predictive maintenance, upgrades and retrofits, ABB helps mining companies ensure maximum performance throughout the mine’s lifecycle.
Mining experts can monitor a plant remotely around the clock to maintain production. Advanced digital mining services can collect and analyse mining assets and operational data. This will assist to provide remote expert support to identify, categorise and prioritise actions, moving mines from costly and reactive time-based maintenance to planned preventive and predictive interventions.
We are committed to creating sustainable progress for today and future generations by helping our mining clients through their energy transition. The process of electrifying the entire mining ecosystem will not happen overnight and needs to take place in phases. A phased approach enables mines to immediately lower carbon footprints with a limited upfront capital investment, while simultaneously advancing progressively as technology becomes more mature, scalable and cost-effective.
To implement electrification, getting involved from an early stage is necessary to conduct the critical technology, economic, geographic, regulatory and cultural assessment through comparative simulations studies, allowing us to understand a particular mining operation, provide guidance for strategic project decisions, and thus customise the best fit for a particular mining operation. It further enhances the electrification systems based on real data while initiating triangular collaboration with different players depending on the needs, including technology providers, investors, service providers, consultants, EPC/EPCMs and OEMS.