Trolley Assist initiative saves tonnes

Photo credit: https://www.komatsu.com.au/

This article was published by Kerrie Walker on 12 August, 2021

Newmont Mining has recently released a Climate Strategy and Sustainability Update that announced several substantial initiatives to deliver a reduction in Green House Gas Emissions of over 30% by 2030, and net zero emissions by 2050.

Already well advanced in improving sustainability, Newmont currently operates an "all-electric" underground gold mine in Borden, Ontario, and has completed detailed analysis to optimise haul routes across all its mines, and introduced energy saving variable frequency pump motors at numerous sites.

In this most recent announcement, the company stated it is aiming to achieve the greater than 30% reduction in GHG emissions through its current fleet of operating assets. This will be achieved via a combination of fleet electrification, fuel switching, shifting to renewable energy sources and achieving improvements in site energy efficiency through its "Full Potential" program.

To support these climate initiatives and reduce carbon footprint, Newmont has committed to investing 0 million over the next five years. The renewable energy opportunities identified across Newmont operations will deliver a reduction in Co2 emissions of over 800,000 tonnes.

Close to 80% of the 2030 target is likely to be delivered through initiatives identified in just 4 sites alone across Australia and Latin America. Approximately 45% will come from wind and solar at Boddington, 10% from Tanami through wind and solar, and in Latin America, a further 30% from wind and solar projects at Yanacocha and Penasquito respectively.

There are also plans to further reduce emissions with the introduction of battery energy storage in Suriname at their Merian site and local through the introduction of battery energy storage and a battery electric underground equipment fleet at Tanami Expansion 2.

In respect to improving sustainability within their existing haulage fleet, Newmont evaluated its major projects and identified several initiatives to reduce costs and emissions. This includes plans to deploy (via retrofit) trolley assist at its Penasquito gold mine in Mexico. The company stated, "The haulage fleet is already equipped with diesel electric wheel drive motors. By adding overhead power lines on the most fuel intensive haulage routes, we can provide electric power to the Penasquito fleet saving up to million and potentially reducing our emissions by over 20,000 tonne of carbon per year."

The Penasquito fleet includes 83 Komatsu 930E electric drive haul trucks that will be retrofitted with a Trolley Assist Package, currently under development by Komatsu and its AC electric drive supplier Wabtec and launching in 2022.

Komatsu's Trolly Assist Package for the 830E is already available and is currently being deployed at Copper Mountain Mining in BC, Canada.

With these initiatives set to deliver the 2030 target, the 2050 goal of net zero emissions will be achieved through other means. Newmont's plans include carbon sequestration, "nature-based" solutions, conversion across all sites to solar, geothermal, wind, hydro, and hydrogen energy plus the introduction of battery electric haul trucks, and trolley assist across all sites.

This article was originally published by the ComponentsONLY team in the August 2021 issue of "@ The Coal Face" magazine.