Abstract
BEV Research Problem
Little to no information, history, guidelines or specifications were available governing the specification of BEV equipment for use in U\G mining operations.
The GMG “Recommended practices for Battery Electric Vehicles in Underground Mining” released to industry in late 2018 was a good resource for operations wishing to enter into the U\G BEV world, but did not address specific requirements which the BEV equipment should meet in order to operate safely and efficiently in an underground environment.
Objectives
Glencore & Vale realized that there was an opportunity to jointly, help guide the industry & OEM’s to a common BEV specification addressing requirements for equipment operating in an underground environment.
Commonality would accelerate the development of safe, efficient and mining ready vehicles capable of operating safely in our mining environment by:
- increasing economies of scale
- Allow learnings across both companies to drive improvements in safety and technology
Method
Starting with the GMG Guideline, a small team of Vale and Glencore Subject Matter Experts created an initial draft of the spec which was used as a vehicle for discussion in a multi-pass review with the following stakeholder groups:
- Internal Vale and Glencore Stakeholders
- OEM Engineering Design teams
- Other operations
- 3rd Party Technical Authorities
- Regulatory bodies
- Final Internal Stakeholder review
Key Results
Common Specification between our two companies that
- addresses a wider perspective than what we could have achieved individually.
- Is achievable by our OEMs
- Practically addresses the risks and challenges that allow us to implement a new technology in our operating environment
- Has a built in forum allowing us to update the specification as technology evolves and as we learn more about operating BEVs in our environment
- Recommendations from incidents from both companies, OEMs and other companies were incorporated into the Specification
Conclusion
The specification is continually evolving to keep pace with Technology and new learnings around operability
Key relationships have been established with our stakeholders and continual improvement of the specification can occur with previous stakeholder involvement/review
The specification has been used to support the procurement of BEVs for both Vale and Glencore since 2019