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Flow-Rider

Burner
Wow! That's cool, depending on the size of the machine, they can go through over 1000L of diesel per week.

Fortescue’s first operational electric excavator reaches one million tonne milestone


Fortescue’s recently deployed electric excavator has reached the significant milestone of one million tonnes moved since it became operational.

Over the past three months, the excavator had been running at partial capacity while the site team familiarised themselves with the new piece of equipment.

Now operating at full-speed, its performance continues to steadily improve with the excavator at times performing better than its diesel equivalent. The team’s focus is now on ensuring its consistent performance.

Fortescue Metals CEO, Dino Otranto said: “This is such an exciting milestone for Fortescue and our decarbonisation journey. Importantly, we’ve been able to achieve this while maintaining our high safety standards.

“We will have two additional electric excavators commissioned by the end of April. Once we decarbonise our entire fleet, around 95 million litres of diesel will be removed from our operations every year, or more than a quarter of a million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.”

Located at Fortescue’s Chichester operations, the excavator currently operates partially off solar and is powered by a 6.6kV substation and more than two kilometres of high voltage trailing cable.

In line with our commitment to eliminate emissions across our mining operations, the intention is that all electrified mining equipment will eventually be 100 per cent powered by renewable electricity.

The milestone comes just days after Fortescue’s 240-tonne battery electric haul truck prototype, Roadrunner, reached its own milestone during its onsite testing.

“Roadrunner recently completed its first phase of testing which exceeded the performance expectations of the battery power system. This included laps around our testing track and ramp tests with hill starts, all while carrying 231 tonnes of iron ore,” Mr Otranto said.

“It’s milestones such as these that are bridging the gap between zero emissions power systems and diesel fleets, and proving to the world that decarbonisation is possible.”
 
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Flow-Rider

Burner
Glad Twiggy didn't wait around for hydrogen powered excavators.
You know why he wants to play with hydrogen, it's because most of our iron ore grade is a low concentrate and China wants higher grades as the lower grades are more energy intensive. Everyone is trying to move to greener mining alternatives for the future. I can't remember the name of the company but it's in SA and it's developing a process with hydrogen for the low grade ore.

China’s green steel push could crush Australia’s dirty iron ore exports
 

Freediver

I can go full Karen
You know why he wants to play with hydrogen, it's because most of our iron ore grade is a low concentrate and China wants higher grades as the lower grades are more energy intensive. Everyone is trying to move to greener mining alternatives for the future. I can't remember the name of the company but it's in SA and it's developing a process with hydrogen for the low grade ore.

China’s green steel push could crush Australia’s dirty iron ore exports
China will do what China does which is whatever is best for China. In this case it's getting the best price on ore. The ore is priced according to Fe content and with significantly cheaper transport costs from Australia it's a no brainer.
It doesn't surprise me that Twiggy has an ulterior motive for producing H but that doesn't make it a bad thing.
 

Flow-Rider

Burner
Wow long extension cord !
Many mines are going big into solar farming these days, but the processing plants have always been heavy on electrical power. In remote areas, they used to use multiple big truck diesel engines with generators, and many of them converted to natural gas.
 
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Stredda

Runs naked through virgin scrub
You know why he wants to play with hydrogen, it's because most of our iron ore grade is a low concentrate and China wants higher grades as the lower grades are more energy intensive. Everyone is trying to move to greener mining alternatives for the future. I can't remember the name of the company but it's in SA and it's developing a process with hydrogen for the low grade ore.

China’s green steel push could crush Australia’s dirty iron ore exports
Tassie actually has the highest grade iron ore in the country. I visited the Savage River mine a few years ago for work, and the guys there said that the overburden they put on the spoil pile (as in waste piles), has a higher iron content than any of the mines in WA.

Wow! That's cool, depending on the size of the machine, they can go through over 1000L of diesel per week.

Fortescue’s first operational electric excavator reaches one million tonne milestone


Fortescue’s recently deployed electric excavator has reached the significant milestone of one million tonnes moved since it became operational.

Over the past three months, the excavator had been running at partial capacity while the site team familiarised themselves with the new piece of equipment.

Now operating at full-speed, its performance continues to steadily improve with the excavator at times performing better than its diesel equivalent. The team’s focus is now on ensuring its consistent performance.

Fortescue Metals CEO, Dino Otranto said: “This is such an exciting milestone for Fortescue and our decarbonisation journey. Importantly, we’ve been able to achieve this while maintaining our high safety standards.

“We will have two additional electric excavators commissioned by the end of April. Once we decarbonise our entire fleet, around 95 million litres of diesel will be removed from our operations every year, or more than a quarter of a million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.”

Located at Fortescue’s Chichester operations, the excavator currently operates partially off solar and is powered by a 6.6kV substation and more than two kilometres of high voltage trailing cable.

In line with our commitment to eliminate emissions across our mining operations, the intention is that all electrified mining equipment will eventually be 100 per cent powered by renewable electricity.

The milestone comes just days after Fortescue’s 240-tonne battery electric haul truck prototype, Roadrunner, reached its own milestone during its onsite testing.

“Roadrunner recently completed its first phase of testing which exceeded the performance expectations of the battery power system. This included laps around our testing track and ramp tests with hill starts, all while carrying 231 tonnes of iron ore,” Mr Otranto said.

“It’s milestones such as these that are bridging the gap between zero emissions power systems and diesel fleets, and proving to the world that decarbonisation is possible.”
Diesel electric is even a lot better than pure diesel, just down to fuel efficiency. I worked on the design of Caterpillars R1700XE battery underground loaders when I was at CAT. At that stage they weren't really that viable due to run time of the batteries, but it was a start in the right direction.
 
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