GE tests battery-powered loader dumpers at Canadian gold mine

A new Fairchild Load Dump at work in Iamgold’s mining operation in southwestern Quebec. The machine uses batteries only, not diesel. — Photo courtesy General Electric

Iamgold Corporation’s Westwood underground property is the first in Canada to test the Fairchild Battery-Powered Load Haul Dump (LHD) from General Electric (GE). This zero-emissions vehicle operates entirely on battery and propulsion technology.

The Westwood property is located in southwestern Quebec, 2.5 kilometres east of the Doyon Gold Mine in Bousquet Township, approximately 40 kilometres east of Rouyn-Noranda and 80 kilometres west of Val d’Or.

The project covers 1,925 hectares and consists of 120 titles, one mining lease, one surface lease and three tailings leases and is held 100 per cent by Iamgold.

Rémi Desrosiers, a mining processes and application professional engineer for GE Mining, said the concept of the battery-powered vehicle has been present in mining since the early 1900s, and trackless mobile equipment has been around since 1980 in coal mines.

“The LHD we’ve developed is quite robust for hardrock mining use,” he said. “Its frame is built out of three-quarter-inch steel plates, machined and welded. We offer options for wear protection using a chromium carbide overlay bucket and ejector plate.”

The new battery-powered load dumper is 339.2 inches in length, 99.4 inches in width and has 11.3 inches of ground clearance. The machine has 11,000-pound tramming capacity, 28,000-pound lifting breakout force and 28,000-pound tilting breakout force. Its standard bucket capacity is three yards, and the loader travels at 4.8 miles per hour.

It is designed to work in an underground permissible atmosphere for low-profile room and pillar mining. The unit operates in seam heights as low as 76 inches and squeezes in tight spots with an outside turning radius of 253 inches and minimum entry width of 150 inches.

The GE motors and inverters used on the LHD require only passive cooling, meaning no fans or cooling pumps are required. Since there’s no internal combustion engine to maintain, the maintenance is simplified to batteries, tires and the hydraulic system.

Most importantly, the lack of emissions addresses health and safety concerns as well as reducing energy consumption costs.

“This vehicle is suitable for all kinds of duties in hardrock or soft rock operations,” said Desrosiers. “It can be used for production or development headings. There has been a strong interest by the mining industry to help productivity in captive levels where ventilation is difficult to achieve.”

Besides eradicating diesel emissions, the battery-powered load dump machines boast reduced maintenance requirements, lower fuels costs and fewer operational costs over the lifetime of the unit.

“The GE LHD-5-LB is very strong when engaging its bucket into the muck,” said Desrosiers. “Unlike a diesel engine, the full torque of our motors is available at low speed. The ground-based battery system allows changing the battery near the mucking area in less than 15 minutes, without any permanent infrastructure required."

Iamgold declared commercial production at the Westwood Mine in July 2014, hoisting ore at an average rate of 1,075 tonnes per day for the first 30 days. The GE LHD trials were done earlier this year.

“Westwood is a deep mine and ventilation cost will always be a concern, reaching 800,000 cubic feet per minute,” said Desrosiers. “Some customers see this kind of innovation as an opportunity to increase their production capacity while keeping the ventilation at the same level—all this while doing a step change in their EHS (environment, health and safety) initiative."

Iamgold has mined for more than 30 years in the region between its Doyon and Mouska mines. The Westwood plant will utilize its spare capacity to process up to 192,000 tonnes of ore annually from the neighbouring Gold Bullion mine.