We didn’t do graders, that is, until we launched our EV Series of long battery life, regenerative braking mining vehicles, and amassed over a year’s worth of underground work, some 3,000 hours across the MacLean battery electric fleet. Then it became clear that the quality of roadbeds in all-electric mines was going to be critical to increasing drivetrain efficiency and harnessing the full potential of down-ramp energy regeneration.
So now on top of our line of battery electric bolters, explosives chargers, blockholers, boom trucks, scissor lifts, and cassette trucks, through our EV Drive partnership with Medatech we can now repower graders with mine-rugged and mine-proven battery propulsion technology (the AltDrive system). And what mines get from this EV fleet build out is not only the benefit of an additional zero-emissions, low-noise, low-maintenance utility vehicle in their fleet, they also add to their operating cost savings from the reduced ventilation requirements of a diesel-free fleet.
The inaugural MacLean AltDrive repowered underground grader is on its way up to Chapleau to join the MacLean fleet already onsite at Goldcorp’s Borden Lake project that is moving closer and closer to production stage and all-electric operations.
Here’s hoping the road up is as smooth as the ramp down will be…
