Switching to Electric Trucks Could Cut Mining Productivity by 33 Percent: Study

This photo taken shows a worker in front of a massive dump truck in Pilbara, Western Australia, on March 5, 2010. Amy Coopes/AFP via Getty Images

Australian mining companies could be hit with a productivity drop of up to 33 percent if they switch to electric trucks, a study has found.

Amid pressure for the mining industry to transition to net zero, several mining giants have started experimenting with electric-powered trucks in an attempt to cut down their carbon footprint.

However, a study by mining technology consultancy Idoba has found that miners will need to invest more heavily to build charging facilities and deploy trucks if they want to electrify their mining fleets while maintaining current production output, reported the Australian Financial Review.

According to the study, recharging an electric truck will take longer than refuelling a diesel one, leading to a 12.5 percent reduction in its availability.

In addition, electric trucks will carry a smaller amount of ore due to the heavy weight of the batteries.

A battery needed for a typical 230-tonne truck would weigh two to three times that of diesel fuel tanks and engines, or simply put, between 12 and 24 tonnes.

As a result, mining companies will suffer from an overall drop in productivity of 19 percent if they use NCA lithium-ion batteries for their vehicles, and a 33 percent drop for LFP lithium-ion batteries.

Miners can reduce productivity losses if they have a system that could swap a fresh battery into a truck when needed rather than fully recharging it.

Idoba estimated that the reduction in productivity would be limited to 11.2-16.4 percent in the above case.

However, the consulting firm warned that such a system would require heavy investments to ensure it could run safely and efficiently.

A dump truck begins it's long trek in Kalgoorlie, Australia, on June 6, 2001. Greg Wood/AFP via Getty Images

Meanwhile, the technology required to fully electrify heavy-haul trucks has not matured.

It was reported that engineers at global construction and mining equipment giant Caterpillar faced some challenges in fitting batteries into mining trucks.

There were also issues with battery life, as testing electric trucks could only last for an hour.

Can Electric Vehicles Really Reduce Carbon Emissions?

The Manhattan Institute has previously released a study saying it was not sure how much carbon emissions would be reduced with a transition from conventional internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles.

According to the study, determining carbon emissions and future costs for EVs is dependent on many variables that could lead to numerous uncertainties.

For example, the emissions created by recharging an EV battery could vary depending on the type of energy grid used and hourly variations in electricity production.

“Accounting for those realities, and not a hypothetical average kilowatt-hour, reveals that CO2 emissions per EV fill-up can range from zero to as high as the same as just burning gasoline to drive the same number of miles,” Mark Mills, the study’s author, wrote.

The author also noted that there were “realistic scenarios” in which driving an EV could produce more carbon emissions than a traditional vehicle.

Furthermore, there are a lot of unknowns about the emissions produced in the initial manufacturing of an EV.

The study pointed out that a typical EV battery required a lot of copper, nickel, aluminium, graphite, cobalt, manganese, and lithium and that there was limited data about the emissions produced to obtain these minerals.

“Much of the necessary data may never be collectible in any normal regulatory fashion, given the technical uncertainties and the variety and opacity of geographic factors, as well as the proprietary nature of many of the processes,” Mr. Mills wrote.

Ryan Morgan contributed to this article.