PROJECT

Electrifying Mining Haulage

Customer: Teck Resources – Canada

About This Project

In 2021, Teck Resources partnered with CleanBC to launch a proof-of-concept electric mining vehicle. The goal was to build a fully battery-electric heavy-haul truck for copper concentrate haulage, and MEDATech was selected to design and build the machine. The following year, the truck went into daily use at Teck’s Highland Valley Copper mine in British Columbia.

Outfitted with a MEDATech Altdrive™ battery-electric powertrain, the truck plies a 96-kilometre roundtrip haul route. It combines high continuous power, exceptional torque, regenerative braking, integrated charging, and zero tailpipe emissions.

Challenge

Replacing diesel-powered Class 8 heavy-haul trucks is not a simple task. Such vehicles must maintain a high proportion of payload capacity (as a component of gross vehicle weight or GVW), which means that battery weight is a constraint. They must complete long daily haul cycles, operate reliably, and deliver the same productivity as conventional equipment while reducing fuel costs and emissions.

For Teck, the project represented an opportunity to validate battery-electric haulage under real operating conditions. Success would demonstrate a practical path toward electrifying vehicle fleets while advancing the company’s long-term sustainability objectives.

Solution

MEDATech took up the challenge of doing what had never been done before: developing an all-electric haul truck of 66,000 kg GVW to ply a 48-kilometre highway route. Our first step was to complete a feasibility study, which gave our Altdrive team a very clear picture of all duty cycle parameters, the technical demands on the vehicle, and the requirements of the Altdrive drivetrain capable of doing the job. The feasibility study informed project scope and cost, as well as revealing some distinct challenges:

Launch on grade
Payload retention
Vehicle packaging constraints

We began by selecting a Western Star 4900EX severe-duty tractor chassis, which is a truck platform well suited to the rigours of concentrate haulage at Highland Valley Copper. Then we integrated an Altdrive drivetrain platform optimized for the site’s haul cycle, payloads, terrain, and operating conditions.

Addressing launch on grade
Highway rigs are not normally expected to launch on grade, fully loaded. To make sure that the Teck truck could perform as expected and achieve highway speeds, we equipped it with dual TM4 Sumo HP electric traction motors producing up to 1,080 kW (1,450 hp) peak power and 5,000 Nm (3,685 lb-ft) peak torque. Motors are coupled with a custom two-speed, static-shift gearbox built specifically for the job. The gearbox solved the technical challenge of getting started on a steep hill, but in practice the motors are so powerful that only the high gear has been used.

The result is instantaneous pulling power, impressive grade-climbing performance, and smooth acceleration under heavy loads without the noise, vibration or emissions common to diesel drivetrains.

Payload retention
Electric drivetrain components add a significant amount of weight to axles, which tends to reduce payload. To solve this, we designed most of our mounting systems to minimize weight through appropriate material selection and optimization, such as replacing steel with aluminum where possible.

Since the truck uses regenerative braking during loaded downhill travel, it recovers significant energy that would otherwise be lost through conventional braking. This ‘on-the-go charging’ allowed us to install a smaller battery pack with 388 kWh of stored energy, and less weight.

Vehicle packaging constraints
While electric vehicles have far fewer moving parts than ICE-equipped vehicles, the sheer bulk of required equipment presents an overarching challenge: fitting it on onto a conventional truck chassis. The list of required components includes thermal management equipment, DC-DC converters, electric motors, motor inverters, onboard chargers, electric power steering pump, electric air compressors for air brakes, high-voltage and low-voltage electrical panels, a multi-compartment radiator, and of course a significant volume of battery.

Results

The completed truck demonstrated how battery-electric technology can be successfully applied to one of the mining industry’s most demanding transportation applications.

Compared with an equivalent diesel truck, the Altdrive platform offers higher power density, greater continuous torque, quieter operation, fewer mechanical components requiring maintenance, and has the potential to yield substantially lower operating costs over its service life.

Major advantages are:

Higher continuous power than diesel
Nearly instantaneous maximum torque
Quiet operation, reduced vibration
Zero tailpipe emissions
Regenerative braking recovers energy
Telematics/remote diagnostics
Reduced maintenance

The project also demonstrated how detailed duty-cycle analysis and application-specific engineering can make battery-electric heavy transport a practical solution for companies like Teck Resources.