Industry leaders progress initiative to accelerate new generation of mining vehicles

The Innovation for Cleaner, Safer Vehicles (ICSV) initiative – a collaboration between the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) – has made progress towards understanding what is needed to transform today’s fleet of mining vehicles into tomorrow’s new generation of cleaner, safer vehicles, members of its CEO Advisory Group announced last week at IMARC Online (the International Mining and Resources Conference + Expo).

“There is a critical need to advance work on cleaner, safer vehicles in mining, which will have important health and safety benefits and contribute towards the pressing need of decarbonizing the mining industry. It is recognized that there are measures we can implement now, but other, more impactful, interventions are reliant on technology pathways that are still evolving. This will undoubtedly take time, but the industry’s collaboration with OEMs, through the ICMM, is critical as we look for these long-term, sustainable and integrated solutions,” Nick Holland, CEO of Gold Fields (and chair of the CEO advisory group), said at the online conference.  

The aims of the ICSV initiative are to introduce greenhouse gas emission-free surface mining vehicles by 2040, minimize the operational impact of diesel exhaust by 2025 and make vehicle collision avoidance technology available to mining companies by 2025. Two years after announcing these ambitions, eight new OEMs have joined the initiative, bringing the number of participating OEMs to 19. ICMM members, representing approximately 30% of the global metals market with over 650 assets, have started assessments to establish a clearer view of the progress made at site level towards each goal. These assessments indicate that ICMM members are generally at early stages of maturity in the journey, and show what progress will look like for each.  

“Safer, cleaner mining equipment is important for our people and the world. No one party can tackle this on their own though. The Innovation for Cleaner, Safer Vehicles initiative brings together equipment manufacturers and ICMM members to accelerate the innovations required to improve equipment safety and reduce emissions. This is a great example of the collaborative industry-level effort that can help bring about the scale and pace of change that is needed,” added Mike Henry, CEO of BHP.

In its first two years, the ICSV initiative has sent strong signals to OEMs and third-party technology providers on their requirements and on what is needed to accelerate development and adoption of technology across the industry.     

Denise Johnson, group president at Caterpillar added that “Caterpillar is committed to helping customers operate safely and sustainably, and the Innovation for Cleaner, Safer Vehicles initiative is helping us to collaborate even more closely with the mining industry in these important areas. Its progress to date has helped to form a shared understanding of where the industry is on its journey and demonstrates that by working together, we can more quickly accelerate the pace of change.”

The initiative is led by a CEO advisory group, which includes leaders from BHP, Anglo American, Gold Fields, Caterpillar, Komatsu and Sandvik. 

“Partnership and collaboration fuels long-term sustainable development, and is crucial to addressing some of the mining industry’s biggest sustainability challenges. Progress made on the Innovation for Cleaner, Safer Vehicles initiative has been building the widespread confidence needed to accelerate the level of innovation investment required to scale up commercial solutions. The initiative will benefit the entire industry and is open to all OEMs who would like to join,” concluded Tom Butler, CEO of ICMM.

ICMM has developed tools to support the industry, OEMs and third party technology providers in meeting the initiative’s ambitions. These tools include an ICSV Knowledge Hub that facilitates knowledge-sharing of industry innovations, provides technical and practical resources including case studies, standards, regulations and a technology and solutions database. Additionally, a set of ‘maturity frameworks’ that help to map, motivate and measure progress against the ambitions have been published, with the intention to stimulate conversations within companies that drive thinking, decision making and action.

In 2021, ICMM’s company members will focus on integrating the initiative’s goals into their corporate planning processes, allocating internal resources and effectively leveraging external resources such as synergies with other industry initiatives and collaboration between member companies.

This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal, part of Glacier Resource Innovation Group.