Rio Tinto, Komatsu partnering for zero-emission mining solutions
The collaboration for zero-emission haul trucks will help achieve emission reduction goals in the global mining industry.
Rio Tinto and Komatsu have partnered for developing and implementing zero-emission mining haulage solutions, including haul trucks.
Rio Tinto will conduct a pre-production trial of the new equipment at a Rio Tinto site and has the option to purchase some of the first trucks from Komatsu once they are commercially viable.
Both companies have a shared history of partnership on innovation going back to 2008 when they built the world’s largest Komatsu autonomous haulage fleet.
Alf Barrios, CCO of Rio Tinto, said, “Our support of a trial, and the option to buy some of the first trucks from Komatsu, underscores our shared commitment to actively collaborate on product planning, development, testing and deployment of the next generation of zero-emission mining equipment and infrastructure as we look to decarbonise our business.”
Max Moriyama, President, Mining Business Division of Komatsu Ltd, said, “Rio Tinto and Komatsu both recognise the critical role zero-emission haul trucks play in meeting the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction goals for the mining industry and the need to focus on developing practical haulage solutions.
Rio Tinto is also one of the first companies to join Komatsu’s newly launched Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Alliance which has an initial target of advancing Komatsu’s power agnostic truck concept for a haulage vehicle that can run on a variety of power sources, including battery and hydrogen. Rio Tinto is also a founding patron of the Charge On Innovation Challenge, which is focused on solving the power distribution infrastructure needed to support zero-emission haul trucks.
Last month, Rio Tinto and Posco, the largest South Korean steelmaker, agreed to jointly explore, develop, and demonstrate technologies to transition to a low-carbon emission steel value chain. Under the agreement, both agreed to explore a range of technologies for decarbonisation across the entire steel value chain from iron ore mining to steelmaking, including integrating Rio Tinto’s iron ore processing technology and Posco’s steelmaking technology.
