PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diversified miner BHP this week revealed that the Charge On Innovation Challenge, had received an overwhelming response in its preliminary phase, which closed at the end of July.

BHP said that 21 mining companies had joined as patrons, with over 350 companies from across 19 industries registering their interest as vendors, and more than 80 organisations submitting expressions of interest.

BHP, along with fellow majors Rio Tinto and Vale launched the Charge On Innovation Challenge in May, which is a global competition for technology innovators to develop new concepts for large-scale haul truck electrification systems to help significantly cut emissions from surface mine operations and unlock safety, productivity and operational improvements. 

The challenge is expected to drive technology innovators across all industries to develop new concepts and solutions for large-scale haul truck electrification systems aimed at significantly cutting emissions from surface mining. The challenge also aims to demonstrate an emerging market for charging solutions in mining, accelerate commercialisation of solutions, and integrate innovations from other industries into the mining sector, BHP said.

The patrons, supported by Austmine, will assess the proposals over the next month and select a shortlist of vendors who will then formally pitch their challenge solutions.

At the end of the pitch phase, the challenge patrons will endeavour to select the most desirable charging concepts identified as having broad industry appeal and application, as well as providing a standard geometry that enables chargers to service trucks from different manufacturers. The first concepts could be ready for site trials in the next few years.

“The Charge On Innovation Challenge is a great example of the current collaborative work being done by the mining industry in seeking solutions to decarbonise mining fleets. The challenge received interest from companies based in over 20 countries, showing the truly global reach of the opportunity to help reduce haul truck emissions,” said BHP’s Charge On Innovation Challenge project lead Scott Davis.

His counterpart at Rio Tinto, John Mulcahy, said that the challenge founders were encouraging technology innovators "to help us introduce large-scale haul truck electrification solutions".

“The sooner we bring these technologies to market, the sooner we can introduce them to our fleet, and reduce emissions.”

Vale´s Charge On Innovation Challenge project lead, Mauricio Duarte, added that the founding companies were happy with the results of the first phase of the project.

“It’s still early to talk about the success of the challenge, but it is clear that the industry has reached a new level: we worked together on a common sustainability agenda and we will work collectively to reach our goals, gaining safety and speed on our way to low carbon mining."