History of externally powered rubber tyred electric vehicles in underground mining

Authors: Weston, AJ Download Paper

Cite As:
Weston, AJ 2024, 'History of externally powered rubber tyred electric vehicles in underground mining', in Daniel Johansson & Håkan Schunnesson (eds), MassMin 2024: Proceedings of the International Conference & Exhibition on Mass Mining, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, pp. 1194-1215.



Abstract:
Externally powered electric vehicles for the transport of rock in underground mining have had a long history dating back to the 1880s, and typically ran on steel rails. The use of rubber-tyred and diesel-powered road vehicles in underground mining and construction commenced in the 1930s, and the next logical step was the use of trolleybus and modified tramway technology in underground mines. This commenced at the Detroit underground salt mine in Michigan, USA using bow collectors in 1939 and was followed by the Crestmore limestone mine in California, USA in 1956 with electric truck haulage of limestone up a decline to surface until 1971. Work by ASEA AB and the LKAB Kiruna iron ore mine in Sweden, in the mid-1980s, resulted in a novel method of power supply to 50 t capacity electric trucks consisting of a trolley track with three parallel busbars feeding three-phase power through a detachable power collector at up to 1,000 volts. Other mainly experimental installations fed three-phase power to trucks from trolley tracks with busbars mounted on a steel beam or beams using a captive current collector. There has been limited acceptance of any of these types of current collection, and enthusiastic development of lithium-ion battery powered trucks, loaders, drills, and service vehicles by equipment suppliers. It is likely however that ramp haulage of rock by truck from 1,000 to 2,000 metres below surface will in future require external electric power using existing or potential new methods of current collection, in addition to batteries for manoeuvring off the external power supply.