BHP adds electric vehicles to its light truck fleet

BHP Billiton will add two electric vehicles to its 240 fleet of trucks at its Olympic Dam mine in South Australia.

The vehicles are being tested looking at various performance measures, such as the vehicles’ performance, power supply, maintenance requirements, charging time and corrosion resistance underground. The electric vehicle will look like a traditional Land Cruiser. The company says a decision on wider deployment at Olympic Dam is expected to be made during in the coming financial year.

The company says that Olympic Dam has about 800 underground employees. The mine uses diesel equipment for development, production and ore handling.

The deployment of electric vehicles is part of a broader initiative aimed at achieving a 50 per cent reduction, right across BHP, in the number of employees with potential exposure to particulate matter.

The company says that Olympic Dam’s switch to LEVs in its operations will reduce emissions, exposure and costs – as well as influencing the rollout of similar initiatives in our other locations.

Written with material from BHP Billiton’s news release