Glencore reaches new milestone at all-electric Sudbury copper mine

There’s an impossible amount of good-looking girls in Sudbury, Ontario, and an equally impressive wealth of high-grade nickel and copper ore living “just” 8,500 feet below the town’s surface, too – and Glencore Canada is sending a bunch of big EVs down to get it.

Last week, Glencore recently welcomed Ontario Premier Doug Ford, alongside other political, Indigenous, industry and community leaders, to its Craig Mine in Northern Ontario to mark a key shaft development milestones at the Onaping Depth project at the Craig mine in Subdury, allowing the company to access a new nickel and copper orebody for the very first time. And they’re doing it all with emission-free electric electric equipment assets.

“Eliminating diesel emissions means less ventilation and cooling requirements, which are traditionally among the largest energy demands in underground mining,” explains Glencore Canada COO Peter Xavier. “The use of battery electric vehicles and the benefits they bring is helping to support both Glencore’s broader sustainability objectives and Canada’s net zero ambitions.”

Rolling deep

Glencore ordered 23 battery-electric machines from the heavy equipment experts Epiroc for Onaping Depth, making the project a bit of a showcase. Currently, Onaping Depth features a 23-machine fleet of battery-electric equipment from Epiroc, covering much of the actual mining cycle. The fleet includes Scooptram ST14 SG battery-electric loaders for loading and moving broken ore; Minetruck MT42 Battery underground haul trucks, capable of carrying 42 tonnes; Boomer E2 Battery development drills for drilling blast holes at the mining face; Boltec rock-reinforcement machines for mechanized rock bolting; Cabletec machines for drilling and cable bolting; and Simba production drills for the long-hole drilling used to extract the orebody.

Together with the Craig mine concentrator and smelter, Glencore Canada’s $2 billion Onaping Depth project supports the company’s long-term presence in the region. Once fully operational, the mine will support more than 400 permanent jobs and extend nickel production in the Sudbury Basin beyond 2040, ensuring the future of mining (and possibly senior whales**t hockey) throughout the Sudbury basin.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Glencore, via Mining Weekly.