MaxMine boss urges miners to optimise trucking fleet in bid to slash emissions

An Adelaide start-up is urging miners to embrace existing technologies, which it claims can slash more than 40 per cent of emissions at Australian mine sites.

More than 40 per cent of carbon emissions generated across Australian mine sites could be slashed using existing technologies, according to an Adelaide start-up that has developed technology to track and improve the way trucks and heavy machinery are operated on-site.

MaxMine’s technology is currently deployed at 10 open-cut mines in Australia and Africa, where its hardware is installed on trucks to gather data about movements and operation across the mine site.

Co-founder and interim chief executive Tom Cawley said the platform provided a superior level of detail when compared to conventional fleet management systems in the mining industry, and was designed to drive efficiency, safety and sustainability improvements through its custom-built algorithms and artificial intelligence capability. “Anything the mining truck knows about itself, we know,” he said.

“We gather about 10,000 times more data than anybody else. We use that data then to measure everything and provide management of fleets, feedback loops to drivers, feedback loops to the maintenance team, feedback loops to site management – firstly managing the mining haul fleet and then optimising it.”

While companies such as Fortescue and Anglo-American are conducting trials of battery and hydrogen-powered mining haul trucks in a bid to decarbonise their fleets, Mr Cawley said it would take some time for those emerging technologies to enter the mainstream, and there were more effective ways to cut emissions in the short term.

That belief has fuelled MaxMine’s #first40 initiative, which collaborates with mining companies to reduce emissions on mine sites by 40 per cent using existing technologies. Mr Cawley said miners could slash up to 15 per cent of their on-site emissions by simply optimising the way diesel trucks were deployed and operated – including by maximising payloads, reducing idle time, and through more efficient driving.

And the cuts to emissions could double to more than 40 per cent through the electrification of mining shovels and other equipment, and the use of low-carbon biofuels.

“There’s this assumption that we’ll just use battery trucks, but if you look at the physics it’s actually quite operationally diabolical to make pure battery trucks work,” Mr Cawley said. “Hydrogen trucks will be expensive, and so the problem is that there’s this huge net zero challenge in mining that is yet to be addressed.

“But there’s currently waste in mining – there’s trucks sitting around idling, trucks being driven around like taxis and we’re talking about a 600-tonne truck doing something other than shifting dirt.

“And then there’s also technologies that can be applied. For example, the electric hydraulic phase shovels and blending in low-carbon diesels. We think you can get to 40 per cent abatement in the near term using only existing technologies.

“That will get a bunch of miners to meet their abatement targets in the first period.”

Major miners have set varying emission targets, with Rio Tinto aiming for a 50 per cent reduction by 2030, by which time BHP is targeting a 30 per cent cut in its operational emissions. Fortescue has a more ambitious plan to be emissions-free by that time.

But the environmental benefits are just one aspect of MaxMine’s platform, which also helps miners limit safety incidents on-site, and improve the productivity of their operations.

The company was established in 2015 and has grown rapidly over the past couple of years since securing investment from private equity firm Viburnum Funds, which acquired a 25 per cent stake in the business in 2021.

“We’ve had our private equity investment – that’s turbocharged the growth quite dramatically,” Mr Cawley said.

“We’re looking at adding some jurisdictions, getting into lithium, more copper, and making sure we’ve got exposure to the critical minerals.

“We want to try to get from 10 or 15 sites now through to 60 or 70 sites going forward. There’s plenty of market for us to grow into, and plenty of impact to have.”

Originally published as MaxMine boss urges miners to optimise trucking fleet in bid to slash emissions