With environmental concerns now firmly at the centre of strategic decision making in the global mining industry, it may be time to tackle one of the sector’s biggest issues – the widespread use of fossil fuels – by transitioning to electric vehicles (EVs).
The total mining and metals sector, while not the largest contributor to annual greenhouse gas emissions, accounts for between 4% and 7% of global emissions, according to recent research from GlobalData, Mining Technology’s parent company.
As such, the use of renewable energy and EVs is likely to become more apparent as the industry does what it can to decarbonise.
Emissions in mining operations mainly come from direct activities under the umbrella of scope 1, such as on-site vehicles and power plants, and indirect emissions (scope 2) incurred from power consumption, such as electricity use or heat and steam generation.
“In most cases, miners are targeting 2050 as the year to achieve net-zero operational emissions – so scope 1 and 2,” says Alex Phillips, energy transition analyst at GlobalData.
“A few are also targeting net-zero scope 3 emissions as well by that year, and a small number are aiming to achieve net zero earlier,” Phillips adds, pointing out Fortescue, which is aiming for “real zero” by 2030 at its Australian iron ore operations.
Scope 3 emissions are the most significant contributor to the mining industry's total emissions across its value chain. They consist of indirect emissions from activities related to an organisation but that are not owned or controlled by them. This includes the upstream production of fuels used in mining operations or the downstream smelting, refining and manufacturing processes utilising the mined ore.
As miners strive to reduce carbon emissions, many are beginning to invest in battery and electric-powered mining fleets as they embark on the long-term goal of diesel displacement.
“There are five focus decarbonisation technologies in the mining industry, and a range of energy transition technologies will need to be deployed to decarbonise mining operations,” says Phillips.
The five technologies are electrification, alternative fuels, renewable energy, hydrogen and carbon capture, utilisation and storage.
The mining sector has room to decarbonise its operations, but does it have the will to, is the required technology available and when will it happen?
Some alternative fuels are already available and are being utilised in the mining industry, adds Phillips, but current supply is not sufficient to meet the rising demand and “alongside the need for cost reductions and further technological advancements, alternative fuels will likely become widely available by 2030”.
Turning to electrification, trolley assist systems are already available and being implemented within mining, he adds, with companies such as “BHP and Boliden utilising the technology to achieve increased operational efficiency and emission reductions”.
However, the large-scale deployment of battery-electric trucks “is still years away, due to challenges such as battery limitations and the massive surge in power demand that will occur due to full electrification. As a result, it is expected to become widely available in mining by 2040,” adds Phillips.
As for hydrogen and direct air capture, they are still very much “nascent technologies, and we expect them to become commercially viable between 2040 and 2050”, he adds.
Hydrogen can be used for either conventional combustion or in fuel cells, offering significant decarbonisation potential for the mining industry. In fact, mining companies “are exploring the application of low-carbon hydrogen for fleet decarbonisation as an alternative fuel for mining vehicles”, says Phillips.
However, the difficulty of storing and transporting hydrogen due to its small molecular size, the lack of suitable supporting infrastructure and the high cost of low-carbon hydrogen production are all barriers to commercial adoption, comments Phillips.
Bruce Warner, global transportation segment manager, Hitachi Energy, tells Mining Technology that accessing electrical power is the biggest challenge to powering mining with clean energy.
There are also issues related to connecting and charging EVs. Charging technology is quite mature for smaller mining vehicles, but for larger vehicles – which require several megawatts – the technology will “take time and investment to bring it to state where it can be widely used”.
Warner suggests the industry should focus “more effort in developing an automatic connection system than in developing a new charger”.
Warner continues that mining vehicles must be redesigned to carry battery packs “with a big enough capacity and, importantly, are able to be charged quickly, so that the productivity of a battery truck can be equivalent to that of a diesel one”. He also sees a challenge in overcoming the “understandable hesitation to launch into a new technology on the part of miners, truck OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] and infrastructure suppliers”.
Asked whether battery-operated equipment will eventually replace all fossil-fuelled powered trucks, Warner says that EVs seem to be the best route for most applications in mines. “There could be cases where dynamic charging is better, but even here vehicles will probably have batteries. Hydrogen or diesel may be used in special applications such as emergency vehicles,” he adds.
Warner also raised additional safety concerns for mine operators, such as battery fires. “Safety is important whatever the source of energy, but with the right safety precautions, battery trucks should not pose a greater risk than diesel trucks.”
He concludes that battery operated vehicles “are essential in supporting the move to net zero in mining as in many mines haulage is the biggest source of CO₂ emissions”.
Mining companies are turning in greater and greater numbers to electrification as a path to meet their environmental needs.
However, despite recent technological advances, battery technology to power large surface mining trucks is still very much in an evolutionary phase, with hydrogen fuel cell battery technology also being tested at several sites around the world, says GlobalData’s 2025 report Development of Electric Vehicles in Surface & Underground Mining.
By April 2025, GlobalData was tracking more than 293 load, haul, dump (LHD) trucks and 89 electric mining trucks operating at underground mines around the globe. For surface mines the use of electric-powered mining trucks has been picking up, with 271 trolley-assist trucks and 387 battery-powered surface trucks in operation at the time, says the report.
The report adds that the largest population of battery-powered trucks was in China (278), followed by the Republic of Guinea (30) and Thailand (25).
Lower maintenance costs, zero exhaust emissions and minimal noise pollution are a few of the key benefits of using battery-powered and hydrogen fuel cell trucks.
Significant reductions in underground mine ventilation costs, more efficient energy consumption and reduced operating costs are a few of the leading factors boosting the deployment of electric LHD and other trucks.
However, despite the “many advantages offered by electric equipment, certain challenges remain for miners looking to increase adoption", adds the GlobalData report.
For example, higher capital investment is currently required to purchase battery-powered equipment, and batteries have limited capacity, despite continual improvement.
The report also pointed to the "shorter drive time between the recharging/changing of battery packs when compared with refuelling of diesel equipment".
A representative of global miner Fortescue tells Mining Technology that as “we continue to deliver on our decarbonisation plan this decade, our focus is on progressively swapping out our diesel-consuming equipment for zero-emissions alternatives and deploying around 2–3GW of renewable energy generation and battery storage to power our iron ore operations”, without specifying a time frame.
They continue that there are, and will continue to be, “technical challenges related to decarbonisation [and] as part of addressing these challenges, existing technology will need to be adapted and applied in new ways, and entirely new technology will also need to be developed”.
Fortescue claims to be committed to “achieving [its] 2030 target of 'Real Zero' without the use of voluntary carbon offsets. Technology availability (including supply chain availability of relevant goods and services) and technology maturity are therefore key issues.”
In June 2022, Fortescue Metals announced a collaboration with equipment manufacturer Liebherr to develop green technology-based mining haul trucks, with the partnership expected to contribute to Fortescue’s transition of its diesel fleet to a green mining fleet by 2030. Fortescue revealed it would purchase 120 haul trucks from Liebherr based on its fleet replacement and sustaining capital expenditure estimate.
The process of electrification and increased battery usage has been ongoing for several years, with mining giant Vale receiving two battery-powered, 72-tonne, off-highway trucks from China’s Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group in late 2022, with the vehicles then undergoing tests in the mines of Água Limpa, Brazil and Sorowako, Indonesia.
In a press release issued at the time, the Brazilian miner claimed these trucks – which do not emit CO₂ – were the first to be used by a global mining company.
In 2024, Vale and Caterpillar announced they would test battery-electric large trucks and energy transfer systems, and study the use of ethanol-powered trucks. This, according to a statement from Vale, would help the miner achieve its goals of reducing scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 33% by 2030.
Moving forward to the start of 2025, Vale and Caterpillar announced a five-year global framework agreement to “expand their collaboration and focus on productivity, innovation and carbon reduction initiatives”, something which both companies said “will reduce operating costs and increase asset efficiency”.
Vale and Caterpillar’s deal will see the companies develop a dual-fuel haul truck that operates on both diesel and ethanol, which will have the capacity to carry 240t [tonnes] initially. Diesel fuel use currently accounts for 15% of Vale’s direct CO₂ equivalent emissions in operations.
“Decarbonisation is a major challenge which will only be overcome by investing in solutions such as alternative fuels and electrification to reduce emissions without compromising efficiency and safety,” stated João Turchetti, Vale's decarbonisation engineering director in February.
According to GlobalData, while all energy transition technologies hold potential to aid decarbonisation efforts, many remain in the early stages of development and face numerous challenges to their adoption by the mining industry.
"The potential of electric vehicles for decarbonising mining" was originally created and published by Offshore Technology, a GlobalData owned brand.
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