Ampcontrol joins Electric Mine Consortium to power the future of mining

Ampcontrol has announced that it has joined the Electric Mine Consortium (EMC) to drive efforts towards electrifying and decarbonising the mining industry. The EMC is a growing group of mining and service companies, driven by the imperative to produce zero-emission products for their customers and meet mounting investor expectations and industry challenges.

Ampcontrol says it is strengthening its strategic focus on decarbonisation through the innovation and development of electrical solutions, adapting to the changing times.

“Joining the Electric Mine Consortium is a natural progression of our commitment to supporting our customers and industry through the national energy transition,” said Rod Henderson, Ampcontrol Managing Director and CEO. “Ampcontrol is at the forefront of renewable energy manufacturing. We engineer and supply advanced technology, products and services to enable a competitive advantage in a net zero carbon environment.”

“The way we generate, store and harness energy around the globe is undergoing a period of major change,” said EMC Founder and Director Graeme Stanway. “A global ecosystem has begun to emerge to underpin the innovation and scaling of electrification technologies.”

Ampcontrol has already been assisting with the transitioning mining industry. Alongside Tritium, Ampcontrol was a winner in the global ‘Charge On Innovation Challenge’ in May 2022.

The joint submission was an end-to-end mining haul truck battery swap solution that is fully automated, relocatable, scalable and cell agnostic. In a drive-in/drive-out recharging station, an autonomous transfer robot swaps batteries in 90 seconds, significantly reducing safety risks and increasing productivity by excluding personnel from the swaps process.

“One of the areas Ampcontrol identified as a need of the industry was assisting businesses with the next steps to get to the future state of electrified mining operations. When businesses think ‘I need energy’ to perform certain functions, the first instinct is often to acquire more energy. Our expertise at Ampcontrol is to help businesses use the materials they already have available, in a different way,” Henderson said.

Ampcontrol recognises the importance of partnerships and collaboration in developing technology solutions to enable a competitive advantage in a net zero carbon environment.

“It is important to demonstrate we work alongside other businesses to contribute to the low carbon economy transition and to the responsible sourcing of prime materials to enable a competitive advantage in a net-zero carbon environment,” Henderson added.

The Electric Mine Consortium (EMC) has launched a call out to companies in the tech, renewable and manufacturing industries that can provide groundbreaking solutions to long-haul EV trucks and associated charging infrastructure for mine sites and global supply chains.

Driven by collective demand for electric equipment across the EMC’s operating sites, the consortium is looking to form synergies between mining and non-mining industries to accelerate decarbonisation solutions across the industry — the mining industry currently contributing 8% of the globe’s emissions.

Image: Battery electric underground mine vehicle.