Fortescue Metals Group and Liebherr have become partners in the development and supply of green mining haul trucks.
The trucks will have zero emission power system technologies. These technologies are being developed by Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) and Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE).
The overall accomplishment of the partnership will be to transition Fortescue’s diesel mining fleet to a green mining fleet before 2030. It also accelerates the opportunity to commercialise zero emission power system technologies in heavy industry applications.
Fortescue will purchase a fleet of 120 haul trucks from Liebherr under the arrangement. The commitment represents about 45% of the current haul truck fleet at Fortescue’s operations. Approximately 26% of Fortescue’s Scope 1 emissions and 200 million litres in diesel were attributed to truck haulage.
The development and integration of Fortescue’s proprietary-owned power system into Liebherr’s proprietary-owned base truck will trigger the phased supply of haul trucks.
By 2025, the first of the zero emission haul units will be fully operational within Fortescue mine sites.
Fortescue chief executive officer Elizabeth Gaines said the company believed that enhancing technology was key to addressing climate change.
“We are investing in renewables and new decarbonisation technologies to transform our mining fleet to run on green renewable energy. This agreement builds on the considerable value already created through Fortescue’s acquisition of WAE and demonstrates the significant long-term opportunity for Fortescue to commercialise green power system technologies to the broader heavy duty mobility market. We look forward to working with Liebherr and WAE to develop and deploy some of the world’s first zero emission large mining haul trucks in our operations, while also establishing an important new business growth opportunity for Fortescue as we diversify to become an integrated green energy and resources company.”