Mining evolution

Copper Mountain mine near Princeton, British Columbia is the mining company’s flagship site. It is a conventional open-pit, truck and shovel operation which produces approximately 100 million pounds (45,000 metric tons) of copper equivalent per year. It is estimated that the initial phase of the trolley assist system, which will be installed in late 2021, will reduce carbon emissions at the site by up to seven percent.

The company’s sustainable development journey has a final target of zero by 2035 and the project, using electric-drive haul trucks, is indicative of the move towards mine electrification in the region.

Each truck will be fitted with a pantograph to receive external electric power. ABB will take responsibility for the off-truck trolley assist infrastructure and provide engineering, project management, equipment supply, system commissioning and construction management. ABB will design the overhead catenary system (OCS) infrastructure and deliver a rectifier substation providing in excess of 12MW of DC power to the trolley assist system. The trolley control system can provide connectivity to the existing distributed control system (DCS) automation platform for seamless integration and monitoring of trolley operations and energy consumption. ABB is also providing OCS components customized for mining applications.