Mining giant Rio Tinto will partner with China’s State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC) to demonstrate battery-swap-capable electric haul trucks at the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia. The technology is already in use on haul trucks in mining operations in China, and this collaboration will enable Rio Tinto to demonstrate a complete battery-electric truck and… Read more »
Search Results Found For: "Rio Tinto"
Rio Tinto to acquire Arcadium Lithium in $6.7-billion deal
British-Australian multinational mining and metals company Rio Tinto and global lithium producer Arcadium Lithium, headquartered in Ireland, have made an agreement under which Rio Tinto will acquire Arcadium in an all-cash transaction for $5.85 per share. The deal will bring Arcadium’s lithium business into Rio Tinto’s portfolio of commodities that include aluminum, copper, high-grade iron… Read more »
Rio Tinto and BHP to test battery-electric haul trucks in the Australian Outback
Metals and mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto have announced plans to test large battery-electric haul truck technology in Australia’s Outback. The two companies will collaborate with both Caterpillar and Komatsu to test the latter two’s battery-electric haul trucks in the rugged weather and terrain of the Pilbara, which has an arid and tropical climate… Read more »
Rio Tinto demo plant begins producing Li-ion battery concentrate in Quebec
Rio Tinto, a mining and metals company, has begun producing spodumene concentrate, a mineral used in the production of lithium for batteries, at a demonstration plant in Canada. The plant, part of the Rio Tinto Iron and Titanium Quebec Operations in Sorel-Tracy, was commissioned in June of 2022, and produced its first ton of spodumene… Read more »
Mining giant Rio Tinto buys battery-electric locomotives
Mining giant Rio Tinto has ordered four battery-electric locomotives for use in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Wabtec will produce the four 7 MWh FLXdrive locomotives in the US, beginning in 2023, and Rio Tinto plans to conduct initial trials in the Pilbara in early 2024. The e-locos will be tested against a range… Read more »
Rio Tinto to buy lithium project in Argentina for $825 million
Mining and metals company Rio Tinto plans to purchase a lithium project in Argentina for $825 million from Rincon Mining in a transaction that’s expected to close in the first half of 2022. The Rincon lithium project is in the Salta province of Argentina, and currently hosts a pilot lithium production plant. After the purchase… Read more »
Rio Tinto achieves battery-grade lithium production at California plant
Rio Tinto has commenced production of battery-grade lithium from waste rock at a lithium demonstration plant at the Boron mine site in California. The demonstration plant is the next step in scaling up a lithium production process developed at Boron, to recover the mineral and extract additional value out of waste piles from over 90… Read more »
Mining giants agree BEVs are the best choice for mining equipment
Mining involves some of the most extreme energy requirements of any industrial process. To extract the minerals needed to power our technological lifestyle, billions of tons of rock have to be dug up, transported, crushed and processed, generally at remote locations. Regardless of what the “We love EVs, but…” crowd incessantly claims, the transition to… Read more »
Battery makers seem to be okay with an EV production slowdown
The news that GM, Ford and other automakers plan to slow down production of EVs in response to slower sales growth (EV sales grew by only 50 percent last quarter) was like an early Christmas for the various varieties of EV-haters. For most of us in the EV industry, it was more like a visit… Read more »
CharIN and ICMM launch new task force to electrify mining vehicles
The electrification of mining haul trucks has taken a step forward with the launch of the CharIN Mining Task Force, a partnership between charging standards body CharIN and the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM). The task force will address technical bottlenecks around the interoperability of charging systems for zero-emission mining vehicles. These are… Read more »