Komatsu is forming an alliance with some of its mining customers Rio Tinto, BHP, Coldelco, and Boliden called the Komatsu Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Alliance. The hope is that this will give Komatsu the chance to essentially supervise and guide these companies through a transition to zero-emission mining equipment and infrastructure. They plan to collaborate with these customers on their products, project development, and assaying. Komatsu’s President of Mining and Business Division Masayuki Moriyama said:

“We are honoured that our customers, several of the largest mining companies in the world, have agreed to participate in the Komatsu GHG Alliance and work in partnership with us to develop sustainable solutions for mining “We look forward to close collaboration with these industry leaders to accelerate development and deployment of the next level of equipment designed to reduce greenhouse gases from mining operations and ultimately achieve the goal of zero-emission mining.”

Komatsu has been investing in zero-emission technology for quite some time now through the development of electric diesel dump trucks, electric power, shovels, and regenerative energy storage equipment.

The goals of this partnership are two-fold. Firstly, they hope to work with these 4 companies to develop a haulage truck that can run on different power sources including diesel, electric, and hydrogen powered fuel cell tech. They hope to demo this product at the MINIExpo in Las Vegas this September. In the long-run, Komatsu hopes to reduce its products carbon footprint by 50% and perhaps even achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

This alliance will hopefully help achieve these goals, and Komatsu also has to expand the alliance still further.

Rio Tinto and BHP plans to test trucks and purchase them first

Rio Tinto plans to purchase some of the first haulage trucks once Komatsu clears them for sale. Rio Tinto Chief Commercial Officer Alf Barrios said:

“Rio Tinto and Komatsu have a shared history of partnership on innovation going back to when we built the world’s largest Komatsu autonomous haulage fleet in 2008.”

“Our support of a trial, and the option to buy some of the first trucks from Komatsu, underscores our shared commitment to actively collaborate on product planning, development, testing and deployment of the next generation of zero-emission mining equipment and infrastructure as we look to decarbonise our business.”

On the other hand, BHP also will have access to the first edition of the trucks and will play a key role in their development. BHP plans to provide Komatsu with the key engineering and technical background needed for the haulage truck model’s development. It also plans to form a partnership with Komatsu via the BHP FutureFit Academy so that future users will be able to operate and maintain the equipment. 

The above references an opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a licensed professional for investment advice. The author is not an insider or shareholder of any of the companies mentioned above.