Anglo American plc has unveiled a prototype of the world’s largest hydrogen-powered mine haul truck, designed to operate in everyday mining conditions at its Mogalakwena PGMs mine in South Africa.

The 2 MW hydrogen-battery hybrid truck, generating more power than its diesel predecessor and capable of carrying a 290 t payload, is part of Anglo American’s nuGen™ Zero Emission Haulage Solution (ZEHS). nuGen provides a fully integrated green hydrogen system, consisting of production, fuelling and haulage system, with green hydrogen to be produced at the mine site.

nuGen is part of FutureSmart Mining™, Anglo American’s innovation-led approach to sustainable mining – which brings together technology and digitalisation to drive sustainability outcomes, including the company’s commitment to carbon-neutrality across its operations by 2040.

Duncan Wanblad, Chief Executive of Anglo American, comments:

“nuGen is a tangible demonstration of our FutureSmart Mining programme changing the future of our industry. With diesel emissions from our haul truck fleet accounting for ~10 – 15% of our total Scope 1 emissions, this is an important step on our pathway to carbon neutral operations by 2040. The mining industry is playing a considerable role in helping the world decarbonise, both through our own emissions footprint and the metals and minerals that we produce that are critical to low carbon energy and transport systems.

“Over the next several years, we envisage converting or replacing our current fleet of diesel-powered trucks with this zero-emission haulage system, fuelled with green hydrogen. If this pilot is successful, we could remove up to 80% of diesel emissions at our open pit mines by rolling this technology across our global fleet.”

Tony O’Neill, Technical Director of Anglo American, comments:

“We are incredibly proud of what our team, working with expert partners, has achieved in under three years. This is truly a world-class innovation and bears testament to our technical vision and determination to deliver a cleaner and smarter future for mining.

“It is these game-changing innovations that are exactly why we began our FutureSmart Mining journey in 2014, knowing how much of a difference we can make, including in the energy transition and across our societal footprint. Innovative, clean and independent power systems, such as our nuGen ZEHS project, offer a significant part of the emissions solution.”

Natascha Viljoen, CEO of Anglo American Platinum, comments:

“PGMs play an essential catalytic role in many clean-air technologies, including related to hydrogen production and hydrogen-fuelled transportation. As part of our market development work, we have for some years been working towards establishing the right ecosystem to successfully develop, scale up, and deploy hydrogen-fuelled solutions.

“Hydrogen has a significant and wide-ranging role to play in achieving a low carbon future – particularly as an energy carrier enabling the development of a renewables-based power generation system. We are particularly excited about the potential of nuGen, amongst other opportunities, as we work to champion the development of South Africa’s Hydrogen Valley.”