Electrifying mining - Charge On Challenge shortlist announced

After a rigorous judging process, Thiess has joined its fellow patrons of the Charge On Innovation Challenge to shortlist 21 companies for the next phase challenge to develop concepts for large-scale truck electrification systems.

Facilitated by Austmine, the Charge On Challenge calls for technology innovators to develop the concepts to help the mining sector to safely reduce its consumption of diesel fuel, significantly cut emissions from surface mine operations and unlock value in safety, productivity and operational improvements. 

Thiess joined Charge On’s founding patrons BHP, Rio Tinto and Vale earlier this year in collaborating on this innovation challenge which is open to vendors across all industries globally. 

A key requirement for participants in the Charge on Challenge is to produce a safe solution that can be applied across a variety of mines, mine infrastructure and truck manufacturers.

The shortlisted companies are:

- 3ME Technology
- ABB
- Altreonic-Kurt.energy
- Ampcontrol / Tritium
- Australian Turntables
- BluVein
- DB Engineering & Consulting with Echion Technologies
- Farmboro Consulting
- Hitachi Group
- Infosys
- InvertedPower Pty Ltd
- IT & ES Industries (OZ) Pty Ltd
- L&T Technology Services
- Midwest Energy Pvt. Ltd.
- Mitsui & Co. with Forsee Power and AVL
- Saft
- Shell Consortium
- Siemens
- Solar System Resources Corporation Sp. z o. o.
- Xiangtan Electric Manufacturing Group Heavy-Duty Equipment Co. Ltd
- *One company declined to be named

This next phase will comprise of a pitch session followed by an in-depth look into the innovative solutions proposed to charge haul trucks powered by battery instead of diesel.