Listicles | 2024-10-09
Five key takeaways from MINExpo 2024
MINExpo is the world’s largest mining event. Every four years, professionals from mining companies from across the globe come together in Las Vegas, USA, to engage with the latest news, products and innovations from the industry. 2024 was Liebherr’s seventh time attending the exhibition, and this one was our biggest yet! MINExpo presented us with the opportunity to engage with our customers and colleagues from all over the world and prove why Liebherr is your mining partner. Here’s everything you need to know about Liebherr at MINExpo 2024.
The autonomous, battery-electric T 264 truck was announced at an exciting event on the first day of MINExpo 2024.
1. Liebherr and Fortescue make history
Our industry-leading partnership with Fortescue was front and centre at MINExpo this year. At a truly electrifying event at our booth, Dr Willi Liebherr, member of the administrative board of Liebherr-International AG, and Dr Andrew Forrest, executive chairman of Fortescue, officially signed the single largest equipment deal in the entire 75-year history of the Liebherr Group. This deal includes zero emission technology jointly developed by the two companies that will pave the way for decarbonised mining operations. As was announced during the event, the technology we will develop with Fortescue includes an autonomous, battery-electric T 264; battery dozers; and an Autonomous Haulage Solution that includes an Energy Management System that will allow the coordination of charging activities for autonomous, zero emission haul trucks.
The deal also includes 475 Liebherr zero emission machines: 360 battery-electric T 264 trucks, 55 R 9400 E electric excavators and – once the technology has been developed – 60 battery PR 776 dozers. Once all of these machines have gone to work, they will form one of the largest zero emission mining fleets in the world. This large-scale zero emission ecosystem – machinery and technology together – will be made available to the wider mining community in the near future.
A large crowd gathered at the Liebherr booth specifically to see our unveiling of the future of mining! With the dancers, the drummers and the dramatic entrance of Dr Forrest and Dr Liebherr, people got a real sense of how exciting and significant the partnership between our two companies really is.
Liebherr’s newly expanded technology portfolio, IoMine, is designed to boost customers’ mining activities with comprehensive technological solutions.
2. Introducing IoMine – our expanded technology portfolio
We launched our expanded technology portfolio, IoMine! This portfolio is designed to optimise mining activities and is split into three product families: Operate, Automate and Maintain. Each of these families focuses on a different aspect of mining, ensuring we can provide our customers with comprehensive technological solutions. Operate products use data analysis to streamline daily mining operations, Automate products provide customers with both semi- and fully autonomous solutions for their Liebherr equipment and Maintain products simplify the issue resolution process for onsite technical support personnel.
We also introduced a number of new technology products when we launched IoMine, including the Autonomous Haulage Solution, Fleet Management System and Machine Guidance System we developed with Fortescue as well as our own Remote Service.
The world premier of the PR 776 Generation 8 took place at MINExpo.
3. Presenting the latest generation of dozing: the PR 776 G8
MINExpo 2024 also saw the world premiere of the PR 776 G8 – the latest generation of our flagship 70-tonne mining dozer. This fantastic machine still has the lowest fuel burn in its class, thanks to its hydrostatic travel drive, as well as the best-in-class efficiency that the previous generation had. But, on top of all that, the PR 776 G8 also integrates our advanced operator assistance systems for dozers that were previously only available on our smaller dozing machines. The assistance systems not only boost the dozer’s productivity and efficiency even more but also enhance operator comfort.
And for even more efficiency, the PR 776 G8 is also compatible with our LiReCon teleoperations system. This system allows operators to reach new extraction areas in hazardous zones from the safety and comfort of the LiReCon teleoperation stand well outside of the pit.
Demonstrations of our LiReCon teleoperations system happened every day during the exhibition.
4. Intercontinental dozer operation with LiReCon
To highlight the impressive capabilities of our LiReCon system, we hosted demonstrations of the technology at our booth each day of MINExpo. These demonstrations allowed visitors to watch as one of our experienced dozer operators operated a PR 776 dozer at a site in Austria from the comfort of the LiReCon teleoperation stand situated in our booth in Las Vegas, USA.
All of our mining dozers are compatible with LiReCon, helping customers to streamline shift changes while boosting safety and efficiency on site.
During our masterclasses, experts from Liebherr and the wider mining industry shared insights into how Liebherr’s products and services help us to be a reliable partner on site.
5. Mining masterclasses at MINExpo
We hosted masterclasses on our booth every day of MINExpo to highlight the ways in which Liebherr is a reliable partner for best-in-class equipment, decarbonisation solutions, cutting-edge technology and service excellence on site. During each of these sessions, industry specialists and Liebherr experts broke down how our products, technologies and services help customers boost their productivity and efficiency during day-to-day operations – all while reducing their cost per tonne.
During our equipment masterclass, we highlighted our comprehensive range of digging, hauling and dozing solutions and were joined by our longstanding customer and partner, Thiess, to discuss the impressive results achieved by an R 9600 at their Mount Pleasant Operation in New South Wales, Australia.
We showcased our growing low and zero emission product portfolio during the decarbonisation masterclass with representatives from both Liebherr Mining and Fortescue Zero – Fortescue’s technology arm. We also shared details about our jointly developed battery-electric T 264 and the battery that powers it.
To give people a better idea of what IoMine entails, we ran through which products are included within our newly expanded technology portfolio during the technology masterclass. Fortescue joined us to talk about the co-development of our Autonomous Haulage Solution as well as the Fleet Management and Machine Guidance Systems.
Our service masterclass showcased all of our latest product offerings, including the Support, Parts and Upgrades product lines, with a special feature on our newly launched Remote Service offering – a suite of digital tools designed to streamline issue resolution on site.