Hydrogen-powered haul truck prototype at Fortescue’s Christmas Creek in the Pilbara, WA

Fortescue’s (ASX: FMG) hydrogen-powered haul truck prototype, Europa, has arrived at the Christmas Creek mine in the Pilbara, WA, where it will complete site-based testing over the next few months.

The Liebherr T 264 haul truck travelled 1,100km from Perth to site to undergo testing in a real-life mining environment in order to inform the mining giant’s future fleet of zero emission haul trucks.

Once commissioned on site, Europa will be refuelled with liquid hydrogen from a gaseous and liquid hydrogen plant, located at Fortescue’s Green Energy Hub at Christmas Creek.

Fortescue Metals chief executive officer Dino Otranto says “it’s fantastic to have our hydrogen-powered haul truck prototype now joining its battery electric equivalent, Roadrunner, up at site”.

“Europa integrates for the first time a Fortescue Zero battery into a Liebherr haul truck, marking a huge milestone in our partnership with Liebherr,” he said.

“Over the next five years we’ll be working with Liebherr to develop a fleet of zero emission haul trucks, which will be progressively deployed across our sites from 2026.

“This builds on our wider collaboration with Liebherr, where we are working together to develop and validate a fully integrated Autonomous Haulage Solution, which we’re aiming to be the first to operate in zero emission vehicles globally.

“To decarbonise mining you need a system solution, so this new operating system which integrates a Fleet Management System and energy management will be a game changer for us in reducing our carbon emissions.”

Liebherr-Mining Equipment SAS executive vice president of R&D, engineering and production Oliver Weiss comments on this.

“What we learn from this hybrid truck will significantly shape and enhance our future development strategies for zero emission haulage,” he said.

“It is fascinating to see how this cooperation helps to fast track our planned developments of new technology from ideas to demonstration and operation in the field.”

NOTE:

“Zero emissions” when used in relation to vehicles means that (a) a vehicle’s exhaust only emits water vapour when in operation or (b) the vehicle is battery-electric powered without any exhaust emissions.