Consultant urging miners to share information to develop training for battery electric vehicles
CBC
The founder of a Midland, Ont. company that helps mining companies transition their fleets from diesel to electric vehicles says workers need more and better training.
David Lyon is president and CEO of Zero Nexus.
Lyon says it's only in the last two or three years that mines have taken on electric fleets, and the vehicles are starting to arrive on sites.
He says as the adoption of the technology speeds ahead, there's a lag in gathering the information needed to train workers.
"So it's pretty difficult for anyone to generate training or any awareness initiatives around those gaps with the absence of information," said Lyon.
However he expects that information will soon be pouring in as Canadian miners move forward with the technology.
"Canada is an early adopter and the Canadian mines sort of have the first view at this and can actually lead, build training programs, build workshops, build different devices, white papers around those gaps and in planning for a fleet and get that out around the world and to new miners even in Canada," he said.
Lyon says the normally ultra-competitive industry is starting to share information about their experiences with battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in mining in the interest of moving everyone in the industry forward.
He is calling for the establishment of a steering committee to call mining companies to the table with his company to find ways to meet the demands of workforce training in any number of areas including maintenance, engineering, planning and operations, and safety.
Lyon advocates for training that is unbiased, that is, not geared to any particular company's product, but provides case studies and information, both good and bad, from a third party.
Glencore has announced the goal of its Onaping Depth project just outside Sudbury is total electrification.
The president of Mine Mill Smelter Workers 598, Unifor says his members are happy to get any training they can.
Eric Boulay says much of it is currently done by the companies that manufacture the vehicles.
"A lot of it is being developed in house because these pieces of equipment are brand new and the manufacturers are of course providing some documentation with it," he said. "A lot of these things have yet to go through real-world testing."
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