The Challenge

Mining is under increasing pressure to transition away from diesel toward zero‑emissions, battery‑electric vehicles. While battery‑electric technology offers significant safety, productivity and emissions benefits, it also introduces a major operational challenge: recharging.

Large mining vehicles require high power and long operating hours. Today, battery‑electric haul trucks and loaders must either stop frequently for recharging, carry oversized batteries, or rely on fixed overhead trolley or plug‑in infrastructure. These approaches reduce utilisation, increase capital and maintenance costs, and create practical constraints, particularly in demanding mining environments where equipment is expected to operate continuously and autonomously.

The Opportunity

Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) offers a different approach. By transferring energy wirelessly between infrastructure embedded in the roadway and a receiver on the vehicle, electrical power can be delivered without physical connectors, cables, or manual intervention. This technology is already commercially available and widely deployed in other industries, including public transport and industrial automation, where high‑power wireless charging is used to keep vehicles operating with minimal downtime.

Our work focuses on applying this proven, off‑the‑shelf technology to mining vehicles. As part of this effort, we are progressing toward a demonstration project that aims to retrofit a conventional diesel haul truck into an autonomous, battery‑electric vehicle, enabled by wireless power transfer. By delivering energy while the vehicle is operating or during brief, natural pauses in the haul cycle, WPT has the potential to remove the need for dedicated recharging stops altogether.

The Benefits

Wireless power transfer has the potential to fundamentally change how electric mining fleets are designed and operated:

• Continuous operation: Vehicles can remain productive around the clock, without stopping to plug in or swap batteries, enabling true 24×7 utilisation.

• Smaller batteries, longer life: Regular, lower‑stress energy top‑ups reduce battery size requirements and slow battery degradation, improving total cost of ownership.

• Autonomous‑ready: With no physical connections to manage, WPT aligns naturally with autonomous operation and unmanned haulage systems.

• Improved safety and reliability: Fully enclosed, wireless systems eliminate exposed conductors, arcing, and mechanical wear, even in wet, dusty, or harsh mining conditions.

• Flexible infrastructure: Wireless charging infrastructure can be modular and relocatable, adapting as mining layouts change over time.

By addressing one of the most significant barriers to widespread battery‑electric adoption, energy delivery and vehicle utilisation, wireless power transfer provides a practical pathway toward fully electric, autonomous mining fleets.

Call to Action

Mining companies, OEMs, technology providers, energy companies and infrastructure partners interested in wireless power transfer are invited to work with Mining3 to assess where this technology can create practical value in mining environments. Mining3 has developed relevant capabilities, techno-economic models and relationships with solution provider partners to evaluate, adapt and demonstrate wireless power transfer for real mining applications, including battery-electric and autonomous haulage systems.

Talk to Mining3 about your wireless power transfer opportunity. We can help frame the use case, quantify the value proposition, identify practical deployment pathways and coordinate demonstrations with technology partners in mining conditions.