A Case Study of the Trolley Assist System at the Copper Mountain Mine

The trolley assist system enables the supply of electric power directly to the drive system of diesel-electric haul trucks, thereby increasing productivity, reducing diesel consumption, and reducing CO₂ emissions. Copper Mountain Mine in British Columbia, the first mine in North America to install the trolley assist system, has installed an overhead power supply system along an inclined haul road segment stretching approximately 1 km and operates 28 diesel-electric haul trucks, 7 of which are equipped with pantographs to receive electricity. The purpose of this paper is to report the actual improvements at the mine by comparing operating results of trolley assisted and non-trolley assisted haul trucks. There was a 10% increase in the productivity of the haulage operation as a contribution of 59% increase in the climbing speed on the segment with the trolly assist system. In addition, the operating cost per tonne moved was reduced by 16% and CO₂ emissions per cycle were reduced by 42%.