Mining companies eyeing green hydrogen

At remote locations, hydrogen produced using electrolysers could be competitive with transporting in diesel

It may be early days for green hydrogen usage in the hard-to-abate mining sector, but a number of companies are becoming more serious about adopting it to help decarbonise their operations, especially their heavy-duty haul trucks and loaders. Hydrogen has inherent advantages over batteries for such vehicles, while it has been argued that the mining sector has first-mover advantage for hydrogen given the high cost of diesel in more remote locations. “For mine equipment such as large mining trucks and loaders, hydrogen has two key features that set it apart from battery electric technology—a low mass-to-energy ratio, and very fast fuelling capability,” Andrew Stuart, president and CEO of Hydr