Mining ZimbabweLatest Mining News, Policy and Industry Updates

In the mining industry, safety has always been a crucial issue – not least when it comes to fire. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that Dafo, with 100 years of industry experience, is investing heavily in fire safety of the mining industry.

The Swedish-owned family company Dafo is today regarded as one of the Nordic region’s largest suppliers of fire protection and rescue equipment. A year ago, Dafo separated its vehicle fire protection operations from its other fire protection operations to the new company Dafo Vehicle Fire Protection. Dafo Vehicle Fire Protection offers a complete range of fire detection and fire suppression systems for vehicles – from simple solutions to tailor-made systems for heavy vehicles, buses, forestry machines, port cargo handling equipment, mining, and construction machinery.

Johan Balstad, Vice President, sees fire protection as a crucial element for sustainable mining:

– Fires in vehicles often have a very intense development and are difficult to extinguish with a portable fire extinguisher. With the right dimensioned automatic fire suppression system, you get quick and effective protection that limits the consequences of a fire and gives vital time to evacuate – which can be extra important in a mine. Fire protection in heavy vehicles such as mining machines places high demands on both equipment and durability.

– The vehicles really get to operate in the toughest of environments, not least because of dust, the vibrations, and the extreme temperatures they are exposed to. Therefore, we offer high-tech customized solutions with associated service agreements. This is also why we continuously invest a great deal in the development of our products and systems, explains Johan Balstad.

Fire safety important part of operators’ sustainability work
The complexity is so extensive that Dafo Vehicle Fire Protection’s experts are also involved and assist in the design and planning of the vehicles of the manufacturer, to create well-integrated and efficient solutions. From the industry side, fire safety is often seen as a crucial issue and an important part of the sustainability work.

– First of all, you want to eliminate or minimize the risk of personal injury – that is the most important factor and where fire protection is central, Johan Balstad says and continues:

– At the same time, you also want to avoid downtime due to fires or other types of accidents, which in a mining environment can be problematic, costly, and time-consuming to rectify. Therefore, it becomes extra important that the systems and equipment work as intended.

Transition to alternative vehicles and fuels – new challenges
Dafo Vehicle’s experience, competence, and know-how have largely contributed to the entry into market after market, and today there are customers all over the world. This of course places great demands on the company’s organization, but also on continued development work of both systems and products:

– Right now, development is particularly important as we are facing a significant transition in terms of machine fuel. There is extensive electrification in the mining industry as well, and it places new demands on the fire protection equipment to some extent. A battery that catches fire through thermal runaway is not the same as the more traditional fires in diesel or gasoline-powered vehicles. Here we are placing a lot of focus right now, says Johan Balstad.

Fire protection system for electric and hybrid vehicles
Dafo Vehicle has launched a fire protection system for electric and hybrid vehicles that is activated before a fire in a battery occurs. The fire protection solution has been developed for buses but will also be available for other heavy electric vehicles.

Low, or non-existent emissions, cost-efficient operation, and reduced noise levels are some of the major advantages of hybrid and electric vehicles today but the disadvantages of the technology, when something goes wrong, are less known. Fires in lithium-ion batteries of electric vehicles usually have rapid progress and are very difficult to extinguish.

– We have followed the vehicle development closely and seen an increased need for fire protection as more electrified vehicles are being introduced to the market. Dafo Vehicle was concerned early on regarding the potential fire risks and dangers this technology would bring, which meant that we also started looking at solutions to meet the development, says Anders Gulliksson, Technical Manager, Dafo Vehicle.

Dafo Vehicle is today alone in the market to offer a complete fire protection system for electric and hybrid vehicles. The patented and award-winning suppression system was developed through the EU-funded research project Li-IonFire and initially aimed at electrified buses in public transport.

– Our system is an advanced fire suppression system with a fire prevention part integrated into the system. This means that the system can detect any temperature changes in the lithium-ion battery at an early stage and cool it down before reaching the critical “thermal runaway” state, which can result in the battery starting to burn and a fully developed fire occurs, continues Gulliksson.

High risk of toxic emissions
Anders Gulliksson explains that today there are no successful methods to extinguish a battery that has already caught fire and entered the thermal runaway stage, after an overcharge or vehicle collision. If the battery starts to burn, the highly toxic gas emits hydrogen fluoride (HF), which can cause serious damage to both the skin and the respiratory tract.

– In the long term, our suppression system can be used for various electric vehicles and areas, such as heavy-duty mobile equipment vehicles in the mining industry and ports. The main reason for this is partly to do with the high safety requirements in the industry, but also that our fire protection minimizes the risks of costly downtime that a fire can entail, says Johan Balstad.

Li-IonFire™ will significantly boost the safety of operators, the protection of valuable assets, and allow safe evacuation of drivers.

The new Li-IonFire™ fire protection system will detect potential battery failure, at the earliest possible stage and take immediate action by spot cooling, using the suppression agent Forrex EV™. This will effectively stop, or delay, a potentially hazardous situation without the fire developing further.

About Dafo Vehicle

Dafo was founded in 1919 and has developed into a modern, high-tech company committed to offer the very best solutions to its customers. Dafo was one of the first companies in the world which started to develop integrated firefighting solutions for vehicles back in 1976. Dafo Vehicle Fire Protection has three main business areas: Integration (Fire suppression systems integration into OEM production line, Retrofit (Fire suppression systems installed at final customer) as well as Service & Maintenance. The Dafo Vehicle group today consist of several subsidiaries and Dafo dealers – Dafo Vehicle Oy (Finland), Dafo US, Dafo Deutschland, Dafo Russia, Dafo Asia, Dafo Spain, Dafo UK & Ireland, Dafo Middle East, Dafo Chile, Dafo Brasil, Dafo Australia and Dafo Peru. The head office is located in Tyresö, Sweden.

China’s push towards peak emissions in less than 10 years would allow electric vehicles (EV) to compete equally with standard petrol-powered cars by then, according to the head of a leading Chinese EV battery manufacturer.

“Economies of scale alone, coupled with innovation, will be sufficient to reach the parity line by 2030,” said Peng Zhou, chief executive of Octillion Power Systems, referring to China’s peak emission target year.

China, the world’s biggest producer of climate-warming greenhouse gases, aims to become carbon neutral by 2060.

Zhou’s comments came as US-based General Motors announced it is testing a variety of battery chemistries, technologies and manufacturing processes aimed at slashing costs and reducing dependence on cobalt and other expensive metals.

Tougher emission standards, more competitive EV models and a national commitment to curb greenhouse gas are driving growth, said Zhou, whose firm designs and builds customised modules for automakers and counts Total, SoftBank and Samsung Venture Investment among its shareholders.

However, one of the obstacles is the cost of batteries. “Obviously, battery cost is the main driver,” said Peng.

The competition to fine-tune technology to cut EV battery costs is the battleground for deciding the industry’s winners and losers, analysts say.

AIMING TO DIVERSIFY

Octillion, a lithium-ion supplier based in Hefei, Anhui province, supplied 10% of China’s EV battery market in the second half of 2020.

It shipped 95,191 units in 2020, up from 24,844 a year earlier, and is also aiming to diversify geographically and build on existing business in Brazil, India and North America.

GM president Mark Reuss, speaking at an investor conference, said the company is experimenting with silicon-rich and lithium metal anodes, solid state and high voltage electrolytes, and dry processing of electrodes for its next generation of Ultium batteries, due in 2025.

The Ultium, which will be used in new GM EVs such as the Hummer EV and Cadillac Lyriq, uses graphite-based anodes, nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminium cathodes and a liquid electrolyte.

Last year, GM and Honda agreed to jointly develop two all-new EVs for the Japanese carmaker, based on the Ultium platform.

GM has said it aims to reduce battery cell cost to well under $100 per kilowatt-hour by 2025, compared with more than $150/kW today. GM executives have also said the company expects its future EV batteries to last for a million miles or more, with driving ranges of 500-600 miles between charges.

The automaker’s $2.3-billion joint venture with Korea’s LG Energy Solution is due to start producing Ultium cells in Lordstown, Ohio, in 2022. GM and LG are expected shortly to announce a second EV battery plant in Tennessee, to further support GM’s production target of 1 million electric vehicles a year by 2025.

Asian Times Financial With reporting by Reuters

An election in Greenland that could have changed the face of the global rare earth market has been won by a party opposed to mining the valuable commodities.

With 36.6 percent of the vote, the left-wing environmentalist Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) party was ahead of Siumut, a social democratic party that has dominated politics in the Danish territory since it gained autonomy in 1979.

The dividing line between the two parties was whether to authorise a controversial giant rare earth and uranium mining project, which is currently the subject of public hearings.

The Arctic island of just 56,000 people holds some of the world’s richest deposits of uranium and rare earth minerals – a group of 17 metals used as components in everything from smartphones to electric cars and weapons.

Exploitation of the deposits was hoped to lift the island’s economy and also boost the rare earth market, which is dominated by China. The world’s second-largest economy increased exports of the commodities by 28% in the first two months of this year as demand recovered in Europe and Japan, according to customs data cited by Argus Metals.

The IA has called for a moratorium on mining, which would effectively put a halt to the project at the Kuannersuit deposit, in the island’s south.

Snap election

Divisions over Kuannersuit originally triggered the snap election in the territory after one of the smaller parties left the ruling Siumut coalition.

One side of the Kuannersuit mountain is said to have been devastated by test drilling and the creation of an open pit by miners.

“Now that area is like all sand and just black,” campaigner Aili Liimakka Laueshe told NPR in the US. “There’s no green at all.”

Opponents say the project, led by the Chinese-owned Australian group Greenland Minerals, has too many environmental risks, including radioactive waste.

IA leader Mute Egede said on KNR public television he would immediately start discussions to “explore different forms of cooperation” before forming a coalition government.

The 34-year-old, who has been a member of the Inatsisartut since 2015, took over the reins of the left-green party a little over two years ago.

Asian Times Financial