Featured World's Biggest EV: It's all downhill from here

That’s almost perpetual motion, like a water wheel.

 

I had the same thought. Perpetual motion.
The water wheel is the closest example. They are filling it with rock that they take to the bottom of the hill. They then empty the truck, and come back empty. Just like a water wheel's buckets are filled at the top and emptied at the bottom.

One might wonder whether there is even a need for a truck in this case. The same loader that shovels the rock into the truck could just push the rock over the edge.

 

I’ve heard of downhill-running conveyors, with “motors” which became generators, when the belt was loaded with ore.

 

They could also want to have a little more control over the arrival of the rock at the processing equipment.

 

Incoming!!!

 

I was thinking "government-green"

I can see the press release now:

PR person: "Look....over HERE!.A BEV that never has to be charged! We're REALLY GREEN!!....We use regenerative braking from the weight of the rocks to charge the vehicle, which can make it back to the top again using the recovered energy!"
ZERO Carbon!!

No Reporter Ever: "How'd you get the rocks into the bed of the truck?"

PR person: "Look....over THERE!......We triple filter the waste water.....and.....

 

"How'd you get the rocks into the bed of the truck?"
"It's electric powered", all the while leaving off the part where the electric motors are powered by an on board diesel fuelled generator ..... just the same as a locomotive dragging the train down the track.

The big gold mines over here have diesel/electric dump trucks because the ore has to be dragged up a long winding road up the side of the huge hole they have dug, then they dump the regen energy into big resistor banks on the roof of the truck cab to slow it down when returning empty ....
Yes, they could put a big battery bank in to store that wasted energy to assist the climb out again, but they get the fuel tax free so it isn't really worth the effort .... they are mining gold, who needs a green image when you mine the worlds base financial currency .....

T1 Terry

 

... or they could install overhead electric lines, trolley-style, to share the electricity with other loads, such as the trucks going uphill. As @JimboPalmer has described from his time at the Barrick Goldstrike mine in Nevada.

Get an EV loader. Charge it with:
"Marking that trip around 20 times a day, Kuhn Schweitz says the eDumper produces 200 kwh of surplus energy every day,"

 

The cost of the fuel sans tax is enough to invest in batteries or a trolley system. Maybe fuel cells would work out for this use.

 

The road in is moved regularly as they increase the diameter of the hole. Home - The Super Pit check out the video about assembling one of these diggers Blast Videos - The Super Pit Each machine consumes 13,000 ltrs plus (about 3500 us gal every 12 hrs) The 2 Cummins diesels that power it produce over 4,000hp, there are 6 of these working the super pit. The trucks they load into are huge, but they don't look it beside the loader eh :lol:

T1 Terry