Sudbury’s Railveyor said it has the inside track in providing a material haulage system at a proposed copper mine project in Arizona.
The mine logistics tech company said in a June 25 news release that Ivanhoe Electric has chosen them to be “the preferred haulage solution” for its Santa Cruz Copper Project, outside Phoenix.
The innovative Larch Street company designs fully electric, zero-emission and autonomous light rail systems that employ rail cars to carry ore across a mining or other industrial operations, replacing the use of diesel trucks. The system works in both surface and underground operations in Canada and globally.
Santa Cruz stands to be the largest high-grade copper oxide orebody in the U.S. The project is at the preliminary feasibility study stage as Ivanhoe is out on the financing trail looking to raise money to build the underground mine, 60 kilometres southeast of Phoenix. Railveyor was mentioned in the engineering study.
Ivanhoe’s plan is to mine, process and produce a 99 per cent pure copper cathode product that goes out the gate to U.S. customers in homebuilding, manufacturing and the defence industry. The miner is targeting construction in the first half of 2026 with first copper cathode production starting in 2028.
The Railveyor system fits the picture of what Ivanhoe wants to accomplish at Santa Cruz by incorporating the latest in technology to support a low-impact mine that uses renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions at the site and will cut operating costs.
“This collaboration highlights Railveyor’s growing role in shaping the future of mining,” said Railveyor CEO Tas Mohamed in a statement. “Our team looks forward to supporting Ivanhoe Electric in delivering a world-class, low-impact mining operation at Santa Cruz.
In the release, Railveyor said the performance of its system at various mines demonstrates that mine-wide emissions are reduced by as much as 39 per cent compared to diesel trucks. Operating costs are cut by as much as 75 per cent, compared to truck haulage.
The company maintains those same values can be delivered to the Santa Cruz operation over its estimated 20-year mine life.
“We are proud to support Ivanhoe Electric in making fully electric mining a reality,” said Jerome Rodriguez, Railveyor’s executive vice-president of sales and marketing. “The Santa Cruz Project is a bold step toward a cleaner copper future, with Railveyor providing the energy-efficient haulage needed to help achieve that goal.”
Railveyor systems have been deployed at sites such as Vale’s Copper Cliff Orebody 114 in Sudbury, Agnico Eagle’s Val d’Or gold mine, Doe Run’s lead-zinc-copper mine in Missouri, the Kazzinc lead-copper mine in Kazakhstan and for Maroil Trading in moving petroleum coke in South America.
