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BHP Group (BHP), Caterpillar to Refurbish Escondida Truck Fleet

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BHP Group (BHP - Free Report) , Caterpillar Inc. (CAT - Free Report) and Finning International Inc. entered into an agreement to replace the entire haul truck fleet at BHP’s Escondida mine, located in the Antofagasta Region of northern Chile. Escondida boasts one of the largest fleets in the industry, currently comprising more than 160 haul trucks.

The new fleet will help improve efficiency, productivity and safety, plus aid BHP in its efforts to implement autonomy in its operations while reducing its carbon footprint.

The aforementioned deal is part of the strategic equipment renewal process developed by Escondida. The first few trucks are expected to be delivered at the mine in the second half of 2023, while the remaining fleet will be delivered over the next decade. Caterpillar’s new 798 AC electric drive trucks will be equipped with technology that will help significantly improve material-moving capacity, efficiency, reliability and safety.

This initiative will allow BHP to advance its autonomy plans by transitioning the fleet to include driverless technology. Further, BHP Group can meet its decarbonization goals by incorporating zero-emission trucks.

Miners are bringing about radical changes to mining operations with the help of technology and automation to increase productivity and efficiency, reduce costs and improve frontline safety. More importantly, these efforts will help the industry reach its sustainability target by cutting down on carbon emissions, which is the need of the hour considering the severity of climate change.

In June 2022, Rio Tinto plc (RIO - Free Report) announced the official opening of its Gudai Darri mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, its most technologically-advanced mine. RIO integrated an industry-leading, unprecedented level of technology in its fleet,  including autonomous trucks, trains and drills, as well as the world’s first autonomous water trucks. Even the laboratory is fully operated, with robotics being used for ore sampling and distributing parts in the new workshop.

Rio Tinto also collaborated with Caterpillar to press forward with the development of zero-emission autonomous haul trucks. Once the development is complete, the world’s first operational deployment of Caterpillar 793 zero-emission autonomous haul trucks, are expected to be at Gudai-Darri. RIO Gudai-Darri is also home to the world’s first fully autonomous water truck the Cat 789D, developed in partnership with Caterpillar.

BHP currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Price Performance

BHP Group’s shares have fallen 16.3% over the past year compared with the industry’s decline of 16.4%.

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Stock to Consider

A better-ranked stock in the basic materials space is Albemarle Corporation (ALB - Free Report) .

Albemarle has a projected earnings growth rate of 425.7% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ALB's current-year earnings has been revised 67.9% upward in the past 60 days.

Albemarle’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters, the average being 24.2%. ALB has gained around 15% in a year and currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.


 

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