Press conference in Luscombe, Queensland

ROWAN HOLZBERGER, MEMBER FOR FORDE: We’re here today with Josh Wilson, the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, and James Oliver from BluVein, to look at the at the Wolffdene Quarry today to have a look at this technology, which is really going to revolutionise mining and it's going to really achieve three things.

It's going to be safer for the men and women working on site. It's going to be cleaner for the environment, and more importantly, it's going to save the economy money, and it's going to make mining cheaper and so Josh, I'd like to hand over to you. Thank you for coming.

JOSH WILSON: Thanks, Rowan. It's great to be here today to see what is an Australian-first innovation supported by the Albanese Labor government with a $9 million investment through ARENA and its Industrial Transformation Stream.

What this new technology provides is dynamic charging to vehicles like the one we see behind us, replacing diesel. Some of these trucks can use up to 200 litres of diesel an hour. This allows them to operate electrically. That is safer. It means fewer emissions underground of a diesel pollution kind. It means fewer greenhouse gas emissions. It brings costs down. It also decreases the time needed and the costs involved in the maintenance and allows the trucks to operate for longer periods of time without needing that maintenance or needing to be refilled.

So, in addition to the emissions reduction, the cost reductions, you also get productivity benefits. That's something we want to see in Australia. This is a world-first innovation that we expect to see proved up, developed, and then applied widely across mining resources and other kinds of industrial uses.

A big step forward as Australia moves to achieve its destiny as not only a renewable energy superpower, but also a clean industry powerhouse. And I'll hand over to James from BluVein to say a bit about this technology specifically.

JAMES OLIVER, BLUVEIN CEO: Yeah, thank you, Josh. Thank you Rowan. My name's James Oliver, CEO of BluVein. BluVein is an electrical connection technology for mining haulage fleets. What we can see here today is BluVein1.

The BluVein technology consists of a smart connector that's mounted to the truck and an overhead or side mounted rail system that carries the power onto the truck and powers the drives, as well as charging the batteries while the truck is in motion. As was stated, that saves both downtime for charging, increasing production over diesel vehicles, and it's got the potential to save 5 million litres plus of diesel in mining haulage per annum in Australia alone.

This funding from ARENA and the federal government enables BluVein to extend this test track, push us into a commercial reality and show the industry what the future of electrified mining looks like.