en.Wedoany.com Reported - Chile's state-owned copper company, Codelco, has signed a cooperation agreement with the Laboratory for Innovation in New Energy Technologies and Nanomaterials (Liten), part of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), to jointly develop electrification technologies for underground mining equipment.
Liten, headquartered in Grenoble, France, is one of Europe's leading research centers in energy storage technology, electric mobility, and the energy transition. It has registered the most lithium battery-related patents over the past 20 years, solidifying its global leadership in the lithium battery patent field. Under the agreement, the parties will execute multiple complementary work streams, focusing on collecting and compiling technical parameters, technology readiness levels, and techno-economic indicators of major available solutions. This will enable the simulation and modeling of mining fleet electrification scenarios under different operating conditions, as well as comprehensive battery testing at CEA-Liten facilities. The final results will be used to formulate future R&D project plans and may lead to a long-term strategic alliance between the two organizations.
The one-year project is jointly funded by Codelco and the French government through the Private Sector Research and Assistance Fund (FASEP), which aims to promote sustainable technology transfer to strategic markets. The University of Chile participates through the Advanced Mining Technology Center (AMTC) and the Center for Sustainable Acceleration of Electric Mobility (CASE), providing academic expertise. French manufacturer WattAlps will design and supply the batteries tested at CEA-Liten facilities.
Codelco stated that this collaboration aligns with and deepens its strategy of connecting with international centers of excellence to enhance innovation capabilities and firmly advance towards more sustainable, efficient, and safe operations. The electrification of the underground equipment fleet is a core direction of the company's decarbonization roadmap, directly impacting emission reductions while reducing personnel exposure to hazardous environments, lowering maintenance tasks and time, and eliminating the logistics associated with using and refueling fossil fuels. The agreement was formally signed at Codelco's headquarters in Santiago, during which a tour of the technological Codelco HUB control and monitoring room was conducted. Attendees included company leaders, representatives from CEA-Liten and academia, and the French Ambassador to Chile, Cyrille Rogeau.
Felipe Lagno, Codelco's Manager of Innovation and Technology, stated that innovation is sustained and achieved through collaboration, and co-developing cutting-edge knowledge with centers of excellence, universities, and industry helps accelerate the transformation of Chile's industry towards a globally sustainable, safe, and competitive mining sector. French Ambassador to Chile, Cyrille Rogeau, noted that this alliance marks a new phase in Franco-Chilean cooperation, with all of France's research and innovation capabilities dedicated to serving Codelco and Chile in addressing the decarbonization challenges of the mining industry, and that the project is supported by a FASEP grant aimed at promoting French green innovation technologies internationally. Robin Hervé, CEA-Liten's representative in Chile, believes that Codelco is a global benchmark in underground mining, while CEA-Liten is the institute with the most lithium battery patents worldwide. This alliance will ensure the successful deployment of these technologies at Codelco's mines, accelerating the decarbonization of copper. The electrification of underground trucks is considered a historic transformative milestone for the company, and mitigating the uncertainties surrounding the lithium batteries that power these vehicles is a major current challenge, which is precisely the entry point for CEA-Liten to contribute its technical capabilities to support and promote this transformation.
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