Vale, one of the world's largest iron ore producers based in Brazil, said on Wednesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with XCMG Construction Machinery Limited, a subsidiary of Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group Co Ltd, which is China's largest machinery manufacturer, for the potential supply of mining and infrastructure equipment, including zero-emission and autonomous equipment. 

According to the memorandum of understanding, prototypes of the equipment including two electrical battery-powered mining haul trucks up to 72 tons with zero emission will be delivered to Vale to be tested in its operations in Minas Gerais in Brazil and Indonesia in the first half of 2022. Another electrical truck up to 240 tons with zero emission will also be tested at a yet to be decided date. 

"This initiative is in line with Vale's goal of reducing its carbon emissions by 33 percent by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and reinforces our ambition to lead the road to low carbon mining," said Alexandre Pereira, Vale's executive vice-president for global business solutions. 

"We also see this partnership with XCMG Machinery as one more important step in the deepening of our long-term and win-win partnership with China, which dates back to 1973, when we sent our first iron ore shipment to this country."

The signing took place on Tuesday in Nanjing, during the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of sister state-province relationship between the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais and the Chinese province of Jiangsu. 

"It is an honorable pleasure to establish a deeper partnership with Vale and XCMG is committed to serving global customers by providing energy-saving construction and mining solutions," said Hansen Liu, vice-president of XCMG Machinery. 

"We will increase R&D investment into zero-emission technologies to help customers achieve the goal of green mining. We believe that memorandum of understanding signed with Vale will drive our value chain to promote environmental protection."