Media Luna ordered batteries for its main machines in 2023
In 2023, Torex Gold ordered Sandvik to supply 15 battery electric machines, 11 loaders and 4 drilling machines called jumbos, for primary production at Media Luna, a gold mine in the Guerrero Gold Belt of Mexico, about 180 kilometers southwest of Mexico City. Torex now says more than 70% of the whole vehicle fleet at Media Luna runs on batteries, which the company calls the largest battery electric fleet in Latin America. Media Luna produces 7,500 metric tons of ore a day, and produced 383,178 ounces of gold equivalent in 2025.
The battery swapping technology was the best decision we could have made.
Marco Bocanegra, maintenance superintendent at Media Luna. Source 1.
McIlvenna Bay ordered its whole main fleet before it mined anything
In 2022, Foran Mining ordered Sandvik to supply 20 battery electric vehicles, its complete fleet of prime movers, the loaders, drilling jumbos and haul trucks that do the heavy digging and hauling, for McIlvenna Bay, a copper and zinc mine in Saskatchewan, Canada. The order came before the mine had produced any ore. Gilbert Lamarche, chief operating officer of Foran Mining Corporation, said the battery fleet should avoid burning 350,000 litres of diesel and creating about 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year. Ventilation, the fans that clear diesel fumes out of an underground mine, typically costs 60% to 70% of a mine total power bill, Lamarche said. McIlvenna Bay is now owned by Eldorado Gold Corporation, which acquired Foran Mining. The mine expects its first copper concentrate, ore partly processed to concentrate the metal, in June 2026, its first zinc concentrate the following month, and commercial production in the third quarter of 2026, with a mine life, the years it is expected to operate, of 18 years.
We feel humbled to be one of the pioneers when it comes to really taking the leap with a full BEV fleet of prime movers right from the start.
Gilbert Lamarche, chief operating officer of Foran Mining Corporation. Source 2.
The Media Luna figure counts the loaders and jumbos ordered for primary production, source 1. The McIlvenna Bay figure counts its complete battery electric fleet of prime movers, source 2. The 2 figures are not counted on the same basis, one is part of a larger site fleet and the other is stated as the whole prime mover fleet.
Show the numbers
| Media Luna primary fleet | 15 |
| McIlvenna Bay full fleet | 20 |
How much ore each mine moves
McIlvenna Bay currently plans to mine 4,900 tons of ore a day. Eldorado Gold expects that to rise to about 7,000 tons a day once a planned expansion finishes by 2030, an increase MAOWCE calculates at about 43%. Media Luna already mines more ore each day than McIlvenna Bay plans to reach even after that expansion.
The Media Luna figure comes from source 1 and source 3. The McIlvenna Bay today figure comes from source 2, and the 2030 figure comes from source 4. The sources use tons, tonnes and metric tons without always specifying which, but the difference between these units is small enough not to change the comparison shown here.
Show the numbers
| Media Luna today | 7,500 |
| McIlvenna Bay today | 4,900 |
| McIlvenna Bay by 2030 | 7,000 |
What an older mine superintendent says
At New Afton, an older underground mine, superintendent Jeff Lamarsh argues that any mine with a capital purchase or maintenance replacement coming up in the next few years would be missing out if it did not at least look into battery electric technology, according to source 5. Sandvik, the equipment maker that supplied both Media Luna and McIlvenna Bay, says as many as 1 in 3 older underground mines, called brownfield mines because they already have infrastructure built, can already spend less to mine each tonne of ore using battery electric vehicles instead of diesel machines, a claim from the company that sells the equipment rather than an independent count.
None of the 3 mines is confirmed diesel free
None of these mines is shown by these sources to run completely free of diesel. What is shown is that Media Luna and McIlvenna Bay were both built to run almost entirely on batteries from the start, and their owners published the math on diesel and ventilation costs to justify the choice.