Press-centre

20 september 2024

The creation of quarry equipment using gas engine fuel is one of the priority activities of the BELAZ company. General Director Sergey Lesin told the deputies of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia who arrived at our enterprise on September 18 about the results we have already achieved, what are expected, and what needs to be done to make liquefied natural gas a real alternative to diesel fuel.

The prospects for the development of the gas motor fuel market in the Union State and the transfer of quarry dump trucks and other equipment for open-pit mining to it were discussed by BELAZ top managers at a meeting with the chairmen, their deputies and members of the parliamentary commissions on transport, industrial trade and energy. And since these people are also deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation or the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, the second topic for discussion was the expansion of our cooperation with the regions of Russia.

According to the established tradition, before sitting down at the negotiating table, the General Director of BELAZ introduced the guests to the enterprise. They heard a story about the glorious history and our latest achievements, looked at the modern assembly production, where the legendary BELAZs are born in their serial version, and saw new promising developments. At the test site, the parliamentarians were shown in motion a BELAZ-7558H quarry dump truck with a lifting capacity of 90 tons, running on liquefied natural gas.

"I'm ready to change my car!" exclaimed Vladimir Plyakin, a deputy of the Russian State Duma, emotionally, as he descended from the deck of a "gas" BELAZ after driving in its cabin along the test track with all its climbes and hills. "This is really cool! Just fantastic! If I had the opportunity to drive around the city in such a car, I would changed to it...".

Later, when the emotions had subsided a little, the parliamentarian explained: "The equipment that is being created here at BELAZ is definitely competitive with all other similar dump trucks, and in terms of price-quality ratio it even wins over other leading manufacturers. When we overcome the Western position of sanctions pressure on Belarus and Russia, this equipment will enter the world market not only as import-substituting equipment, but also running on alternative energy sources. Gas motor fuel, hydrogen... What else will happen? We have started doing it faster, more confidently, and the results are already evident."

BELAZ-7558H is the world's first 90-tonne mining dump truck powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG). The premiere of this machine took place in 2022 at the Coal of Russia and Mining exhibition in Novokuznetsk. During operational tests in Kuzbass, the unique dump truck received numerous positive reviews. And today, 11 gas-powered 90-tonne trucks are successfully operating in coal mines in this region of Russia. They continue to prove that the use of LNG on BELAZ trucks as an energy source allows reducing fuel costs, significantly improving the environmental situation in usually highly gas-polluted quarries, optimizing the production costs of our consumers and reducing the cost of open-pit mining.