• 402-15400 Croydon Drive Surrey, BC, V3Z 1K1, Canada

United States Surface Mine

Driving Emissions Reduction and Efficiency with Road & Fleet Optimization

How a North American Operation Leveraged Cascadia Scientific to Save Fuel, Cut Emissions, and Benchmark Fleet Performance
Cascadia Scientific

Event detection tools flagged opportunities to reduce the following:

  • Excessive braking at speed (Avg. 37s per event, mostly in 3rd–6th gear)
  • Long idle durations, averaging 17 minutes—projected 3,797 gal/month saved if reduced by just 10 minutes
  • Racking, rolling, and surging increased in August 2024, suggesting road maintenance was needed

Executive Summary

A major U.S. mining operation partnered with Cascadia Scientific to improve fleet diagnostics, haul road design, and emissions tracking across two sites. Using SmartRView’s real-time monitoring and machine learning models, the sites achieved:

  • 707% ROI in 2023, with 1.6 million USD in fuel savings
  • 5,406 tonnes of CO₂ reduced through route optimization and road redesign
  • Predictive diagnostics supporting targeted maintenance
  • Operator behavior insights to reduce excessive braking and idling
  • Benchmarking across CAT and Komatsu models to guide future procurement

The Challenge:

With rising fuel costs and carbon targets, operations needed actionable insight into road quality, operator behavior, and equipment efficiency. Specific challenges included:

  • Fuel-intensive routes with high idle and service brake events
  • Difficulty identifying and validating road improvements
  • High emissions during max-load operations
  • Fleet composition impacts on uphill fuel consumption

The Cascadia Solution

Cascadia deployed SmartRView, enabling real-time data collection and ML-powered analysis across 30+ trucks between the two sites.

Key interventions included:

  • Road redesign comparisons (Route A vs. Route B) across 10+ segments
  • Fuel burn modeling and efficiency benchmarking for Komatsu and CAT trucks
  • Service brake and idle event detection to support operator training
  • Emission dashboards tied to real haulage behavior and weather conditions
  • Grade-Based Truck diagnostics to assess post-maintenance efficiency
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“Cascadia’s modeling allows us to validate the impact of each road improvement or operational change—down to gallons and tonnes of CO₂.”
— Fleet Performance Analyst

Impact Summary

Metric
Value

Diesel Fuel Savings

$1.6M USD

ROI

707%

CO₂ Reduced

5,406 tonnes

Road Segments Analyzed

25+

Trucks Analyzed

30+ Komatsu & CAT 

Operational Impact

Road Optimization & Route Comparisons

Cascadia supported over a dozen road comparisons to help engineering teams identify and prioritize routes based on cycle time, fuel per cycle, and grade steepness.

Examples:

  • Waste Cycle to Dump B: 6.3 gal/cycle fuel savings → 113,328 gal/year
  • Route S21 to Dump C: 1.8 gal/cycle reduction → 40,749 gal/year
  • Route to Area 23: 0.4 gal/cycle saved → 28,800 gal/year
“Path A or Path B is no longer a guess—it’s modeled, simulated, and financially quantified.”
Operations Manager

Equipment Benchmarking & Fleet Guidance

Cascadia used machine learning to benchmark Komatsu and CAT haul trucks. The models were trained on directly measured data and factored in everything that affects fuel use—like distance, cycle time, payload, elevation changes, operator behavior, weather, and more. Key findings included:

  • CAT 793F outperformed on steep uphill segments when loaded
  • Komatsu 830E was more efficient on flat and downhill terrain
  • Komatsu 830E-5 trucks used 3–5% less fuel than 830E-1 models
  • Fuel efficiency improved sitewide in 2024 vs. 2023 despite high rainfall

Emissions Reporting & ESG Alignment

Pollutant
Total Emitted (Jan–Oct 2024)
% from Max Load Burn

CO₂

54M+ lbs

58.3%

NOx

401K lbs

61.3%

CO

276K lbs

70.2%

HC

45.7K lbs

73.1%

Two specific trucks were identified as top emitters and are now targeted for optimization and closer monitoring.

Operator & Event Diagnostics

At the second site, event detection tools flagged opportunities to reduce

  • Excessive braking at speed (Avg. 37s per event, mostly in 3rd–6th gear)
  • Long idle durations, averaging 17 minutes—projected 3,797 gal/month saved if reduced by just 10 minutes
  • Racking, rolling, and surging increased in August 2024, suggesting road maintenance was needed

Training and reporting tools are now being introduced to reduce wear, improve safety, and increase awareness.

Bottom Line: Measurable ROI Across Your Mine Site

From route simulation to predictive diagnostics and emissions modeling, Cascadia’s solutions helped this operation turn thousands of data points into millions in savings—and build a fleet performance model that informs every road, truck, and operator decision.

You don’t need to guess which road is better. Or which truck is costing you more. Or where your emissions are really coming from. With Cascadia, you get precision insights that drive real operational change. 

Let’s build your roadmap to smarter mining.  Book a discovery session today.

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At Cascadia Scientific, we share an enthusiastic optimism for the potential of machine intelligence to revolutionize mining.

Contact Info

Email Us

info@www.cascadiascientific.com

Our Headquarters

402-15400 Croydon Drive
Surrey, BC, V3Z 1K1, Canada

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+1 (778) 806-1303

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