As the global mining community prepares to assemble at the SME Denver and PDAC conventions in the coming weeks, MacLean Engineering (“MacLean”) is announcing the establishment of a Surface Mining Vehicle Division, building on its 50-year reputation as a fit-for-purpose underground OEM and a decade of battery electric vehicle (EV) design and support in North America, Africa, and Australia.

The inaugural model for this new division is the GR8 EV Surface Grader. MacLean has already announced its first customer, a collaboration with Fortescue that was announced at MINExpo 2024, in support of Fortescue’s industry leading Real Zero 2030 decarbonization strategy for their iron ore operations in Western Australia. MacLean plans to develop additional products to complement the GR8 and help the global surface mining sector accelerate its decarbonization timelines for ancillary equipment.

“As a company we turned 50 in 2023 and in 2025 we are also celebrating our 10-year anniversary of our EV Series. Now we are making another decisive move towards providing EV for the surface mining sector around the globe,” remarks David Jacques, MacLean Vice President of Surface Mining Vehicles. “With a decade of EV experience in the underground mining sector, 100+ units sold and commissioned and 500,000+ operating hours logged, we are well positioned to bring our expertise and learnings around EV equipment to surface mining operations.”

“Our message to the mining world is simple and powerful – we are here now to accelerate your fleet decarbonization requirements,” adds Dan Stern, Senior Product Manager at MacLean. “Our aspirations are much broader and longer-term than just that one surface mining vehicle model, we have a variety of planned ancillary EVs to help you realize this to meet your core business objectives of safety, productivity, and cost controls. To mining companies around the globe – we want to hear about your decarbonization and operational optimization plans. We’re here to listen and provide solutions. As we like to say at MacLean, our history runs deep, and now our future is looking up.”