MacLean Engineering’s founder grew up playing in the oil-stained gravel of the Malartic mining camp Partnership’s Odyssey gold mine in the 1940s. In 2022, his son and the company’s president will shepherd the site into the new chapter of its life: zero-emission, battery electric mining.
MacLean returns to its family roots in support of Odyssey Mine electrification. Photo: Maclean Engineering
MacLean Engineering’s founder grew up playing in the oil-stained gravel of the Malartic mining camp Partnership’s Odyssey gold mine in the 1940s. In 2022, his son and the company’s president will shepherd the site into the new chapter of its life: zero-emission, battery electric mining.
This article is Sponsor Content presented by Maclean Engineering.
21st century EV mining in Malartic, Quebec, through a 1940s lens
When a fleet of MacLean battery electric mining vehicles (BEVs) goes to work underground at the Canadian Malartic Partnership’s Odyssey Mine in Malartic, Quebec across 2022, it will represent a full circle for the company founder. As it turns out, the return to Malartic is a family matter for MacLean. Company founder Don MacLean spent the bulk of his early childhood years in the Malartic mining camp as his father ‘Ducky’ MacLean was mine manager of the formerly producing East Malartic Gold Mines in the 1930s and 40s.
The Odyssey Mine is owned by the Canadian Malartic Partnership and is currently under construction. A fleet of MacLean BEVs will be used there for ground support installation, explosives charging, materials transport, and construction and maintenance. Mining development will take place underneath historical ore bodies that were mined during different periods in the 20th century.
Don MacLean’s son Kevin MacLean now leads the MacLean company in the day-to-day, having assumed the role of President in 2009. Since 2016, MacLean has sold, designed, and commissioned over 30 battery electric mining vehicles under its EV Series banner, across five Canadian provinces. The MacLean line of diesel-free, mobile mining equipment spans the manufacturer’s ground support, ore flow (secondary reduction), and utility vehicle product lines. MacLean fleet electrification is now positioned to support the future of EV mining at the Odyssey Mine —- a storyline decades in the making that will now extend for the coming years of this latest instalment of underground gold mining in Malartic.
For more information about MacLean’s battery electric powered underground mining vehicles, visit their website.
