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    MacLean C$2.5m NRCan-backed GR8 EV Grader: design and duty-cycle notes for engineers

    March 3, 2026|

    Reviewed by Tom Sullivan

    MacLean C$2.5m NRCan-backed GR8 EV Grader: design and duty-cycle notes for engineers

    First reported on International Mining – News

    30 Second Briefing

    MacLean Engineering has secured C$2.5 million from Natural Resources Canada to advance its battery-electric vehicle R&D programme, centred on the GR8 EV Grader for underground mining. Announced at the Canadian Critical Minerals Forum during PDAC 2026 in Toronto, the funding targets development of a fully electric, high-drawbar grader platform for ramp and level maintenance. The project is expected to refine battery pack design, duty-cycle energy management and traction control for heavy underground support equipment.

    Technical Brief

    • MacLean’s GR8 platform targets high-drawbar underground grading where tractive effort and torque peaks dominate duty cycles.
    • Development work focuses on integrating BEV powertrains into existing GR8 chassis geometries without compromising ground clearance.
    • Battery pack refinement includes optimising module layout for impact protection in low-back, confined headings.
    • Duty-cycle energy management will be tuned for repeated ramp climbs, descents and stop–start grading passes.
    • Traction control R&D is aimed at maintaining drawbar pull on wet, fines-contaminated, compacted rock surfaces.
    • Outcomes are expected to inform BEV conversions of other high-drawbar underground support units beyond graders.

    Our Take

    NRCan appears repeatedly in our recent critical minerals coverage, including support for Rock Tech Lithium’s converter project, signalling that Ottawa is backing both upstream processing and enabling equipment like MacLean’s GR8 EV Grader within the same policy push.

    The C$2.5 million allocation sits at the lower end of the up-to-C$17 million project support range seen in other Canadian critical minerals files, suggesting this BEV grader is being treated as targeted technology development rather than a full project build-out.

    Among the 111 critical-minerals-tagged pieces in our database, most focus on extraction and refining; a dedicated battery-electric grader project in Canada stands out as an effort to decarbonise the mining fleet that will service those new critical mineral operations.

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    Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.

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