As miners look to maintain high safety standards while reducing their environmental footprint, the Dust Crawler’s Australian debut couldn’t have come at a better time.
Miners often work in tough environmental conditions, including those with high levels of dust.
This dust exposure can lead to the development of respiratory illnesses such as pneumoconiosis and silicosis if a site doesn’t take a proactive approach in managing air quality.
To combat this challenge, Tecpro is bringing the Dust Crawler to the Australian mining sector.
Developed by Italian emissions control equipment manufacturer EmiControls, the Dust Crawler is the world’s first fully electric dust control vehicle designed to tackle dust suppression on mine sites, quarries and other industrial operations.
“In 2018, I was visiting a site in the northern part of Scandinavia, where there was this large extraction company with lots of mining and quarries,” EmiControls dust division manager Alverman Soster told Australian Mining.
“We were installing another system for them, and we spoke with the site manager, who explained they were having an issue with their tailing pond as it was filled with large amounts of mud because they were pumping with water.
“The problem with that was the material becomes dry and it’s so fine that even light wind creates this cloud of dust going for kilometres.”
The only way the company could manage this issue was to use a helicopter to spray water over the area.
“Because the material was so soft, it was impossible to go in with traditional tractors such as a bulldozer as there’s a high risk of getting stuck over there,” Soster said.
“This got me thinking about how EmiControls technology could help find a solution, as we manufacture equipment and machinery for dust suppression.”
Around this time, EmiControls’ parent company TechnoAlpin manufactured a fully electric crawler to groom snow on ski slopes. Soster looked at this machinery and had the idea to combine it with EmiControls’ dust control technology.
This is how the Dust Crawler was born, with its first prototype developed and delivered in November 2022. By April 2023, the vehicle was launched to market.
“The main advantage of a solution like the Dust Crawler is we can design it to the dimension the customer needs,” Soster said.
Other benefits of the Dust Crawler include its all-terrain crawler chassis, 5000-litre water tank, and six-hour battery operating time.
Alongside the fog cannon, a spray bar with nozzles is installed at the rear end of the tracks, which moistens the soil and seals the haul roads surface.
“If you’re able to catch the wind and spray water with it, you could even reach 200m in distance,” Soster said.
“If you use the Dust Crawler alongside the V22 dust control turbine, you have up to six hours of autonomous operations with the battery. If you leave the vehicle in one spot and just spray, you can operate for 10–12 hours. You only need water; the main concern is having water available.”
The Dust Crawler’s advanced misting technology ensures fine water droplets effectively capture airborne dust particles, preventing their spread and improving air quality on-site.
The Dust Crawler can also be equipped with the V12S dust controller or the V22 fog cannon, the latter of which has a throwing range of up to 90m, enabling the Dust Crawler to easily control dust over large areas.
“The benefit of the Dust Crawler being a tracked and mobile vehicle is through one vehicle, you can cover several areas throughout the mine that you would need multiple systems to reach otherwise,” Tecpro Australia director Patrick Cooper told Australian Mining.
“If the wind’s blowing in a particular direction, you can move the vehicle upwind of where dust is being generated, dramatically improving the amount of area that each cannon will cover.”
The Dust Crawler is suited to mining applications that generate high levels of dust, including tailings, drill and blast, and stockpiles.
Soster said those currently using the Dust Crawler appreciate how easy it is to maintain.
“The vehicle is really comfortable; the seat, the heating system, the cooling system, the monitor and the display are really ergonomic,” Soster said.
“The filter, special pump, heating system, pressure sensor and temperature sensor are managed automatically by the machine, so it’s not possible to cause any damage.”
Above all, EmiControls aims to create solutions that guarantee less emissions.
“All our equipment and everything we do is designed to help more people comply with ESG (environmental, social, and governance) standards,” Soster said.
“EmiControls is here to tremendously decrease dust emissions, especially those from silica and asbestos. We have also developed our sophisticated CURT (control of remote turbine) system where we can monitor the emissions with our sensors and automate dust control without any human interface.”
As mining companies look to decarbonise their operations, EmiControls and its Australian partner Tecpro are here to provide dust control solutions that enhance personnel safety and sustainability compliance.
This feature appeared in the June 2025 issue of Australian Mining.
