Why mining tyres need a specialised approach

September 17, 2026

Because mining tyres are not simply oversized truck tyres, they shouldn’t be treated as a routine consumable. Innovation is turning out to be a significant lever for safety, cost control and sustainability, as outlined by Kal Tire, a global mining tyre service company that also operates in South Africa.

Weighing up to five tonnes and standing as tall as 4m, mining tyres operate under extreme heat, pressure and load conditions. This makes servicing them one of the most hazardous jobs on a mine site – between 2018 and 2023, more than a dozen fatalities were linked to mining tyre service work. As haul trucks grow larger and mines push production targets harder, tyre service tools and methods have struggled to keep pace, while a shortage of skilled technicians adds further pressure.

The hazards are specific to the sector. A tyre-and-rim assembly holds an enormous amount of stored energy; if a lock ring fails or the assembly is incorrectly installed, components can be flung explosively into the surrounding “trajectory zone”. Tyres can also catch fire or explode after exposure to extreme heat, electrification or incorrect operating conditions – risks that are often unseen from the outside until it’s too late.

Tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMSs), introduced in the early 2000s, were a major safety breakthrough, giving technicians remote, real-time visibility of internal temperature and pressure. But TPMSs only read conditions inside the tyre chamber; because rubber is such a good insulator, a fire can ignite in the tread – up to 18cm from the inner lining – well before heat reaches the sensors. This gap is why autonomous inspection technology has emerged as a complementary layer: as trucks pass a scanning station, cameras capture multiple rotations of each tyre without the vehicle stopping, flagging tread damage and hot spots for expert review before they become critical failures.

Beyond fire and explosion risk, the sheer size of these tyres creates conventional manual-handling hazards like strains, pinches and crush injuries, which specialised tools like anti-gravity handling rigs and lock ring supports are designed to reduce.

Training, standards and controls

Historically, tyre technicians learned on the job, sometimes inheriting unsafe habits. That is changing: in Australia, for example, technicians must now be assessed as competent by a registered training organisation, and the Tire Industry Association offers dedicated “Earthmover Tire Service” certification. Kal Tire argues the sector still lacks the kind of universal certification automotive mechanics have in some countries, despite mining tyre work being at least as complex and dangerous.

Dan Allan, senior VP of Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group, frames the fix in terms of the standard safety “hierarchy of controls”: rules and personal protective equipment sit at the weakest end of that hierarchy, and the sector has relied on them too heavily. Allan argues the bigger gains come from eliminating hazards altogether through new processes, or from engineering controls such as purpose-built tooling – a more difficult but also more durable path than adding more rules.

The sustainability and cost case

A second Kal Tire and Michelin whitepaper, released in January 2026, makes the case that mining tyre strategy is also a major, underused lever for both cost savings and emissions reduction – not a trade-off between the two.

Tyres are typically a mine’s second-highest operating cost after fuel: the average large metal mine uses around 900 mining tyres a year. Poor practices like underinflation, wrong tyre selection and inadequate maintenance drive up fuel burn (and consequently Scope 1 emissions), while overinflation alone is linked to most of the tyre damage on trucks and loaders. An estimated 90% of off-the-road tyres never reach their full intended service life, meaning mines routinely buy (and then dispose of) more tyres than necessary, generating avoidable Scope 3 emissions in the process – from raw materials through to manufacturing, transport and disposal.

Fitting the right compound to site conditions – heat-resistant for long, hot hauls; cut-resistant for short, abrasive routes – extends tyre life and lowers total cost of ownership (TCO). Michelin points to its XDR 4 SPEED ENERGY tyre, due to launch commercially in 2026, as an example: it’s projected to deliver around 3.6% better fuel efficiency than its predecessor, worth roughly US$24,000 (about R383,000) in annual fuel savings per truck, or close to US$1.2 million (over R19 million) a year across a 50-truck fleet.

Technology is central to capturing these gains. Kal Tire’s TireSight autonomous inspection system runs at over 20 sites across Canada, Chile, Colombia and Zambia, using thermal imaging to catch tread separation and other damage early, reducing unscheduled downtime and the risk of tyre fires.

At one Chilean copper mine, it has cut inspection-related downtime by 20%; a separate trial integrating TPMS data into Kal Tire’s Tire & Operations Management System reduced technicians’ tyre-related exposure time by 40%. Haul road condition monitoring, satellite-based driver behaviour tools and volumetric load-scanning technology round out a growing toolkit for reducing unnecessary tyre wear and fuel burn.

Extending tyre life through repair and retreading is presented as one of the highest-impact, lowest-cost sustainability levers available. Kal Tire estimates that repairing 10 ultra-class haul truck tyres through its KalPRO Ultra Repair service, instead of replacing them, can cut costs by 87% and save 373 tonnes of CO₂ as well as 8,050 litres of oil. A separate technical study by Michelin at a North American iron-ore mine found that correcting a tyre-compound mismatch – alongside a tailored rotation programme and better pressure management – unlocked US$1.9 million (over R30 million) in annual gains after a tyre switch had caused an 18% productivity drop.

The bottom line

The bottom line is that mining’s large scale, harsh operating conditions and safety stakes mean tyres can’t be managed with generic, reactive practices. Purpose-built tooling, autonomous inspection, standardised training and data-driven tyre and haul road management are the practical route to fewer injuries, lower costs and a smaller carbon footprint. These outcomes are best achieved, Kal Tire argues, through closer collaboration between mining companies, OEMs, tyre manufacturers and training bodies.